Today in History (1937): Their Eyes Were Watching God published

First posted 11/11/2025.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neal Hurston

First Publication: September 18, 1937 Category: psychological fiction Sales: ?

Accolades:

About the Book: While now “regarded as a masterwork” LC “in both African-American literature and women’s literature.” WKTheir Eyes Were Watching God wasn’t a success upon its initial publication in 1937. The book was “out of print for almost thirty years due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist.” AZ African American critics said it was “facile and simplistic, in part because its characters spoke in dialect.” LC However, in 1975 author Alice Walker wrote an essay entitled “Looking for Zora” in Ms. magazine that “led to a critical reevaluation of the book.” LC Since the book’s reissue in 1978, is has “become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature” AZ and is “considered to have paved the way for younger black writers such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.” LC “The novel narrates main character Janie Crawford’s ‘ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny.’ As a young woman, who is fair-skinned with long hair, she expects more out of life, but comes to realize that people must learn about life ‘fuh theyselves’ (for themselves), just as people can only go to God for themselves. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century.” WK It “brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston.” AZ British novelist Zadie Smith called it “a deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” AZ Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon LC Library of Congress (2012). “Books That Shaped America” WK Wikipedia