Alice Walker is a talented, versatile writer from the modern South. Since the appearance of her first book in 1968, she has published poetry, fiction, and criticism, all of which have advanced her literary reputation. During the short span of her career, Walker has become a major voice among black and women artists, not only because of her creative writing, but also because of her articulation of the role of art and the artist in a complex society. In both her personal essays and her own art, she has sought a unity of social, moral, and aesthetic purpose. All of her work relies upon her roots in rural Georgia, her experiences as a black woman, and the political ferment of the 1960s and 1970s.

Born into a sharefarming family in Eatonton, Georgia, Walker is the youngest of five boys and three girls. Her parents, Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah...