Margaret Walker Alexander (1915-1998). Courtesy Southern Methodist University.
Margaret Walker
Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander (July 7, 1915 - November 30, 1998) was an African-American poet and prose writer.
Life[]
Walker was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Sigismund C. Walker, a Methodist minister, and Marion (Dozier), who helped their daughter by teaching her philosophy and poetry as a child. The family moved to New Orleans when Walker was a young girl. She attended school there, including several years of college, before she moved north.[1]
In 1935, Walker earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University, and in 1936 she began work with the Federal Writers' Project under the Works Progress Administration. In 1942, she earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa (UI). In 1965, she returned to UI to earn a Ph.D.
Walker married Firnist Alexander in 1943; they had 4 children and lived in Mississippi. Walker was a literature professor from 1949 to 1979 at what is today Jackson State University. In 1968, Walker founded the Institute for the Study of History, Life, and Culture of Black People (now the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center) at the school. She went on to serve as the Institute's director.[2]
In 1975, Walker released 3 albums of poetry on Folkways Records - Margaret Walker Alexander Reads Langston Hughes, P.L. Dunbar, J.W. Johnson; Margaret Walker Reads Margaret Walker and Langston Hughes, and The Poetry of Margaret Walker. In 1988, she sued Alex Haley, claiming his novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family had violated Jubilee's copyright. The case was dismissed.
Walker died of breast cancer in Chicago, Illinois in 1998.[3]
Writing[]
Among Walker's more popular works are her poem For My People, and her 1966 novel Jubilee, which also received critical acclaim. The novel was based on her own great-grandmother's life as a slave.[4]
Recognition[]
For My People won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1942 under the judgeship of editor Stephen Vincent Benét.[5]
In popular culture[]
- For My People, The Life and Writing of Margaret Walker distributed by California Newsreel
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- For My People. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1942.
- Ballad of the Free. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1966.
- Prophets for a New Day. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1970.
- October Journey. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1973.
- This Is My Century. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1989.
Novel[]
- Jubilee. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
Non-fiction[]
- How I Wrote "Jubilee'. Chicago: Third World Press, 1972.
- A Poetic Equation: Conversations between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker (with Nikki Giovanni). Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1974.
- Richard Wright: Daemonic genius. New York: Dodd, 1987.
- How I Wrote 'Jubilee', and other essays on life and literature (edited by Maryemma Graham). New York: Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1990.
- On Being Female, Black, and Free: Essays by Margaret Walker, 1932-1992. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1997.
- Maryemma Graham, Conversations with Margaret Walker. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2002.
"For My People" by Margaret Walker (Favorite Poem Project)
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.[6]
See also[]
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Biodata
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ University of Pennsylvania archives
- ↑ University of Pennsylvania archives on Walker
- ↑ Bradley, George. The Yale Younger Poets Anthology, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, p. 24, Introduction
- ↑ Margaret Walker 1915-1998, Poetry Foundation, Web, Dec. 26, 2012.
External links[]
- Poems
- Margaret Walker 1915-1998 at the Poetry Foundation
- Margaret Walker: Online poems
- Margaret Walker at AfroPoets (15 poems)
- Margaret Walker: Poems at the Internet Poetry Archive (16 poems)
- Audio / video
- Margaret Walker poems at YouTube
- Books
- Margaret Walker at Amazon.com
- About
- Margaret Walker, poet and novelist obituary at University of Pennsylvania
- Margaret Abigail Walker at Voices from the Gaps
- Margaret Walker at NNDB
- Margaret Walker biography at the Internet Poetry Archive
- Margaret Walker (1915-1998) at Modern American Poetry.
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