Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was born in Eatonville, Florida, and educated at Howard University and Barnard College. Hurston was a novelist, short story writer, journalist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Hurston’s writing is straightforward and often focuses on the lives of Southern blacks. After a decline of her literary stock in the middle of the last century, her reputation was revived in the 1970s, in large part through the efforts of Alice Walker. Hurston didn’t live to see her work renewed; she died in obscurity.
Major works by Zora Neale Hurston
Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934, novel)
Mules and Men (1935, folklore)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937, novel)
Tell My Horse (1938, memoir)
Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939, novel)
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942, memoir)
Seraph on the Suwanee (1948, novel)
The Sanctified Church: The Folklore Writings of Zora Neale Hurston (1981)
Spunk: The Selected Stories of Zora Neale Hurston (1985)
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life, with Langston Hughes (1991, play)
Zora Neale Hurston and the Web
This is a good start page from Voices From the Gaps. It contains an excerpt from Their Eyes Were Watching God, a biography, photos, bibliographies, and some links.
Want to read more by Hurston? Well, here’s Hurston’s story "Black Death" in etext for you.
This interview with Hurston biographer Carla Kaplan discusses the author, jazz, the Harlem Renaissance and Hurston’s relationship with her readers.