Zora Neale Hurston author page

Zora Neale Hurston biography

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was an American novelist, folklorist and anthropologist associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama, on 7 January 1891 and grew up in Eatonville, Florida, one of the first all-Black incorporated towns in the United States.

She studied at Howard University, Barnard College and Columbia University. At Barnard she was a student of anthropologist Franz Boas.

Hurston conducted anthropological and folklore research in the American South and the Caribbean. Her non-fiction work Mules and Men (1935) collected African American folktales, while Tell My Horse (1938) explored traditions in Haiti and Jamaica.

Her novels include Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939) and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948). Their Eyes Were Watching God is her best-known work and has become a classic of African American literature.

Hurston also wrote short stories, essays, and plays. In later life she worked as a teacher and journalist. She died in Fort Pierce, Florida, on 28 January 1960.