<P><I>Their Eyes Were Watching God,</I> an American classic, is a luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to seventy years.</P><P>This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates, boldly and brilliantly, African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a black woman, who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard.</P><P>Originally published in 1937, <I>Their Eyes Were Watching God</I> met significant commercial but divided critical acclaim. Somewhat forgotten after her death, Zora Neale Hurston was rediscovered by a number of black authors in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and reintroduced to a greater readership by Alice Walker in her 1972 essay "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston," written for Ms. magazine. Long out of print, the book was reissued after a petition was circulated at the Modern Language Association Convention in 1975, and nearly three decades later Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a seminal novel of American fiction.</P><P>With a new foreword by the celebrated novelist Edwidge Danticat -- author of <I>Eyes, Breath, Memory; The Farming of Bones;</I> and <I>Krik?Krak!</I> -- this edition of <I>Their Eyes Were Watching God</I> commemorates the singular, inimitable voice in America's literary canon and highlights its unusual publication history.</P>