How I Wrote Jubilee: And Other Essays on Life and Literature

by Margaret Walker

A distinguished black woman writer brings together autobiographical and literary essays, speeches, and other writings that include reminiscences of the young Richard Wright, Walker's battle against racism and sexism, and the creative process

Genres: Nonfiction

157 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1972

About the author

Dr. Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander was an African-American poet and author. She wrote as Margaret Walker. One of her most known poems is "For My People".

Her father Sigismund C. Walker was a Methodist minister and her mother was Marion Dozier Walker. They helped get her started in literature by teaching a lot of philosophy and poetry to her as a child.

In 1935, Walker received her Bachelors of Arts Degree from Northwestern University and in 1936 she began work with the Federal Writers' Project under the Works Progress Administration. In 1942 she received her master's degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa. In 1965 she returned to that school to earn her Ph.D. She also for a time served as a professor at what is today Jackson State University.

Her literature generally contained African American themes. Among her more popular works were her poem For My People, which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition and her 1966 novel Jubilee, which received critical acclaim.

Margaret Walker died of breast cancer in Chicago in 1998.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there was anything that almost threatened to ruin the tone of this book for me, it was Walker's essay about a man who had at some point been a very close friend: "Richard Wright." Although enticing, it is missing some of the objectivity of an essay and at times made me doubt her art of narrative nonfiction. The controversial biography she wrote about Wright isn't one I would read either, since I would go into it thinking that some agenda (or vengeance) was outlined. Some sections of the essay give great glimpses into the life of these two writers, some sections are objective enough, but there are also sections that really should have been edited out. However, there were moments when I wanted to pick up poetry, and for me, these are always good moments:

One afternoon Wright quoted from T.S. Eliot:

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;

It is quick to note the importance of how Margaret Walker's collection underscores moving pieces within African-American writing, as it showcases a formulation of ideas leading from the 1930s and covers social, cultural, and religious dynamics. It works as a great point of reference and is effective as literary criticism. Some of my favorite essays were:

"Growing Out of Shadow"
"A Literary Legacy from Dunbar to Baraka"
"The Education of a Seminal Mind, W.E.B. DuBois"
"A Brief Introduction to Southern Literature"

[julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

though i did find value in the biographical and technical essays which begin this collection i was not nearly as moved by them as the pieces on black aesthetics and literary history. her pieces of criticism are not only deeply imbued with legible, detailed cultural and historical context but are lively pieces of effective and affective prose. it is a testament to what is revealed in those earlier biographical and procedural essays: steadfast dedication and thoroughness as well as an unwillingness to compromise focus or conviction in service of a broader theory and application of art will result in a career and life well satisfied, regardless of the markers of materialistic success dictated by the dominant ideology of global capitalism.

[William Harrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an academic book. It focuses on telling the truth about black literature. I learned from it that is the most important thing taken away.