GATHERING BLOSSOMS UNDER FIRE

A self-portrait culled from the Pulitzer Prize winner’s journals.

From her 65 journals and notebooks deposited at Emory University, unavailable to researchers until 2040, Walker (b. 1944) has selected entries from 1965 to 2000, documenting her rise as one of the most celebrated writers of her time, winner of the 1983 Pulitzer and National Book Award for The Color Purple, among many other awards. Introduced and annotated by critic and biographer Boyd, the volume chronicles Walker’s civil rights activism, marriage to a White Jewish lawyer, motherhood, divorce, affairs with men and women, blossoming sexuality, religion, money troubles, real estate ventures, and, not least, her writing career. At 21, a student at Sarah Lawrence, Walker wondered, “What am I really? And what do I want to do with me? Somehow,” she mused, “I know I shall never feel settled with myself and life until I have a profession I can love.” That profession became poet, novelist, and essayist. In 1968, her first poetry collection appeared, and two years later, a novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland. She became a sought-after speaker and teacher—“In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” the title essay of her collection of Womanist Prose, was first delivered as a talk. “My God, what do black women writers want?” she was often asked. “We want freedom. Freedom to be ourselves. To write the unwritable. To say the unsayable. To think the unthinkable.” Sadly, Walker realized that to be in the public eye meant being vulnerable to attack, smarting under vehement criticism of some fictional portrayals. One story, “Roselily,” was removed from a 10th grade standardized test in California, “considered anti-religious by the Coalition for Traditional Values, or some such….This is all so ignorant it’s hard to focus on it. Yet it’s tiring, too.” The well-populated volume features many of Walker’s notable friends, including Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis, and lovers who brought delight and, sometimes, despair. Readers will look forward to the planned second volume.

An intimate glimpse into an important writer’s life.