10 Intriguing Details About Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston, an iconic American author and folklorist, carved a unique niche in literature. Once celebrated, then criticized, and later revered as “the patron saint of Black women writers,” her influence extends to luminaries like Toni Morrison and Bernardine Evaristo. Born on January 7, 1891, here are lesser-known facts about this remarkable writer.

1. Hurston’s latest book saw publication six decades after her passing.

In 2020, a compilation of Zora Neale Hurston’s short stories, penned between 1927 and 1937, was released as Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance. Additionally, in 2022, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and scholar Genevieve West reissued an essay collection titled You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays. The New York Times, in its review, praised the 2022 work for “deepening our appreciation of Hurston, a visionary writer whose work transcended her era.”

Although numerous authors have seen their works published after death, Hurston’s story stands out as her contributions were nearly forgotten—until Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, played pivotal roles in reviving her legacy.

2. Hurston’s out-of-print works were rediscovered over a decade after her passing.

At the time of Hurston’s death on January 28, 1960, much of her writing was no longer in circulation. Her work regained attention in 1975 when Alice Walker penned an article for Ms. Magazine titled “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” [PDF] (later renamed “Looking for Zora”). This led to the reissue of Hurston’s four novels—Jonah’s Gourd Vine; Seraph on the Suwanee; Moses, Man of the Mountain; and Their Eyes Were Watching God—along with several short stories and plays.

3. Alice Walker posed as Zora Neale Hurston’s niece during her quest to locate the author’s unmarked grave.

Alice Walker’s deep fascination with Hurston stemmed partly from her college years, during which she encountered no works by Black authors. While researching for her own story, she stumbled upon Hurston’s folk tales, sparking her determination to find the writer’s unmarked resting place. In 1973, Walker visited Eatonville, Florida, Hurston’s hometown, and temporarily claimed to be her niece to gather details [PDF]. There, she met Mathilda Moseley, a former classmate of Hurston’s and a storyteller featured in Mules and Men. Walker’s journey culminated at the Garden of Heavenly Rest in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Hurston spent her final days.

4. Alice Walker mistakenly engraved the wrong birth year on Zora Neale Hurston’s tombstone.

Both Walker and Hurston’s biographer, Robert Hemenway, mistakenly listed 1901 instead of 1891 as Hurston’s birth year. This error traces back to Hurston herself, who often fabricated details about her life. After her mother’s passing, the 13-year-old Hurston was forced to leave school when her father refused to support her education. She left home and spent years working as a maid for an actress in a traveling theater troupe.

At 26, to finish high school, Hurston claimed she was born in 1901, shaving a decade off her age to qualify for enrollment. Later, she subtracted 19 years from her birth year when marrying her second husband, who was significantly younger. These quirks led The Guardian’s Gary Younge to fondly label Hurston’s autobiography as “a work of fiction.”

5. Zora Neale Hurston frequently set her stories in Eatonville, Florida—though it wasn’t actually her birthplace.

Hurston’s assertion that Eatonville, Florida, was her hometown was another embellishment in her life story. She was actually born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved to Eatonville, the first incorporated Black town in the U.S., as a young child. Despite this, Eatonville became the backdrop for many of her novels and short stories.

6. Zora Neale Hurston made history as the first Black woman to graduate from Barnard College.

In 1928, Hurston earned an anthropology degree from Barnard College, becoming the first Black woman to achieve this milestone at the institution. During her time there, she studied under the renowned scientist Franz Boas. With his support, she secured a fellowship that enabled her to return to Florida and gather folklore, which later enriched her works like Mules and Men and Tell My Horse.

7. Her friendship with Langston Hughes was complex and multifaceted.

After earning her degree from Barnard College, Hurston pursued graduate studies in anthropology at Columbia University. Residing in Harlem, she met and formed a close bond with Langston Hughes, a celebrated poet, playwright, and social activist, in 1925.

In July 1927, Hurston and Hughes embarked on a joint expedition through the Deep South, inspired by a chance meeting outside a train station in Mobile, Alabama. They explored rural Georgia and Alabama, documenting local folk tales. Both were supported by Charlotte Osgood Mason, a Manhattan socialite who provided monthly stipends, though they later ended their professional relationships with her (Hurston reportedly maintained a personal connection).

Despite Hurston once calling Hughes “the closest person to me on Earth,” their friendship fractured in 1931 after co-writing the play Mule Bone, based on Hurston’s short story, “The Bone of Contention.” Disputes arose when Hughes tried to produce the play independently in Pennsylvania, and tensions were further fueled by his conflicts with Mason. Their estrangement lasted until Hurston’s death.

8. Zora Neale Hurston documented the story of the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade.

During her 1927 Deep South journey with Hughes, Hurston visited Plateau, Alabama, to interview 86-year-old Oluale Kossola (also known as Cudjo Lewis or Cudjoe Lewis), the final known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. She captured Lewis’s account of his capture, the horrors of the Middle Passage, his enslavement in Alabama, and his life post-Emancipation.

Lewis recounted how he and his fellow captives formed deep bonds during their grueling journey to the U.S., spending months together. Their separation in Alabama, after being sold to different enslavers, was devastating. “We spent 70 days crossing the ocean from Africa, and then they separated us. That’s why we cried,” he told Hurston. “Our sorrow was so heavy it felt unbearable. Sometimes I thought I might die in my sleep dreaming of my mother.”

In 1931, Hurston finished Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” detailing Lewis’s life. Initially rejected by publishers, the work was finally published in 2018.

9. Hurston’s most celebrated novel faced significant criticism upon its release.

Hurston, a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, reached the peak of her literary fame in the 1930s. However, praise turned to scorn with the release of Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937. The novel, which follows Janie Crawford, a young, working-class Black woman, and her “evolving sense of self through three marriages,” drew harsh criticism from male contemporaries and critics. Its portrayal of a Southern town devoid of lynchings, abuse, or relentless labor led some to accuse Hurston of glossing over racial realities and catering to white audiences by echoing minstrel stereotypes. In a 1937 review, Richard Wright, author of Native Son, wrote:

“Miss Hurston willingly perpetuates in her novel the minstrel tradition imposed on Black people in theater, designed to amuse white audiences. Her characters eat, laugh, cry, work, and kill, moving predictably within the narrow, safe boundaries America prefers for Black lives: between humor and sorrow … The novel’s vivid imagery lacks depth, theme, or message. It speaks not to Black readers but to white ones, catering to their condescending tastes. She highlights the ‘quaint’ aspects of Black life that elicit pitying smiles from the ‘superior’ race.”

As if foreseeing such critiques, Hurston wrote in a 1928 essay, “I am not tragically colored. No profound sorrow fills my soul or hides behind my eyes … I do not weep for the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”

10. Their Eyes Were Watching God achieved widespread recognition over four decades after its initial release.

Their Eyes Were Watching God fell out of print shortly after publication and remained largely forgotten for almost three decades. Hurston’s career never fully rebounded from the initial criticism. By the 1950s, she was working as a maid in Miami. At the time of her death in 1960, she was destitute and residing in a welfare facility. Nearly two decades later, the book’s legacy was re-evaluated.

Following Alice Walker’s influential essay, Their Eyes Were Watching God was republished in 1978 and is now hailed as a timeless literary masterpiece ahead of its era. A film adaptation, produced by Oprah Winfrey and featuring Halle Berry, premiered in 2005.