The Bluest Eye

  • London: Chatto & Windus, 1979
By Toni Morrison
London: Chatto & Windus, 1979. Very Good +/Very Good +. London: Chatto & Windus, 1979. First U.K. Edition. Octavo (20.5); publisher’s simulated cloth in white pictorial dust jacket by Kate Cary retaining original price (£4.95); 164pp. Dust jacket gently rubbed and toned along edges; speck to top of rear panel at verso. Spines nudged; binding sound; pages unmarked; Very Good or better.

An attractive copy of the first British edition of the author's first book, originally published in 1970 after years of searching for a publisher. In 1993 Toni Morrison noted that “the initial publication of The Bluest Eye was like Pecola’s life: dismissed, trivialized, misread,” which may explain why it took the novel nine years to find its way to the British market.

Reference: Tessa Roynon, The Cambridge Introduction to Toni Morrison (2013), p. 22.

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