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Arts and Culture
One of the last photos of Zora Neale Hurston, taken in the late fifties, is heartrending. Once renowned as a handsome figure who could dominate any room, she sits outside a Florida bungalow, a bloated old woman living in poverty, chatting with locals. As sanguine as she looks, we can’t help wishing that she had been in New York, plugging her latest novel on
The Jack Paar Show. But all her books were out of print, and she was supporting herself on piddling jobs, including working as a maid (not for the first time). She seems to have reached the state of mind that her character Janie describes at the end of her masterwork,
Library of Congress. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection
Few authors have had the distinction of having their upcoming book being dubbed one of the most anticipated releases of the year and maybe only one has earned that type of accolade six decades after their death. But American writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston’s literary legacy is a class apart. Initially celebrated, later vilified, and posthumously canonized as “the patron saint of Black women writers,” her work has inspired the likes of Toni Morrison and Bernardine Evaristo. Here are some things you might not have known about the author, who was born on January 7, 1891.