The National Endowment for the Arts is featuring Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" as one of their Big Read initiative books.

"It was a spring afternoon in West Florida.  Janie had spent most of the day under a blossoming pear tree in the back-yard...It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery.  From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; to snowy  virginity of bloom.  It stirred her tremendously.  How? Why? It was like a flute some forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why?  This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears.  The rose of the world was breathing out smell."
—from Their Eyes Were Watching God
 

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Zora Neale Hurston, 1891-1960

An intellectual and spiritual foremother to generations and generations of black women and writers in general, Zora Neale Hurston's inspiration came from the records and broadcasts of the everyday idiomatic communication of her people.  The inspiration of her people allowed her to write four novels, two collections of folklore, an autobiography and dozens of plays, essays and articles.

At age 14 Zora's mother, Lucy, past away forcing Zora to leave home to become a wardrobe girl in an all white traveling troupe called Gilbert and Sullivan.  While working with the show Zora completed her education at the Morgan academy in Baltimore supplying herself with a variety of jobs.  Heeding her mother's encouragement to "jump at de sun," Zora left Baltimore to go start a carrier in New York.  She studied with the father of American anthropology, Dr. Franz Boas, to help her with writing.

Even with her publication success, Zora struggled for financial security.  Most of her books were published during the Depression, so money was a constant problem.  With all her financial struggles it is no wonder that Zora died penniless after a stoke on January 28, 1960.

I would like to thank my student aide, Dakota Herrera, for writing this up for me.