First UK edition. Crown 8vo. 337 pp. Publisher's blue cloth lettered in silver to spine. Jacket design by Michael Harvey with a b/w photographic portrait of Morrison to rear panel by Helen Marcus.
Signed boldly by the author to title page at the 2008 Cheltenham Literature Festival, with promotional postcard laid in. Dustwrapper price-clipped by publisher with a new price sticker affixed to the front flap, light discolouration to the red titling of d/w spine, faint school stamp to top, bottom, and fore-edges of textblock, else a fresh, crisp copy.
Author's third novel. Winner of the 1978 National Book Critics Circle Award. Listed in "The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the 20th Century". Cited by the Swedish Academy in awarding Morrison the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature. The story of Macon 'Milkman' Dead, Jr., heir to the richest black family in a mid-western town, who sets off on a re-discovery of his roots, 'travelling southwards geographically and inwards spiritually'. "A literary jewel." –Fort Wayne Gazette