Alice Walker

by

Carolyn Medine, Chera Jo Watts

• LAST MODIFIED: 20 August 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780190280024-0137

Introduction

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker was born on 9 February 1944, in Putnam County, just outside of Eatonton, Georgia, as the youngest of eight children to her parents Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah. Walker boasts a long and distinguished career, as an internationally recognized novelist, poet, essayist, and activist. She was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple, the first African American woman to be so honored. The novel also won the National Book Award. Walker is well-known for her stunning autobiographical essay collection, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, which included some of her work originally published in Ms. magazine. In this volume, she, with African women writers, coined and extended the use of the concept “Womanist,” which is used across disciplines. She also revived the work of Zora Neale Hurston. In addition, she is one of the first African American Buddhists to publish work in that religion. She began to practice yoga and meditation, her journals indicate, around 1979 and openly to practice Buddhism in her fifties, though she had studied it for many years. Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, including collections of essays and poetry, and several children’s books. Her life has been documented by Pratibha Parmar in the documentary Beauty in Truth (2013). Walker’s activist work has been controversial, particularly for her criticism of female circumcision in Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Binding of Women (1993), co-authored with Pratibha Parmar, who also filmed a documentary on the issue. Also, some criticize her support of the cause of the Palestinians. Nevertheless, her work is loved, not just by academics, but by many loyal readers. She has influence both in and beyond the academy and is respected in literary, feminist, activist, and many other circles. Alice Walker’s influence cannot be summed up: her work is immense, as is her spirit.

Biographical Works

White 2004 is the only comprehensive, full-length biography of Walker. However, Boyd 2022, published by the late Valerie Boyd, is an edited collection of Walker’s journals, dating from 1965–2000 and thus spanning four decades. Boyd 2022 pulls from journals housed at Emory University in the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library within the collection Alice Walker papers. Other works included in this section are Winchell 1992, an early biography, and the more recent Plant 2017. Finally, curious readers might consider Alice Walker’s Official website for otherwise unpublished commentary, blog posts, poetry, and other reflections dating as far back as 2008 and organized chronologically.

• Alice Walker papers. Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. Atlanta: Emory University.

  Emory University is the home of Alice Walker’s papers, circa 1930–2014. This collection includes correspondence, early drafts of writings, photographs, born digital materials, scrapbooks, business files, and more. Certain financial records, business correspondence, and journal papers will remain closed until 1 August 2041.

• Boyd, Valerie, ed. Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker (1965–2000). New York: Simon and Schuster, 2022.

  The late Valerie Boyd provides an edited edition of Walker’s personal journals from 1965–2000, using the collected papers at Emory University. Divided among four parts, Walker’s writing remains intact, and often specific names, dates, or locations are incomplete. Thus, Boyd’s editing thoroughly compliments the journals through footnotes which contextualize specific places or names such that the reader may follow along.

• Plant, Deborah G. Alice Walker: A Woman for Our Times. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2017.

  DOI: 10.5040/9798400609244

  A philosophical or intellectual biography of Walker that argues that Walker’s work comes out of a philosophy of truth-telling, freedom, and radical love. Offering a biography of the author that links her philosophy to her writing and activism, as well as her work, like Meridian (see under Novels). Themes of the feminine and masculine, as well as discussion of peace-making and civil rights are discussed.

• Walker, Alice. The Official Website.

  Walker’s official webpage, which contains blogs, poetry, essays, video and photographic media, and other information about Walker dating from 2008 to the present.

• White, Evelyn. Alice Walker: A Life. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.

  The only full-length biography of Alice Walker, from her birth to the early 2000s. Extensively researched, White draws upon quotes and exchanges between herself and Walker via telephone, electronic exchanges, in-person visits, and letters from 1995–2003. The biography also includes a family tree, life chronology, and publication lists for Walker (dated 1968–2004) and for Wild Trees Press (1984–1988).

• Winchell, Donna Haisty. Alice Walker. New York: Twayne, 1992.

  An early biography of Walker that is difficult to find, this work is an introduction to Walker’s life and writing, summarizing the plots of the first four novels, as well as some of the short story collections, poetry, and essays. It contains an annotated bibliography. Its guiding theme is a movement from despair to hope, examining Walker’s own traumatic early life. Winchell also discusses Walker as a “New Age” figure.