On Being Female, Black, and Free
Subtitle: Essays by Margaret Walker, 1932–1992
By: edited by Maryemma Graham.
Contributors: Graham, Maryemma.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Knoxville, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 246
ISBN-13: 9780870499814
Subjects: African Americans -- Southern States -- Social life and customs.; African Americans -- Southern States -- Politics and government.; African Americans -- Civil rights -- Southern States.; African Americans -- Education -- Southern States.; African American women.; Southern States -- Race relations.
Description: These highly personal essays, written over the course of six decades, reveal the woman as well as the artist, capturing the independent creative spirit of this literary icon. In accessible and stirring prose, Walker speaks directly about her own experiences - such as growing up in a deeply religious home, living in the Jim Crow South, marrying and raising a family, and becoming a civil rights activist.

These essays also offer Walker's critical perspectives on a wide range of topics, from the role of the black woman artist to the distinctiveness of African American cultural life and to the importance of education in the fight for political change.

Maryemma Graham's introduction provides a historical context for the essays, placing Walker's work within the African American literary canon. Walker reflects on the numerous poets and writers she has known over the years, including Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and Richard Wright. A work of broad general appeal, On Being Female, Black, and Free offers a powerful introduction to the work of an essential American literary figure.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-238) and index.