Alice Walker's "By the Light of My Father's Smile" Advanced Reading Copy

Alice Walker

Book

[African American][Literature] Walker, Alice. By the Light of My Father’s Smile. New York: Random House, 1998. Advance Uncorrected Proof. Original pictorial wrappers with bold red and cream rose motif on a dark background. “Advance Uncorrected Proof” band across the top of the front cover. Issued prior to publication for reviewers and booksellers. This advance copy represents the earliest state of Walker’s first novel in six years following Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992). By the Light of My Father’s Smile is a lyrical, experimental narrative that weaves together family history, sexuality, spirituality, and cultural encounter. Moving between Mexico’s Sierra Madre, the United States, and the afterlife, Walker traces the story of Susannah, her sister Magdalena, and their anthropologist parents who journey south to study an isolated community called the Mundo. The narrative shifts between temporalities and voices to explore the role of sexual freedom in self-realization, the bonds of family, and the enduring scars of patriarchal judgment.

Walker emphasizes the father’s “smile” as both literal and symbolic: an affirmation of female sexuality or, conversely, its denial. The novel places erotic experience at the center of human wholeness, reclaiming sexuality as spiritual, restorative, and integral to cultural continuity. The author frames this as “a celebration of sexuality, its absolute usefulness in accessing one’s mature spirituality.” In doing so, Walker links themes of Black feminism with global and Indigenous spiritual traditions, while affirming her broader commitment to ecological consciousness and human interconnection. Interior with publisher’s promotional note identifying the book as Walker’s “most prized and necessary original self. Light wear at extremities and faint staining to lower margin of front pages. Overall very good. An advanced reading copy of this later work by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Color Purple.

Item #22599

Price: $225.00