The Color Purple.

Signed copy. Signed by Alice Walker to the title page in purple pen. A near fine copy, a little wear to the extremities of the jacket, and crease along the right edge of the front panel.

'If [God] ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a different place'.

The Color Purple is a powerful and at times empowering narrative, for which Alice Walker won the Pulitzer prize, becoming the first Black woman to do so. Despite attracting controversy from some quarters, the book has enjoyed, and continues to enjoy, significant popular success, its audience being broadened by its adaptation to both the stage and film. The controversy surrounding the novel can in part be explained by the novel's inescapable emotional intensity. Written in the epistolary style, it directly and unflinchingly addresses issues such as; rape; emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; self love; as well as criticising conventional and organised Christianity.

Recently, in 2015 an interviewer suggested to Walker that: 'Celie and Shug's relationship was a polarising aspect of the novel'; with Walker replying 'To whom? Now that we have same sex marriage, I can't imagine what my critics are doing.' However, at the time of publication, it was perceived by some to be a controversial aspect of the novel and it is perhaps unsurprising that when it was adapted to film in 1985, the lesbian relationship was largely glazed over.

First edition, signed by the author; 8vo; original quarter purple cloth, cream paper covered boards, spine lettered in silver, dust jacket.