American Literature Web Resources: Zora Neale Hurston

The dominant influences on the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston were the Harlem Renaissance and African American culture and folklore.

1891. Zora Neale Hurston was born in Eatonville, Florida on January 7. She was the fifth child

of eight children.

1900. Hurston’s mother died and her father sent her to school in Jacksonville, Florida.

1913. She is forced to return to Eatonville to care for her brother’s children.

1917. Hurston left Eatonville to attend Morgan Academy in Baltimore.

1918. Enrolled at Howard University and earned an associate degree. At Howard she studied

under Alain Locke.

1921. Hurston’s first story is published in Howard University’s Literary Magazine.

1925. She begins to win prizes for her stories that are being published.

1925. Moved to New York and immediately is accepted and becomes friends with the

intellectuals, such as Langston Hughes, of the Harlem Renaissance.

1927. Received a BA from Barnard College where she was their first black student. At Barnard

she studied under the famous anthropologist Franz Bos. Received a fellowship to study

oral traditions of Eatonville.

1927. She also married Dr.Herbert Sheen, an old flame from Howard University.

1931. Divorced from Sheen and broke friendship with Hughes because of a misunderstanding

over a play they had written together.

1934. Hurston’s first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, is published.

1935. Mules and Men is published.

1936. Their Eyes Were Watching God is published.

1938. Hurston published Tell My Horse.

1939. Moses, Man of the Mountain is published.

1942. Hurston published her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road.

1948. Seraph on the Suwanee is published.

1950. Hurston moved to Belle Grade, Florida where her health and finances begin to falter. She

started to work as a maid, librarian and substitute teacher to make ends meet.

1959. Suffered a stroke and is forced to move to St. Lucie County Welfare Home.

1960. Zora Hurston died on January 28 penniless and unknown. She was buried in an unmarked

grave in a segregated cemetery in Fort Pierce.

1973. Novelist and poet Alice Walker (The Color Purple) placed a marker, on what is believed to

be Hurston’s burial plot, stating "Zora Neale Hurston, A Genius of the South."

Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s Hurston was extremely active and a well-respected author and anthropologist.. During these years she was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship and joined the Federal Writers Project in Florida. She also worked as a story consultant for Paramount Pictures. After the 1940’s, Hurston faced a difficult time trying to get her work published and finding an audience for her work because of this she died virtually alone and bankrupt.

Hemmenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. University of Illinois Press, 1971.

Howard, Lille Peal. Zora Neale Hurston. Boston: Twayne, 1980.

Porter. A. P. Jump at de Sun: The Story of Zora Neale Hurston. Carolrhoda Books, 1992.

Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Indiana University Press, 1995.

http://pages.prodigy.com/zora/

http://www.gale.com/gale/cwh/hurston.html

http://www.geocites.com/sotto/3035/bio.html

"Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me."