Zora Neale Hurston Biography

Zora Neale Hurston was an African American writer acknowledged for her short stories, being a folklorist, and an anthropologist. Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7, 1891. She was daughter to two former slaves. “At the age of three her family moved to Eatonville, Florida.” (manythings.org). Like many aspects of her personal life and upbringing, the place she spent most of her life appeared in one of her later stories. As a young girl Hurston’s mind was “opened to literature after she was gifted a number of books from northern school teachers when they visited Eatonville.” (en.wikipedia.org). Perhaps this is the moment that spurred her aspiration to become a writer. Whatever it was, Hurston certainly turned out to be a success

It was there that she published her first short stories. These stories were mainly about black folklore and as well as life in Eatonville. (manythigns.org). There is certainty that the folklores that Hurston used were the picked up from her childhood in Eatonville which was at the time a town occupied solely by black people. Regardless of how she garnered the folklores, here stories were recognized and “were published in newspapers and magazines” (chdr.cah.ucf.edu). This all occurred during the twenties and that was the era that rose her to fame. All throughout the twenties Hurston spent her time studying. She took part in the Harlem Renaissance. Her stories and legacy fit right in because it was a period of discover for many African Americans. According to manythings.org, “Hurston became the first black student to attend Barnard College in New York. This is where she became interested in anthropology and studied with anthropologist Franz Boas. In following years, Zora Neale Hurston published her first book, "Jonah's Gourd Vine," in nineteen thirty-four. The story takes place in a small Florida town. It is about two people similar to her

She explored another side of the African culture that was not present with the descendants of Africans in America. After her studies Hurston still took to writing to showcase here newly learned information. Her stories still had parallels with the surrounding in which she grew up and were fused with African culture. While in Haiti, she wrote her second book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was published in 1937. This piece was widely considered her most important work. It is a novel that depicts a black woman’s quest to find herself, who could also be interpreted as Hurston who may have been trying to find herself through her many years of study and