Who knows? I am writing about my life, and they were a part of it. Was she concerned that she might hurt some feelings among friends and fellow writers when the magazines were published? “They can be very upsetting.

In a May 1979 entry, when the paperback rights to Toni Morrison’s novel “Song of Solomon” sell for $300,000, Walker investigates his jealousy and decides that Morrison deserves good fortune, “even though I think that his characters never go anywhere.”

His companions are also victims of his acid pen. Later, after her marriage ends and a romance blossoms with author Robert Allen, she also gives him a rough time. In an undated entry from the mid-1970s about her marriage to Leventhal, she writes, “Today I thought of how bored I was in this marriage.” While some passages were meant to protect the privacy of her friends, Walker said the goal was not discretion but brevity: That said, no one wants to read 1,000 pages of a magazine.Īs far as Vivek is concerned, she does not shy away from commenting on the shortcomings of her friends and lovers. Walker’s journals, 65 notebooks filled with his neat, compact, half-script, half-print, moved to Emory University’s Rose Library in 2007, banned from the eyes of scholars and admirers until 2040.īut Walker decided to publish part of that bounty, and Boyd was accused of selecting excerpts from those magazines for “Gathering Blossom”. I don’t know if there will be another Valerie to match her honesty, calm and grace.” During her Zoom call, she isn’t so sure, because “Valerie isn’t here. But that was written before Boyd’s death. Later, a 77-year-old walker promises Volume II. I don’t mind looking my age – it looks fine as far as I’m concerned.” They continue through 2000, as Walker admitted “I’m 55.

Gathering blossoms under fire