<Tr> <Th> LC Class </Th> <Td> PS3573. A425 C6 1982 </Td> </Tr> <P> The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction . It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name . </P> <P> Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of African - American women in the Southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture . The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000--2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence . In 2003 the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best - loved novels ." </P> <P> Celie is a poor, uneducated 14 - year - old girl living in the American South in the early 1900s . She writes letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats her harshly and rapes her continously . Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once, a pregnancy that resulted in the birth of a boy she named Adam . Alphonso takes the baby away shortly after his birth . Celie has a second child, a girl she named Olivia whom Alphonso also abducts . Celie's ailing mother dies after cursing Celie on her deathbed . </P>

Where does the book the color purple take place