130,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Gathering Blossoms Under Fire

The Journals of Alice Walker
4.22 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 432 ratings, 83 reviews)
Brief Description
‘These journals are a revelation, a road map and a gift to us all’ – Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage ‘Walker writes beautifully about the push and pull of intimacy . . . You find yourself admiring her idealism, her gift as a writer... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Gathering Blossoms Under Fire. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

The unseen journals of Alice Walker - literary icon and author of The Color Purple

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

‘These journals are a revelation, a road map and a gift to us all’ – Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

‘Walker writes beautifully about the push and pull of intimacy . . . You find yourself admiring her idealism, her gift as a writer and her abundant appetite for life’ – The Telegraph

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire presents four decades' worth of personal journals to offer a passionate, intimate record of Alice Walker's intellectual, artistic and political development.

Walker writes in an unvarnished and singular voice about an astonishing array of events: marching in Mississippi with civil rights foot soldiers, marrying a Jewish lawyer and defying 1960s anti-interracial marriage laws, writing her first novel, experiencing the trials and triumphs of the women's movement, being both admired and maligned for her work and activism, burying her mother and estrangement from her daughter. Her journals reveal an inextricable intertwining of the personal and political, exploring her thoughts and feelings in real time as a woman, writer, African American, wife, daughter, mother, lover, sister, friend and citizen of the world.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781780228273

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 April 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Contributors:

  • Edited by Valerie Boyd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 36.0mm

Width: 126.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 412g

Pages: 560

About the Author

ALICE WALKER, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is a canonical figure in American letters. She is the author of The Color Purple, The Temple of My Familiar, Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful, The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart, Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart and many other works of fiction, poetry and nonfiction. Her writings have been translated into more than two dozen languages, and more than fifteen million copies of her books have been sold worldwide.

VALERIE BOYD was the author of the critically acclaimed biography Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, winner of the Southern Book Award and the American Library Association's Notable Book Award. She was the founder and director of the MFA Program in Narrative Nonfiction and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault professor of journalism at the University of Georgia. She was editor-at-large at the University of Georgia Press and senior consulting editor for The Bitter Southerner.

Also by Alice Walker

View all
  • The Color Purple
    The Color Purple by Alice Walker is an iconic classic of modern American literature, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for its groundbreaking narrative. This deeply moving novel takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. The story revolves around the resilient and indomitable Celie, who is trapped in a life of...
    Paperback
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    23% off
    Meridian
    Meridian by Alice Walker is a profound and evocative novel that immerses readers in the life of Meridian Hill, a brilliant and inquisitive young woman hailing from a working-class Black family in the American South. Set against the vivid and turbulent backdrop of the 1960s civil rights movement, the story unfolds with Meridian facing numerous struggles from an early age....
    Paperback
    $2300
    Usually:
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    18% off
    Possessing The Secret Of Joy
    Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker is a powerful and heartrending narrative that explores the complexities of cultural identity and the personal repercussions of traditional practices. It follows the poignant and compelling story of Tashi, an African woman caught in the crossfire of her native traditions and the contrasting Western values she encounters in America. As Tashi navigates...
    Paperback
    $2700
    Usually:
    $3299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Color Purple
    Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino. Celebrating its fortieth anniversary, The Color Purple writes a message of healing, forgiveness, self-discovery, and sisterhood to a new generation of readers. An inspiration to authors who continue to give voice to the multidimensionality...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Now is the Time to Open Your Heart
    In Now is the Time to Open Your Heart, Alice Walker masterfully crafts a modern odyssey centred around Kate, a seasoned author and perennial seeker. Kate’s life has been filled with the richness of exploration—through her writings, multiple marriages, and relentless wanderings. Having always been a true wanderer at heart, she now finds herself at the threshold of aging and...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Sweet People are Everywhere
    “Deepened and expanded by its illustrations, this is a stunning introduction to the true meaning of a global community.”—School Library Journal They are all over the globe. Sweet people can be found from Canada to Congo to Cuba, from Afghanistan to Australia, from Ireland to Iraq… there are sweet people in the thirty-seven places listed in these pages and almost...
    Hardback
    Sold Out
  • The Color Purple
    The Iconic Classic, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize One of the BBC '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' 'A lush celebration of all that it means to be a black female. I love that The Color Purple doesn't try to soften its blows but is also courageous enough to hold on to a wonderfully affirming faith in possibility, in forgiveness...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Biography & Memoir

View all
  • New Release
    One Helluva Ride
    "This book is about where I came from, what I fought against, and what I chose formyself. Fame can blur the truth; this is my attempt to bring it back into focus." A legendary actor and Hollywood Icon whose five-decade career spans film, television,and producing, Michael Douglas has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, fiveGolden Globes, a Primetime Emmy,...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Book cover for 'Swan Song: Diana, my sister' by Charles Spencer, featuring a black-and-white portrait of Diana with white and gold text on a gray background.
    New Release
    Swan Song
    Beautiful. Beloved. Hunted. The extraordinary life and death of Diana, as told by her brother, Charles – available to pre-order now. ‘When asked, ‘What was it like, growing up with Diana?’, my first thought is always, But I don’t know what it was like not to grow up with her…’ In September 1997, Charles Spencer stood in Westminster Abbey before...
    Hardback
    $5499
    Elsewhere:
    $6500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Fictional Selves
    From the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Sex and the City comes a candid and deeply personal memoir. In this highly anticipated memoir, the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City and more shares his utterly original account of his offbeat journey in Hollywood, his battles with fear and...
    Hardback
    $4799
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Steps
    The long-awaited memoir from a true Hollywood icon. We know Sylvester Stallone as one of the most revered actors, writers, and directors of all time, yet his life story is every bit as dramatic, intense, and inspiring as his greatest creations on screen. Bringing together a no-holds-barred account of a fascinating life with messages of hope, positivity, and resilience, in...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Home Again
    Join rock-legend, former Shihad frontman and lead singer of The Adults, Jon Toogood in this unflinching and no-holds-barred memoir Home Again.This is more than a rock story. Toogood looks back on a 37-year career that helped define New Zealand rock music, and the personal cost that came with it. From a music-obsessed childhood in Wellington to the deafening roar of international stages, this...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Dogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
    From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Famesick
    Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgun wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through her journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • This Angry Pen of Mine
    This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Signed Copy
    Stakes
    Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the author’s bestselling memoir Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampire’s badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Built for This
    Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed. Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Even the Good Girls Will Cry
    Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love. Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • An Ocean and a Day
    An utterly riveting, moving and poignant memoir of grief and loss that will speak to anyone who's ever lost someone they love. An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell's personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama beach in 2014. It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.