Zora Neale Hurston
Born in 1891 in Notasulga Alabama, Zora Neale Hurston was one of the first women that became a famous novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston wrote four novels and more then 50 published short stories, plays, and essays. Her most famous book was her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is about a women’s lifelong struggle to be true to herself while facing family and social pressures.
Hurston studied anthropology at Barnard Collage and graduated in 1928. The following year she was awarded the Guggenheim fellowship and began traveling to the south where she collected African American folk tails. She also traveled to Haiti and Jamaica where she became interested in the practice of voodoo, and this influenced her writing as she began to use super natural elements into her writing. The 1930’s and early 1940’s were the height of Hurston’s literary career. In 1935 she published a collection of these stories named “Mules and Men.”
Hurston was passionate about helping to protect the rights of African Americans. She was known for her humor, sarcasm, and folk writing style. By the mid 1940’s her writing career began to fail. Hurston achieved great fame in her lifetime, but she also suffered scandal and disgrace. She was arrested and charged for molesting a young boy, and even though she was found innocent the damage to her reputation was permanent. All publishers started rejecteing her work, and she fell into a deep depression. Around 1950 Hurston returned to Florida where she worked as a cleaning lady. She suffered a stroke in 1959 and was buried at an unmarked grave. Zora Neale Hurston was an inspiration to the civil rights movement and will always be remembered as one.
Hurston studied anthropology at Barnard Collage and graduated in 1928. The following year she was awarded the Guggenheim fellowship and began traveling to the south where she collected African American folk tails. She also traveled to Haiti and Jamaica where she became interested in the practice of voodoo, and this influenced her writing as she began to use super natural elements into her writing. The 1930’s and early 1940’s were the height of Hurston’s literary career. In 1935 she published a collection of these stories named “Mules and Men.”
Hurston was passionate about helping to protect the rights of African Americans. She was known for her humor, sarcasm, and folk writing style. By the mid 1940’s her writing career began to fail. Hurston achieved great fame in her lifetime, but she also suffered scandal and disgrace. She was arrested and charged for molesting a young boy, and even though she was found innocent the damage to her reputation was permanent. All publishers started rejecteing her work, and she fell into a deep depression. Around 1950 Hurston returned to Florida where she worked as a cleaning lady. She suffered a stroke in 1959 and was buried at an unmarked grave. Zora Neale Hurston was an inspiration to the civil rights movement and will always be remembered as one.