In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose [Paperback]

Alice Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2003

In this, her first collection of nonfiction, Alice Walker speaks out as a
black woman, writer, mother, and feminist in thirty-six pieces ranging
from the personal to the political. Among the contents are essays about
other writers, accounts of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the
antinuclear movement of the 1980s, and a vivid memoir of a scarring
childhood injury and her daughter’s healing words.

Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS’GARDENS
“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

About the Author

Best-selling novelist ALICE WALKER is the author of five other novels, five collections of short stories, six collections of essays, seven volumes of poetry, including the most recent Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, and several children’s books. Her books have been translated into more than two dozen languages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 418 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (May 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156028646
• ISBN-13: 978-0156028646
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alice Walker (b. 1944), one of the United States' preeminent writers, is an award-winning author of novels, stories, essays, and poetry. In 1983, Walker became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction with her novel The Color Purple, which also won the National Book Award. Her other books include The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Meridian, The Temple of My Familiar, and Possessing the Secret of Joy. In her public life, Walker has worked to address problems of injustice, inequality, and poverty as an activist, teacher, and public intellectual.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I've often re-read this book as nourishment for my spirit November 4, 1999

By Simone

Format:Paperback

On difficult days, which are more numerous than the peaceful ones here in South Korea, I re-read In Search Of Our Mothers' Gardens. I am always re-inspired, re-juvenated, re-centered and re-minded when I again encounter the soothing and healing words of the woman I have decided to claim aloud as my sister: Alice Walker. I take great pleasure in reading Be Nobody's Darling. This poem has affirmed me on those especially dismal days when I examine my differentness and wonder if it's worth the pain to have an outlook that is different from that of the mainstream. For more rigorous cleansing I enjoy her essay What Can I Give My Daughters Who Are Brave. This essay has been like a soothing balm for my battered spirit after a day of battling the various "ism's" (racism, sexism, homophobia etc. the list goes on) that are a part of everyday living on our modern planet. Alice Walker continues to give me so much.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great nonfiction collection March 16, 2001

By Edward Aycock

Format:Paperback

I have loved Alice Walker since I was 14. Granted, it has not always been an easy love. She speaks truths that I do not always find easy to hear. She makes statements that I have a difficult time agreeing with. At the same time, I find her writings wonderful, warm and insightful. She has a way of taking an everyday situation and making it resonate. Of special note in this book is Walker's (to me) classic essay on Flannery O'Connor. What could very easily have been a "what this author means to me" type of story, Walkers manages to tie it up with her own past, her relationships, the legacy of the South and Catholicism. It's one of my favorite essays of all time, and I am so glad to finally have my own copy to hold onto and read over and over again. This book is a good start for those who may have only read the Color Purple, but would liek to know more about Walker. Highly recommended.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A passionate and insightful essay collection January 30, 2001

By Michael J. Mazza HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

I first read "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens," the influential essay collection by Alice Walker, as a college undergraduate more than 10 years ago. Re-reading the book was a wonderful experience that reminded me how important Walker has been to so many people. The book opens with Walker's definition of the term "womanist": "a black feminist or feminist of color." The essays in this book, which span the late 1960s, the 1970s, and the early 1980s, thus represent the development of Walker's "womanist" vision.

The pieces include book reviews, letters to various publications, autobiographical pieces, and other prose selections. Many of her essays and reviews represent Walker's views on a range of literary figures: Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Flannery O'Connor, Phillis Wheatley, Buchi Emecheta, and many more. Particularly interesting is her essay about Rebecca Jackson, a 19th century African-American woman who joined a Shaker community. Especially important are Walker's writings about Zora Neale Hurston, whom she reclaims as a black literary foremother.

Other highlights include articles about Martin Luther King and his widow Coretta Scott King, and an account of a trip to Castro's Cuba. She also includes an article about "Conditions: Five," the important collection of writings by black lesbian and straight women.

Alice Walker may be best known to general audiences for her novel "The Color Purple," but "In Search..." reminds me of her skill and passion as an essayist. This is a collection which is, I believe, historically important for the academic field of women's studies. But it is not just a scholarly artifact; it is also a book that holds power and relevance that go beyond its historical moment.