From Luababa to Polk County Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress

ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1891-1960) wrote numerous dramatic works throughout her long career, but is best known for her fiction and folklore, including her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road (1942), and Mules and Men (1935). She was born and raised in the all-black community of Eatonville, Florida, an experience she tapped for many of her works. As an adult, she lived and traveled widely: in New York City, she was associated with major figures in the Harlem Renaissance, including poet Langston Hughes, and studied with anthropologist Franz Boas; she also studied and traveled in the Caribbean, Central America, California, and throughout the South. Despite the frequency with which her works were published, Hurston always struggled financially. She died in poverty in Fort Pierce, Florida, in 1960.