I Love Myself When I Am Laughing: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader.

HURSTON, Zora Neale [Edited by Alice Walker].

$1,250.00

Item Number: 141434

New York: The Feminist Press, 1979.

First edition of this classic collection of work, edited by Alice Walker. Octavo, original wrappers. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, “To David Levin Peace Alice Walker 12-79.” Edited by Alice Walker. Introduction by Mary Helen Washington. In near fine condition.

The most prolific African-American woman author from 1920 to 1950, Hurston was praised for her writing and condemned for her independence, arrogance, and audaciousness. This unique anthology, with fourteen superb examples of her fiction, journalism, folklore, and autobiography, rightfully establishes her as the intellectual and spiritual leader of the next generation of black writers. The original commentary by Alice Walker and Mary Helen Washington, two African-American writers in the forefront of the Hurston revival, provide illuminating insights into Hurston—the writer, and the person—as well as into American social and cultural history.