Alice Walker

Alice Walker: 1944-

Born in Eatonton, Georgia, the youngest of eight children born to black sharecroppers
“Her early life in the South was marked by the pressures of segregation and economic hardship on one hand and the nurturing refuge of family, church, and black community on the other” (Richardson 2504)
Eventually spends summers with her older brothers who have moved up North and begins to see a life beyond the South
1961: Entered Spelman College, but later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in NY
Begins her writing career
After college, she worked briefly for the New York City Welfare Department
1967: Marries civil rights attorney Mel Leventhal (first legally married interracial couple in Mississippi)

The couple moves to Mississippi where Leventhal prosecutes school desegregation cases
She teaches at Jackson State College and offers adult education courses in black history
Live with “constant threats of lethal violence against themselves and their infant daughter” (Richardson 2505)
Divorced by 1977

Resumes her writing career fully when she moves to California in the late 1970s
“Alice Walker has been from the start of her career a prolific and diversified writer, adept at poetry, novels, short stories, and essays” (Richardson 2505)
“Throughout her work, a central theme is the courage, resourcefulness, and creativity of black women of various ages, circumstances, and conditions” (Richardson 2505)
1973: Everyday Use
1976: Meridian
1982; The Color Purple (wins Pulitzer and National Book Award)
1983: In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

Works Cited and Consulted
Baym, Nina, Editor. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003.
Richardson, Marilyn. “Alice Walker.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Concise Edition. Ed Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 2504-2505.

Source: http://webpages.shepherd.edu/hhanraha/courses/eng204/204notes/walker.doc

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Alice Walker

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