1. Zora Neale Hurston

2. Author ’ s Life  Born in 1891 in Notasugla, Alabama. No one knows exact date  Fifth of eight children  Her father, John Hurston, was a Baptist preacher, tenant farmer Alabama  and carpenter  Not a family man  Made life difficult for his family and children  Preferred Hurston ’ s sister Sarah over Hurston Her mother, Lucy Hurston was the “ driving force and strong support for all her children ” Passed away when Hurston was only a preteen

3. Author ’ s Life Con ’ t… When she was three her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, an all black town The first incorporated black community in America For this reason her childhood was protected from racism Her father later became mayor of this town To Hurston, Eatonville would become a utopia, glorified in her stories as a place black Americans could live as they desire, independent of white society and all its ways. After the death of her mother she "passed around the family like a bad penny" by her father for the next several years until she was old enough to support herself.

4. Author ’ s Life Con ’ t… Upon reaching adulthood Hurston was working as a domestic, still leading an traveling life, with little schooling. She was in Baltimore in 1917, when through the aid of her employer she entered in Morgan Academy (the high school division of Morgan College) She was actually twenty-six at the time but wrote her age as sixteen and her birth date as 1901 She graduated in 1918  When saved up enough money she went to college at Howard University in Washington DC  Was inspired to write while here

5. Author ’ s Life Con ’ t… Later moved to Harlem and perused at writing career She became a recognized member of the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was a period during which black artists broke with the traditional dialectal works and imitating white writers to explore black culture and express pride in their race. Hurston and her stories about Eatonville became a major force in shaping these ideals.

6. Author ’ s Life Con ’ t…  Her biographer Robert Hemenway said “ Hurston Hurston was an extraordinarily witty woman and she acquired an instant reputation in New York for her high spirits and side-splitting takes of Eatonville life. She could walk into a room of strangers…and almost immediately gather people charm, amuse and empress them. ”  During this time she worked as secretary for Fannie Hurst and entered Bernard College Her career took her into two directions- at Bernard she developed an interest in black Folk tradition by studying with the famous anthropologist Franz Boas, and in Harlem she became well known as a story teller  Graduated in 1927 from Bernard

7. Author’s Life Con’t…  After her graduation, she received a fellowship to return to Florida to study the oral traditions of Eatonville.  When the fellowship money ran out, Hurston was supported by Mrs. R. Osgood Mason an elderly white patron of the arts.  Under Mrs. Mason ’ s support, Hurston experienced the difficulty of censoring her work because well off white people were the sponsors of, and often the chief audience for, her work.  Mrs. Mason required permission before publishing any of the work that she had subsidized

8. Author ’ s Life Con ’ t… Her work wasn ’ t entirely popular with the male intellectuals of the Harlem community because many thought her to be either naive or egotistical She quarreled with Langston Hughes because she rejected the idea that a black writer ’ s chief concern should be how blacks are portrayed to the white reader.  Great Depression caused her to turn fully to writing For the last decade of her life she lived in Florida working from time to time as a maid She died in 1960

9. Popular Literary Works Her most important and first novel, Jonah ’ s Gourd Vine was published mid 1930 ’ s, but there was little interest in it or African American writing in general Mules and Men was her best selling book published in 1935 Most popular and critical favorite was her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God published in 1937 She published a few other works and then her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, in 1942, but at this point she had no audience Hurston's present reputation and popularity are evidenced by the reprinting of several of her works in the late 1980s, including Their Eyes Were Watching God

10. Their Eyes Were Watching God Story of a woman exposed to various methods of living. The main character, Janie, suffers from being alone and controlled in life and is seeking liberation. Janie’s inner goal is to be happy with herself and live her life according to how she should and not by family, husband, and societies way of life. Janie is partially compared to Hurston. During her life, Hurston was also married more than once. Other similarities include spouse owning a general store as well.

11. Writing Style Hurston wrote in a narrative recreation of southern black rural dialect Her fiction, which depicts relationships among black residents in her native southern Florida, was largely unconcerned with racial injustices. Hurston did not write to “ uplift her race ” because in her view it was already uplifted She was not embarrassed to present her characters as a mixture of good and bad, strong and weak. Critics have argued that she was a feminist writer because she didn ’ t need a man to lean on Hurston's novel has become a staple in women's studies programs and has inspired many female authors to create non-stereotypical black female characters.