THE COLOR PURPLE by Walker, Alice - 1982

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. First edition. Fine. First printing of Alice Walker's breakaway success, a book centered around the experience of African-American women in the rural South. THE COLOR PURPLE is an epistolary novel about an African-American family in Georgia, following the fate of two sisters through their letters to each other. The book is particularly famous for the beauty of its language, which Walker shapes with astonishing perfection. Walker notably appreciated the design for the first edition dust jacket, remarking that the house "looks almost exactly like the church I attended as a child." A controversial winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the book remains a frequent target of censorship, despite its predominant themes of love and resilience. An American classic. 8.25 x 5.25''. Original quarter purple cloth with cream paper boards, silver-lettered spine. Original unclipped purple typographic dust jacket designed by Judith Kazdym Leeds. [8], 245, [1] pages. Ink ownership inscription on front pastedown, else fine.