And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.

to the White House. After high school Walker went to Spelman College in Atlanta on a full scholarship in 1961 and later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College near New York City graduating in 1965. Walker and her husband divorced amicably in 1976.

Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9 1944) is an American author poet feminist and activist.