The Bluest Eye.
$17,500 · Offered by Biblio
First edition · Signed
New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1970. First edition of Morrison's classic first book. Octavo, original half cloth. Boldly signed by the author on the second free endpaper, "Best wishes Toni Morrison." Near fine in a very good first issue dust jacket with the $5.95 price and 1070 on the bottom of front flap. Dust jacket design by Herb Lubalin and Jay Tribich. Housed in a custom half morocco slipcase. An exceptional example, rare and desirable signed. Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, The Bluest Eye is something of an ensemble piece. The point of view is passed like a baton from one character to the next, with Morrison s own voice functioning as a kind of gold standard throughout. The focus, though, is on an 11-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove, whose entire family has been given a cosmetic cross to bear: You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it. There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She s spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what
- Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston
- Year: 1970
- Edition: First Edition
- Binding: hardcover
See every copy of The Bluest Eye. for sale and what it is worth →
Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.