In Search of the Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece
Mixing cultural criticism, literary history, biography, and memoir, an exploration of Alice Walker’s critically acclaimed and controversial novel, The Color Purple and its ongoing influence on our more passionate conversation about race, gender, and healing in American culture today.
About the Book
Alice Walker made history in 1983 when she became the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple. Almost forty years before the "Me Too" movement, the book received both praise and negative criticism upon publication and for the conversations around race, gender, and sexual violence that it sparked and still continues today. Since then, the powerful and controversial novel has been adapted into an Oscar-nominated film directed by Steven Spielberg and a Broadway musical produced by Oprah Winfrey.
Prominent academic and activist Salamishah Tillet combines cultural criticism, history, and memoir to explore Walker’s epistolary novel and shows how it has influenced and been informed by the zeitgeist. The Color Purple received both praise and criticism upon publication, and the conversation it sparked around race and gender still continues today. It has been adapted for an Oscar-nominated film and a hit Broadway musical.
Through archival research and interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones (among others), Tillet studies Walker’s life and how themes of violence emerged in her earlier work. Reading The Color Purple at age 15 was a groundbreaking experience for Tillet. It continues to resonate with her—as a sexual violence survivor, as a teacher of the novel, and as an accomplished academic.
Provocative and personal, In Search of The Color Purple is a bold work from an important public intellectual, and captures Alice Walker’s seminal role in rethinking sexuality, intersectional feminism, and racial and gender politics.
Upcoming Conversations in Color
Chicago Humanities Festival: Doris Conant Lecture on Women and Culture
Thursday, May 6, 2021 | 8:00pm
It’s hard to overstate the literary and cultural influence of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel The Color Purple. In the nearly forty years since its publication, this story of Black women coming of age in early twentieth-century Georgia has inspired an Oscar-nominated film, a Tony-award-winning musical, and the work of many contemporary writers, including New York Times critic Salamishah Tillet. Join Tillet and WBEZ reporter Natalie Moore for a conversation about the ongoing significance of this seminal novel as detailed in Tillet’s In Search of The Color Purple.
Press
Praise
“Tillet comes to a deeper understanding of the novel, Walker, and herself in this revelatory and memorable blend of biography, autobiography, and insightful homage to a literary icon.”
— Book List
"Through deep research and interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and Walker herself, scholar Salamishah Tillet explores the complicated legacy of this titan of American novels."
—Garden and Gun
“An enriching study for the novel’s many devoted readers.”
— Kirkus
Tillet writes a necessary account of how Walker’s centering the lives of Black women has transformed literature. Accessibly written, this book will engage both longtime fans and those new to Walker’s writing.”
— Library Journal
“Tillet powerfully puts forward the Color Purple controversy as an example of how Black women have been asked to silence their own pain to supposedly serve the greater cause of racial uplift.”
— New Republic
“Tillet’s passionate insights successfully imbue a classic novel with modern relevance.“
— Publishers Weekly
“a deep dive into the makings of Walker’s work, featuring archival research and interviews with everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Walker herself.”
— Refinery 21
“One of my most cherished possessions is a copy of The Color Purple, signed by Alice Walker and dated October 22, 1991. In case of fire, I keep it near my family photos to make sure it is not left behind. In Search of The Color Purple delivers extraordinary insight into both the love and the struggle that made Ms. Walker’s exquisitely crafted novel a masterpiece. After reading Salamishah Tillet’s poignant book, neither readers nor writers will forget that it takes courage and audacity to write a novel that tells the reality of women’s lives.”
— Anita Hill
“We need reminders of the stories that have brought us over, the hymns and spirituals and freedom songs our people sang. The Color Purple is such a hymn. Alice Walker is its composer. And Salamishah Tillet, our conductor, lines this hymn for us, beautifully, so that we might all show up, text in hand, and sing its chorus, in tribute to the genius, care, and love of Alice Walker.”
— Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
“This book is a stunning act of devotion, a literary and personal excavation of one of the great novels of American literature, The Color Purple. Salamishah Tillet deepens and refreshes our understanding of the novel, movie, and Broadway play, reminds us of the fraught history of the novel’s publication, shows us how it has moved and transformed generations, and reveals how the controversial issues of sex, race, and gender are still as relevant and controversial today as they were then. Salamishah has allowed this extraordinary work of fiction to guide and heal her life, and her book does the same for us.”
— Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and The Apology
“Salamishah does what only great writers of literary criticism accomplish—she tells a story about a masterpiece without forgetting the extraordinary woman who crafted it and the legions of women made whole because of her work. A bold and vital tale that rightly treats Alice Walker’s American classic as if it were a living, breathing being demanding our utmost attention and enduring affection.”
— Janet Mock, author of Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty
“The Color Purple is my all-time favorite film, hands down. The book is also one of my favorites, but watching the movie has particularly, over time, become a healing balm—almost a spiritual practice. Salamishah Tillet’s book is a beautiful tribute to The Color Purple, and a gift to those of us who are deeply connected to it. For others less tied to the stories of Celie, Shug, and Sofia, it is a history lesson and cautionary tale of what happens when a Black woman attempts to tell her truth publicly; something to be studied and learn from. This will be a necessary companion for all who engage with this story for years to come.”
— Tarana Burke, Founder of the Me Too movement
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