In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

by Alice Walker

Overview

In this groundbreaking classic essay collection, Alice Walker speaks out as a Black woman, writer, mother, and feminist on topics ranging from the personal to the political.

This edition includes a new Letter to the Reader by Alice Walker.

Originally published forty years ago, Alice Walker’s first collection of nonfiction is a dazzling compendium that remains both timely and relevant. In these thirty-six essays, Walker contemplates her own work and that of other writers, considers the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s, and writes vividly and courageously about a scarring childhood injury. Throughout, Walker explores the theories and practices of feminism, incorporating what she calls the “womanist” tradition of black women—insights that are vital to understanding our lives and society today.

“When I graduated from college, my father gave me Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. It was a beaten-up paperback in 1999, and it’s even more battered now.” —Jesmyn Ward

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063346840
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/28/2023
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	215,012
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

ALICE WALKER is an internationally celebrated writer, poet, and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award.

Hometown:

Mendocino, California

Date of Birth:

February 9, 1944

Place of Birth:

Eatonton, Georgia

Education:

B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 1965; attended Spelman College, 1961-63

Editorial Reviews

One of the healthiest collections of essays I have come across in a long time . . . What [Walker] says about the black woman she says from the depths of oppression. What is said from the depths of oppression illuminates all other oppressions.” — New Statesman

“Reflects not only the ideas but a life that has . . . breathed color, sound, and soul into fiction and poetry—and into our lives as well.” — San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

This first collection of nonfiction from the author of The Color Purple includes a vivid and courageous memoir of a scarring childhood injury and her daughter's healing words.

bn.com

This... collection of Alice Walker's best essays... reflects not only the ideas but a life that has for fifteen years breathed color, sound... in fiction and poetry - and into our lives as well.
— San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

Gabrielle Daniels

This is one of the healthiest collection of essays I have come across in a long time. We seldom get writers writing so personally, so appealingly about the need to be saved, about the way in which that personal salvation can be achieved. What she says about the black woman she says from the depth of oppression. What is said from the depth of oppression illuminates all the other opressions.
— The New Statesman

Ben Okri