Their Eyes Were Watching God — Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

Their Eyes Were Watching God stands as Zora Neale Hurston's crowning achievement, tracing Janie Crawford's journey through three marriages and her ultimate self-realization in Florida's Black communities. Dismissed upon its 1937 release and largely forgotten until Alice Walker's 1975 essay revived interest, it now ranks among the Harlem Renaissance's finest and outperforms #2 in literary impact, with its pioneering use of African-American vernacular dialect reshaping American literature. Sales have surged 150% since 1975, cementing its legacy as a timeless narrative that continues to inspire.