Alice Walker Biography

Novelist, poet and activist Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia on February 9, 1944. Walker is best known for The Color Purple, which earned a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1982.

From an early age, Walker had a passion for writing. She grew up listening to the stories told by her grandfather referred to as the "Oral Tradition." Walker would keep a written diary of the stories. Following high school, Walker attended Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and later Sarah Lawrence College there in New York. She has worked as a teacher, social worker and lecturer. While she was a student at Spelman College, Walker met Martin Luther King Jr. As a result of the impression Dr. King made, she would later return to the South as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. While here, she participated in the March on Washington and voter registration in Georgia and Mississippi.

In the mid 1960's, Walker married Melvyn Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights Attorney. The couple were married in New York City and relocated to Jackson, Mississippi. From this union came one daughter Rebecca Walker, that is now a well known writer. Later in 1976, Alice Walker and her husband divorced and she become estranged from her daughter. Rebecca felt she was more of a political symbol than a daughter. Despite Rebecca's claims many believe she has benefited professionally from her mom's prestige. Later in 1985 on the heels of the success of her book The Color Purple, Walker was approached by Steven Spielberg to make the book into a movie. As a result of this meeting, The Color Purple was a successful movie and was nominated for eleven Oscar nominations.

Alice Walker continues her writing and activism well into the 2000's. On March 8, 2003, on International Women's Day just before the second Iraq War, Alice Walker and others were arrested for crossing a police line during an anti-war protest rally outside the White House. Later in March 2009, Walker and a group of sixty women from the anti-war group code pink traveled to Gazati to protest the Israeli offensive of December 2008. As far as writing, other Novels she is known for includes: By the Light of My Father's Smile, The Temple of My Familiar, Possessing the Secret of Joy and one of her more recent Novels, released in 2004, was Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. Other writings she is known for includes: You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down and In Search of My Mother's Garden.

She is a Novelist, activist, Poet and mother. To this day, Alice Walker continues to have passion for writing and her concern for people everywhere.