Who wrote the bluest eye?

American author Toni Morrison has made a name for herself in the literary world. In the 1970’s, her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published. It won her national acclaim and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Since then, she has been a highly respected writer of historical fiction. The novel was inspired by a real-life story. The writer, an African-American, began working on the novel two decades prior to its publication. She was working on a short story about a young Black girl who prayed for blue eyes. She based her story on a conversation she had with a childhood friend who wanted blue eyes. Morrison realized that her friend’s desire was an indication of racial self-loathing. She wondered how her friend could have internalized such racist ideas at such a young age. The novel was published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1970. The publisher, which later became Holt McDougal, published between 1,200 and 1,500 first-edition copies of the novel. She had expected to sell about 400 copies. Morrison was a mother-of-two at the time and still working at Random House. The author explains the role of physical beauty in society in “The Bluest Eye”. In the book, Jerome Bump shows how physical beauty is a virtue embedded in society. Often, a person’s appearance reflects their personality and character. People often act on their bias based on their appearance.