Today in History: Pulitzer Prize Winner Alice Walker Was Born

Alice Walker, the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, was born the eighth child of sharecroppers on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia.

Walker's most popular novel, The Color Purple (1982) "depicts the growing up and self-realization of an African American woman between 1909 and 1947 in a town in Georgia. The book won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1985. A musical version produced by Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones premiered in 2004."

For more information about Alice Walker and other African Americans born in February, go to Blackfacts.com. You can also check out her work from The Yocum Library, including the book and film versions of The Color Purple.

Information in this article is from Encyclopedia Britannica online.