Download Zora Neale Hurston Bio and Background Information

Zora Neale Hurston:
Biographical and Background Information
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Early Life
Hurston is born on January 7, 1891, in Alabama.
o Though 1891 is her real birth year, she usually claims 1901 as her birth year, making
herself 10 years younger.
o On her 2nd marriage license she claims 1910 as her year of birth.
She is the 5th of 8 children.
Her father is a carpenter, sharecropper, and Baptist preacher.
Her mother, with whom she is very close, is a schoolteacher and pushes her children to
excel.
When Hurston is very young, the family moves to Eatonville, Florida.
o Eatonville is famous for being the first incorporated black town in America.
Family Problems
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Hurston’s mother dies when she is 9.
Hurston’s father is unaffectionate and cold.
o He remarries months after his wife’s death.
o The family is broken up.
Hurston is sent away to boarding school and to live with various relatives.
College and the Harlem Renaissance
Hurston attends Howard University.
Her first publication is a short story in an on-campus literary magazine.
Hurston leaves Howard and goes to NYC.
Hurston arrives in NYC just as the Harlem Renaissance is gaining popularity.
o The Harlem Renaissance is the rise of African-American culture in 1920s America. It
consists of all kinds of artists, including writers, musicians, and dancers.
o Hurston quickly becomes popular with the Harlem Renaissance crowd, though some
people are shocked by her antics, which include the taboo activity of smoking in public.
o Hurston befriends Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman (2 influential leaders of the
H.R.) and starts a magazine called Fire! with them.
 They publish only one issue due to a lack of money.
 Hurston decides to branch out on her own, into collecting folklore.
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Folklore, Friendships, and Fame
Hurston travels to Florida to collect “Negro” folklore for a novel.
o She meets with resistance from locals, runs out of money, and returns to NY.
Hurston returns to Florida.
o She succeeds in her research and publishes Mules and Men.
Hurston writes a play with Langston Hughes.
o Hurston claims full ownership and tries to copyright the play on her own.
 She and Hughes are no longer friends.
Hurston travels to Jamaica and Haiti for work.
o She writes Their Eyes Were Watching God in 7 weeks, inspired by her relationship
with the mysterious “P.M.P.”, her perfect love, who she later abandons.
Receives an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Morgan State College.
Publishes her acclaimed autobiography in 1941.
Receives Howard University’s Distinguished Alumni Award.
Controversy
In 1948, Hurston is accused of molesting a 10 year old boy and arrested.
o Eventually charges are dropped.
 The boy was mentally disturbed.
Hurston remains embarrassed by the bad press and becomes depressed and suicidal.
Hurston takes a public stance against desegregation, claiming that blacks don’t need white
America or its education system.
o Her former allies call her a traitor.
o Her literary works lose popularity and are rejected.
o Hurston starts work as a maid and then a librarian.
 She is fired from her librarian job and moves to a small cabin in Florida where
she grows her own food.
The End
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Hurston has a stroke in 1959.
o Weak and alone, Hurston enters St. Lucie County Welfare Home.
She dies on January 28, 1960, of heart disease, and is buried in an unmarked grave in a
segregated cemetery.
o Years later, Alice Walker discovers and marks Hurston’s grave. She also starts a
revival of Hurston’s literary popularity.