Living in the racially divided South, Walker showcased a bright mind at her segregated schools, graduating from high school as class valedictorian. "This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults and slights that were not intended." She found solace in reading and writing poetry. "For a long time, I thought I was very ugly and disfigured," she told John O'Brien in an interview that was published in Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives, Past and Present (1993). Whitish scar tissue formed in her damaged eye, and she became self-conscious of this visible mark.Īfter the incident, Walker largely withdrew from the world around her. The youngest daughter of sharecroppers, she grew up poor, with her mother working as a maid to help support the family's eight children.Īt 8 years old, Walker was shot in the right eye with a BB pellet while playing with two of her brothers. Poor UpbringingĪlice Malsenior Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Walker is also known for her work as an activist. She is best known for her 1982 novel The Color Purple, which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and soon was adapted for the big screen by Steven Spielberg. Born to sharecropper parents, Alice Walker grew up to become a highly acclaimed novelist, essayist and poet.
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