From the Publisher
"Maryemma Graham's long-anticipated biography of Margaret Walker, The House Where My Soul Lives, is a masterpiece of scholarship and writing, exploring the complicated contours of Walker's personal and professional life with a grace that is both accessible and enthralling...The measure of success of any biography and work of history should be how its lessons inform who we are and teach us how to build a better world around us. In this regard, Maryemma Graham has written her magnum opus." — Robert Luckett, Margaret Walker Center Professor, Department of History Jackson State University.
"At once a radiant memorial, a clear- eyed portrait and an intellectual history, Graham's biography of writer Margaret Walker is an extraordinary study of an extraordinary woman." — Paula J. Giddings, author IDA: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, EA Woodson Professor, Africana Studies, Emerita, Smith College"An accomplished and tenderly composed narrative of Margaret Walker's life—a moment in time when being inquisitive, creative, colored, and a woman was as much conundrum as an opportunity.... Graham makes Walker's life as knowable as one might have hoped; but it's this biographer's persistent, intelligent, and careful telling that distinguishes this elegant and necessary project.... Here we learn the rest of Margaret Walker's life story—and within this exquisite excavation of her life and works, readers have an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate Walker's gifted presence in the history, politics, and culture of American Letters." — Karla FC Holloway, Ph.D., James B. Duke Professor emerita, Duke University"Based on Walker's journals and diaries, unpublished interviews, and Graham's encyclopedic knowledge of Black writing, The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker is a lucid, meticulous account of a daughter of Birmingham and New Orleans whose dogged pursuit of distinction took her to Chicago and the heights of literary fame. Walker then gave her life to teaching Black students at Black southern colleges and, in the process, her writing etched a communal folk heritage for people of African descent." — Lawrence Jackson, author of Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore; Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius; and The Life of Chester B. Himes: A Biography"An encounter between subject and author, narrated in riveting detail in an introduction that charts the birth of consciousness of both biographer and subject...[a] tale about the unexpected ebbs and flows in the life of a Black women writer whose purpose remained consistent and clear in spite of changing political and cultural circumstances...a breathtaking, thoroughly engaging story of the life of a major writer of her time." — Emily Bernard, Book Post USA"Graham's new readings of Walker's writings make this book a valuable resource for literary scholars studying Walker and her circle. Scholars of African American literature and culture will find here a wealth of material from which to understand Margaret Walker's valuable contributions to Black letters... Essential." — D. E. Magill, Choice"Graham's new readings of Walker's writings make this book a valuable resource for literary scholars studying Walker and her circle. Scholars of African American literature and culture will find here a wealth of material from which to understand Margaret Walker's valuable contributions to Black letters." — Choice