Author Biography

By: Margaret Lindsay

 

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7, 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama to parents John and Lucy Hurston. After the death of her mother, Hurston's father remarried to a woman that did not support Hurston and her siblings. This forced Zora to have to work to pay her way through high school and college. She spent her early years writing and publishing books like Mules and Men and her most famous, Their Eyes Were Watching God. While living in Harlem in the 1920s, Zora became friends with famous writers Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. Hurston later wrote a play called Mule-Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life with Langston Hughes (Zora 2).

            Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. She chose to write her novel using the vernacular southern African American English to degrade the Racial Uplift Program. Along with choosing to use the southern vernacular, the women in Hurston's novel were made out to be very beautiful because she did not want to censor their sexuality. The strongest inspiration for Hurston's writing of Their Eyes Were Watching God was the relationship between Zora Hurston and Percival Punter. Hurston wrote her novel in just three weeks after the conclusion of her relationship with Punter. The romance between Janie and Teacake is based on the relationship between the two

            As Hurston grew older her reputation and health began its downfall. In 1948, she was accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy, " Despite being able to prove that she was out of the country at the time of the incident, she suffered greatly from this false accusation" (Zora 1). After this incident, came the Brown vs Board of Education trial, Hurston's comments toward the trial were critiqued heavily and publishing became difficult for her. Nearing her death in January of 1960, while living in the St. Lucie County Welfare Home, Hurston suffered from several strokes (Zora 1). She died alone and poor and was buried with an unmarked grave. Hurston's legacy was rediscovered ten years later by writer Alice Walker. Zora Hurston's writing became inspiration to a great number of writers.

Bibliography

"Zora Neale Hurston." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 11 2013, 11:02 http://www.biography.com/people/zora-neale-hurston-9347659.

"Zora Neale Hurston." The Official Website of. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2013.