Steven Spielberg's 1985 film "The Color Purple" was adapted from Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

NPR: Walker's 'The Color Purple' Opens on Broadway

In 1975, writer Alice Walker wrote an essay about her search for Zora Neale Hurston.

NPR: Intersections: Crafting a Voice for Black Culture

In spite of Alice Walker's illustrious career in sales, over 10 million books worldwide, writing wasn't her first career choice.

NPR: Walker's 'The Color Purple' Opens on Broadway

At age 16, Branson launched a youth-culture periodical called Student Magazine, sporting columns and interviews from novelists James Baldwin and Alice Walker and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.

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Ms. ALICE WALKER (Author, "The Color Purple"): I wanted to be a scientist, and then I wanted to be a pianist, and then I wanted to be a painter, and all of those things were very expensive, and we didn't have any money.

NPR: Walker's 'The Color Purple' Opens on Broadway