The Temple of My Familiar

Alice Walker is a celebrated American writer. Her poetry and fiction delve into the lived experiences and culture of the African American community, with a particular focus on women. The Temple of My Familiar is no exception.

Walker is the eighth child of African American sharecroppers. Growing up, she spent a year with her grandparents in rural Georgia, though they had a turbulent marriage because of her grandfather’s past alcohol usage. Pondering how people she loved could have such a terrible past is what led her to write her most acclaimed novel, The Color Purple. There is also some exploration of this idea in The Temple of My Familiar in the stories of Suwelo’s and Hal’s respective fathers, and The Temple of My Familiar is often viewed as a type of sequel to The Color Purple. Characters from this book, including the protagonist Celie and her eventual lover, Shug, feature in The Temple of My Familiar—Celie is Fanny’s maternal grandmother, and Fanny is raised for a time by Celia and Shug.

Walker studied at Spelman College on a scholarship before transferring to Sarah Lawrence. She then moved to Mississippi and became involved in the civil rights movement before marrying Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a white Jewish civil rights attorney, in New York City.