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Author Biography:

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. Her mother, Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker, and her father, Willie Lee Walker, were poor sharecroppers. As the eighth and youngest child in the family, she grew up in the midst of violent racism, which combined with her family's poverty left a permanent impression on her writing.

In the summer of 1952 Alice Walker was blinded in her right eye by a BB gun pellet while playing "cowboys and Indians" with her brothers. She was left with permanent damage in her eye and remained facially disfigured. At age 14, her brother Bill had the "cataract" removed for her by a doctor in Boston, but her vision never returned in that eye. More...

http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/About_Alice_Walker.html (Classic Notes)

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/walker_a.htm (Biography from Gale Group)