With The Color Purple, Alice Walker made history in 1982 when she became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Both praised and condemned, the book launched heated conversations about race, gender, language, and sexual violence that still resonate today. Examining the novel, the film by Steven Spielberg, and the hit Broadway musical, Salamishah Tillet draws on interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones, to bring new perspectives to this modern masterpiece.