Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South

I have been remiss about my postings, but I had to do this assignment for class and if you know ANYTHING about me, you'll know I love getting lost in the prose of Zora Neale Hurston. She was extremely underappreciated and a talent that died is far worse circumstances than she ever should have.

I've just turned in this assignment, so as a disclaimer, this is all my original work (with a Works Cited.)

"I regret all my novels." -Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was a brash and bold black author who gained significant notoriety during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Hurston was born in Alabama, but counted Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black township, as her true and only home. Legend has it that Hurston changed her birth date to make herself ten years younger so she could finish high school. She never looked back and held on to her much younger age with ease, style and grace.  

Hurston’s infamous temper drove the passion behind her stories even though her early life was nearly storybook perfect. She was the daughter of a preacher-father and a dreamer mother. Her father often tried to subdue Hurston’s somewhat impetuous spirit, but it was her mother who famously told her to “jump at de sun.” After the death of Hurston’s mother, the author left home as he nature often conflicted deeply with her father’s and her new stepmother’s.

Hurston did not begin her career as a writer, but as a singer. Her prose embodies a great deal of the rhythmic qualities found in her Harlem Renaissance contemporaries—most notably, Langston Hughes, whom she later shared writing credits with for her only play.  

After Hurston completed her concert tours with a Gilbert & Sullivan troupe (composers of The Pirates of Penzance, The H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Mikado), she attended Barnard College, where she published short stories and articles, and wrote her first full-length novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine; however, Hurston did not truly hit her stride until the 1940s. Hurston’s most notable novel is Their Eyes Were Watching God and a personal favorite of mine.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God the reader takes a journey with the protagonist, Janie, through adolescence, sexual awakening, marriage, love, and loss. For a novel written in 1937, it is still so applicable and fresh in 2011. Hurston’s tale of bold, independent black woman is one that distinctly grated on the nerves of male peers; however, it is one of the most distinctive pieces of literature to exist in black literature.

Hurston, unfortunately, did not gain the monetary recognition he books deserved and was actually buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce, Florida because of the lack of funding for a headstone. It was not until 1975, that a young author by the name of Alice Walker would buy a simple headstone with the epitaph, “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.” Due to the great strides of Walker, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which had been out of print for almost thirty years was once again republished and remains in print to this day.

Hursotn’s works include a play: Mule Bone; folkore: Mules and Men, Every Tongue Got to Confess, and Tell My Horse; and of course, her notable novels: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Moses, Man of the Mountain, Joseph’s Gourd Vine, and Seraph on the Suwanee.

Boyd, V. (2007). About zora neale hurston. Retrieved from http://www.zoranealehurston.com/biography. Accessed on 14 February 2011.