From Publishers Weekly
In this vibrant narrative, White strives to go beyond simply mapping the movements and accomplishments of the first black female Pulitzer Prize winner. While White relies heavily on interviews with Alice Walker (b. 1944), her family and friends, the stories are always told in a historical context. Walker's childhood as a daughter of Georgia sharecroppers is framed by what it meant to be a poor black female in the Jim Crow South. White particularly focuses on an accident that transforms the eight-year-old Walker from talkative and precocious to introverted and sad. Walker was shot with a BB gun and left disfigured and blind in one eye, and her father was refused a ride to transport the injured girl into town and swindled out of $250 by a white doctor. These events, according to White, brought the young Walker to a new level of understanding of the inhumanity of Southern racism and later moved her to search and reveal, through her writings, the depths of human suffering. This understanding also drove Walker to become active in various causes, most notably the Civil Rights and black feminist movements. From beginning to end, White (The Black Women's Health Book), in her first biography, meticulously traces and analyzes the stages of Walker's life, emphasizing the impact on and importance of her literature in American culture. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Walker's probing writing and serene manner have been a fixture on the literary scene for decades. White traces the roots of that serenity and probing spirit in this penetrating look at a woman who rose from a family of Georgia sharecroppers to an esteemed career in literature. A childhood accident blinded Walker in one eye, setting her on an approach to a life of close observation. Stifled by the rigidity of Spellman, Walker moved on to Sarah Lawrence, and eventually became a civil rights volunteer in the cauldron of racial tension that was Mississippi in the 1960s. Drawing on interviews with Walker, her family, friends, lovers, and colleagues, White chronicles Walker's illegal abortion, interracial marriage, bisexual and multiracial relationships, abiding championing of women's causes, and support of black women writers, notably Zora Neale Hurston. Walker paid a personal and professional price for eschewing the orthodoxy of race and sex, primarily following the uproar attending the publication of The Color Purple. Admirers of Alice Walker's honesty, integrity, and talent will love this book. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
The first full-length biography of the author of The Color Purple—an American icon praised and pilloried for her art and activism. Born to a sharecropping family in Georgia, Alice Walker thrived in the rich culture of what she called the "agrarian peasantry" to become one of our most important and popular writers. Evelyn C. White charts Walker's childhood, marked by an incident at eight that left her blinded in her right eye and disfigured by scar tissue and that prompted her, out of a sense of "ugliness," to probe human suffering through her poems and stories. We learn of her activism in the 1960s freedom movement and her leadership of the debate on black women's art, politics, and sexuality. The Color Purple garnered Walker the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction—the first awarded to a black woman writer. Drawing on papers, letters, journals, and extensive interviews with Walker, her family, friends, and colleagues, and with leading American cultural figures including Gloria Steinem, Quincy Jones, and Oprah Winfrey, White assesses one of the most influential writers of our time. 16 pages of illustrations.


About the Author
Evelyn C. White is a journalist and the author of Chain Chain Change: For Black Women in Abusive Relationships and The Black Women's Health Book. She lives in Oakland, California.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Born to a sharecropping family in Georgia, Alice Walker thrived in the rich culture of what she called the "agrarian peasantry" to become one of our most important and popular writers. Evelyn C. White charts Walker's childhood, marked by an incident at eight that left her blinded in her right eye and with disfiguring scar tissue and that prompted her, out of a sense of "ugliness," to probe human suffering through her poems and stories. In this compelling and skillfully researched biography, we learn of Walker's activism in the 1960s freedom movement, and her leadership in the debate on black women's art, politics, and sexuality. The Color Purple garnered Walker the Pulitzer Prize in fiction - the first awarded to a black woman writer. Drawing on papers, letters, journals, and extensive interviews with Walker, her family, friends, colleagues, and leading American cultural figures including Gloria Steinem, Quincy Jones, and Oprah Winfrey, White assesses one of the most influential writers of our time.

FROM THE CRITICS

Farah Jasmine Griffin - The Washington Post

White's attentiveness to personal stories as well as their historical context is the greatest achievement of this important work. She presents the life of Walker -- the precious, precocious and cherished eighth child of sharecroppers -- from her birth and childhood in the Jim Crow South to her politicization and involvement in the civil rights movement, her years at Spelman and Sarah Lawrence colleges, her interracial marriage, and her celebrity as a world-famous writer.

Stacy D'Erasmo - The New York Times

The rich, complex story White tells, however, is never less than fascinating.

Publishers Weekly

In this vibrant narrative, White strives to go beyond simply mapping the movements and accomplishments of the first black female Pulitzer Prize winner. While White relies heavily on interviews with Alice Walker (b. 1944), her family and friends, the stories are always told in a historical context. Walker's childhood as a daughter of Georgia sharecroppers is framed by what it meant to be a poor black female in the Jim Crow South. White particularly focuses on an accident that transforms the eight-year-old Walker from talkative and precocious to introverted and sad. Walker was shot with a BB gun and left disfigured and blind in one eye, and her father was refused a ride to transport the injured girl into town and swindled out of $250 by a white doctor. These events, according to White, brought the young Walker to a new level of understanding of the inhumanity of Southern racism and later moved her to search and reveal, through her writings, the depths of human suffering. This understanding also drove Walker to become active in various causes, most notably the Civil Rights and black feminist movements. From beginning to end, White (The Black Women's Health Book), in her first biography, meticulously traces and analyzes the stages of Walker's life, emphasizing the impact on and importance of her literature in American culture. Agent, Faith Childs. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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