Other editions of book Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel

Written in 1937, and praised by white book reviewers for being a "rich and racy love story, if somewhat awkward" and criticized by black critics for not writing fiction in the protest tradition. The most influential black writer of the time, Richard Wright wrote that Hurston's book did for literature what the minstrel shows did for theater, it made white folks laugh at black folks. Throughout the 1940s & 50s "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was all but forgotten, slipping out of print because of Wright's influence. However, somewhere around 1968 "Their Eyes.." began appearing in black bookstores across the country. What appealed to most Africian American women discovering "Their Eyes.." for the first time, was the compelling figure of the books heroine, Janie Crawford as a powerful, articulate, self-reliant, and radically different from any woman character in black literature. Here was a woman on a quest for her own identity, whose journey would take her, not away from, but deeper and deeper into immersion of her black tradition. By 1971, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was an underground phenomenon and that by 1977 when the MLA Commission on Minority Groups and the Study of Language and Literature published its first list of out of print book most in demand across the nation, "Their Eyes..." topped the list. The background of how this book has become a classic, and the journey it has taken is almost as fascinating as the novel itself. Sadly, Zola Neale Hurston died in 1960 never realizing how popular her book would become one day.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is a luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to seventy years.This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates, boldly and brilliantly, African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a black woman, who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard.Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God met significant commercial but divided critical acclaim. Somewhat forgotten after her death, Zora Neale Hurston was rediscovered by a number of black authors in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and reintroduced to a greater readership by Alice Walker in her 1972 essay "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston," written for Ms. magazine. Long out of print, the book was reissued after a petition was circulated at the Modern Language Association Convention in 1975, and nearly three decades later Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a seminal novel of American fiction.With a new foreword by the celebrated novelist Edwidge Danticat -- author of Eyes, Breath, Memory; The Farming of Bones; and Krik?Krak! -- this edition of Their Eyes Were Watching God commemorates the singular, inimitable voice in America's literary canon and highlights its unusual publication history.