Their Eyes Were Watching God Lesson Plan | About the Author
HURSTON, Zora Neale (1903 ?-1960) Zora Neale Hurston was born in Eatonville, Florida, on January 7, 1901 (some say 1903.) She wrote four novels as well as two books of black mythology, legends, and folklore.
Hurston traveled with a theater company in her teenage years and then attended Barnard College, where she studied anthropology. During several years of field service after college she studied African American folklore in her native Florida. One result of this study was the book Mules and Men (1935), a collection of folklore presented within the framework of a unifying narrative.
Hurston's background was also reflected in her novels, most of which incorporated elements of folklore to some degree. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), which was widely praised as her finest novel, told the story of a young black woman's growth toward self-awareness and independence. Hurston's other novels were Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), the tale of a black preacher; the allegorical Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939), and Seraph on the Suanee (1948).
In the early 1930s Hurston became involved in the Harlem Renaissance movement, where she represented the black experience of the rural South. Her work subsequently influenced Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, and other black authors. She also wrote Tell My Horse (1938), which was originally published as Voodoo Gods: An Inquiry into Native Myths and Magic in Jamaica and Haiti. Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), was her autobiography. Her book I Love Myself When I Am Laughing was published posthumously in 1979. It contained a selections of stories, novels, and essays. She died on January 28, 1960, in Fort Pierce, Florida.
