The Color Purple

This article is about the 1982 novel. For the 1985 film, see The Color Purple (1985 film). For the 2023 film, see The Color Purple (2023 film). For other uses, see The Color Purple (disambiguation).

The Color Purple
First edition cover
AuthorAlice Walker
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarcourt Brace Jovanovich
Publication date
1982
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN0-15-119153-0
OCLC8221433
813.54 19
LC ClassPS3573.A425 C6 1982

The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker that won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.[1][a]

The novel has been the target of censors numerous times, and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2010 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence.[2][3] In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels."[4]

The novel has been adapted into various other media, including feature films in 1985 and 2023, a 2005 musical, and a 2008 radio serial on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.

  1. ^ "National Book Awards – 1983". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
    (With essays by Anna Clark and Tarayi Jones from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
  2. ^ "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2009". American Library Association. March 26, 2013. Archived from the original on November 2, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  3. ^ "Alice Walker – biography". Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  4. ^ "BBC – The Big Read". BBC. April 2003, Retrieved August 23, 2017


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