Zora and Me: The Summoner

by Victoria Bond

  As fate would have it, Zora and I were bookends in each other’s lives. Girls together, we got to be old ladies together, too. Unable to gallivant through the dim forest like we used to, we sat instead in dark theaters and watched movies about what America thought it was and what America aspired to be. Arthritic and heavyset, we gave up swimming and fished instead. On porches, we ate ice cream and read aloud, hearing our own thoughts and feelings and experiences echoed in every web of story we explored. And in my own time, in my own space, I read every single thing that Zora wrote. It was a mirror on the world that raised me, a window on the soul of my best friend, a testament to a mind and a person born ahead of her time. My sincere hope is that, somewhere in these pages, you catch a glimpse of who you are and where you come from, and the web of stories to which you will add your own brightly gleaming threads. Zora would love that. More than anything in this world, I would love that, too.

  To hear Zora Neale Hurston tell it, she was born in Eatonville, Florida, the daughter of a mayor, in 1901, or 1903, or 1910. Even from a young age, Hurston was an inventor of stories, a creator of masks and disguises. In reality, she was born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, the fifth of eight children raised by John and Lucy Hurston. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father, born into slavery, a carpenter and preacher (who did eventually become the mayor of Eatonville).

  Although Alabama was her place of birth, Eatonville, Florida, was the place that truly felt like home to Zora. It was the first incorporated all-black township in the United States, established by twenty-seven African-American men soon after the Emancipation Proclamation. Hurston and her family moved to Eatonville when she was just a toddler, and the thriving community infected her with energy, confidence, and ambition. Hurston’s childhood was idyllic.

  But then in 1904, when Hurston was just thirteen, her mother passed away. Thus began what Zora would later call the “haunted years.” Lucy Hurston had been the one to encourage her daughter to have courageous dreams. John Hurston encouraged his daughter, too, but just as often tried to tame her rambunctious spirit, sometimes harshly. After his wife died, John had little energy or money to devote to his children and grew detached from them emotionally. When he remarried, his new wife and Zora were like oil and water.

  Zora left home after a vicious fight with the new Mrs. Hurston and struggled to finish high school while working a variety of different jobs. One of those jobs was working as a maid to a singer in a traveling theater troupe, an experience that sparked Hurston’s love of performance, a passion that would last the rest of her life. In 1917, she found herself in Baltimore. She was twenty-six and still without her high-school diploma. So Hurston lied about her age, convincing the school that she was sixteen so that she could re-enroll and complete her education. From that point on, Hurston would always present herself as younger than she actually was.

  In 1919, Hurston entered college, first at Howard University and then at Barnard College, where she was the only black student and studied under the famous anthropologist Franz Boas. During these years, her writing began to get recognized. Her first short story, “John Redding Goes to Sea,” was published in Howard University’s literary magazine in 1921.

  In the 1920s, Hurston moved to New York City and became an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance, befriending poet Langston Hughes and singer-actress Ethel Waters, among many other cultural lumina ries. Zora was the life of the party, frequently hosting artists at her home (though she retreated into her room when she needed to get any writing done).

  In 1933, publisher Bertram Lippincott read Hurston’s short story “The Gilded Six-Bits” and inquired as to whether she might be working on a novel. Hurston answered yes — and then set to work writing one, which became Jonah’s Gourd Vine. By 1935, Hurston had her first novel and a collection of southern folktales under her publishing belt.

  In 1936, the travel dust that Hurston’s mother thought must have been sprinkled in her shoes allowed her to leave the shores of North America. After applying for and receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, she traveled to Haiti on the island of Hispaniola and to Jamaica to study indigenous religious practices. In both places, she was a keen observer as well as a full participant in vodoun practices.

  In 1937, Hurston’s most renowned novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published. In that novel, Hurston’s heroine, Janie Crawford, lives a conventionally circumscribed life until she chooses to break out of the mold and live only for herself. Much like Hurston, Janie has her eyes on the horizon and believes in a better life beyond it. The novel has been praised as a classic of black literature and a tribute to the strength of black women.

  Hurston went on to write several other works, including a study of Caribbean voodoo practices, two more novels, and her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road. All in all, she wrote four novels and more than fifty short stories, plays, and essays. Sadly, Hurston never enjoyed any monetary reward for her success during her lifetime. When she died in 1960 at the age of sixty-nine, her neighbors had to take up a collection for the funeral. Hurston was buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce, Florida, because the neighbors hadn’t been able to raise enough funds for a funeral and a gravestone.

  In 1973, a young writer named Alice Walker traveled to Fort Pierce to visit the burial site of the woman who had inspired so many black female authors with her courage and strength: Hurston had insisted on living life on her own terms during a time when most women, and especially black women, had few professional options. “A people do not forget their geniuses,” Walker said, and arranged to have a monument placed, at last, to honor the life and achievements of Zora Neale Hurston.

  1891

  Born in Notasulga, Alabama, the fifth of eight children, to John Hurston, a carpenter and preacher, and Lucy Potts Hurston, a former schoolteacher.

  1894

  The Hurston family moves to Eatonville, Florida, a small all-black community.

  1897

  Hurston’s father is elected mayor of Eatonville.

  1904

  Lucy Potts Hurston dies.

  1917–1918

  Attends Morgan Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, and completes high-school requirements.

  1918

  Works as a waitress at a nightclub and a manicurist at a barbershop that serves only whites.

  1919–1924

  Attends Howard University and receives an associate degree.

  1921

  Publishes her first story, “John Redding Goes to Sea,” in Howard University’s literary magazine.

  1925–1927

  Moves to New York City and attends Barnard College as its only black student. Receives a bachelor of arts degree.

  1927

  Goes to Florida to collect folktales.

  1927

  Marries Herbert Sheen.

  1930–1932

  Organizes the field notes that become Mules and Men.

  1930

  Works on the play Mule Bone with Langston Hughes.

  1931

  Breaks with Langston Hughes over the authorship of Mule Bone.

  1931

  Divorces Sheen.

  1934

  Publishes Jonah’s Gourd Vine, her first novel.

  1935

  Mules and Men, a collection of folklore, is published.

  1936

  Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study West Indian obeah practices. Travels to Jamaica and Haiti.

  While in Haiti, she writes Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks.

  1937

  Their Eyes Were Watching God is published.

  1938

  Tell My Horse is published.

  1939

  Receives an honorary doctor of letters degree from Morgan State College.

  1939

  Marries Albert Price III. They are later divorced.

  1939

  Moses, Man of the Mountain is published.

  1942

  Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road,
is published.

  1947

  Goes to British Honduras to research black communities and writes Seraph on the Suwanee.

  1948

  Seraph on the Suwanee is published.

  1956

  Works as a librarian at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida.

  1958

  Works as a substitute teacher at Lincoln Park Academy in Fort Pierce, Florida.

  1959

  Suffers a stroke and enters the St. Lucie County Welfare Home.

  1960

  Dies in the St. Lucie County Welfare Home. Buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce.

  The Complete Stories (1995)

  Published after her death, this collection features Zora Neale Hurston’s short fiction, which was originally published in literary magazines during her lifetime. Spanning Hurston’s writing career from 1921 to 1955, the compilation showcases the writer’s range, rich language, and development as a storyteller.

  Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)

  Hurston’s autobiography tells the story of her rise from poverty to literary prominence. The writer’s story is told with imagination and exuberance and offers a glimpse into the life of one of America’s most esteemed writers.

  Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-Tales from the Gulf States (2001)

  Originally collected by Hurston in 1927, this volume of folklore passed down through generations offers a glimpse of the African American experience in the South at the turn of the century.

  Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934)

  Hurston’s first published novel. Based loosely on her parents’ lives, it features a preacher and his wife as the main characters.

  Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939)

  An allegory based on the story of the Exodus and blending the Moses of the Old Testament with the Moses of black folklore and song. Narrated in a mixture of biblical rhetoric, black dialect, and colloquial English.

  Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life (1930)

  A collaboration between Hurston and Langston Hughes, this comedic play is set in Eatonville, Florida, and focuses on the lives of two men and the woman who comes between them. Due to a copyright disagreement between Hurston and Hughes, the play was not performed until 1991.

  Mules and Men (1935)

  Gathered by Hurston in the 1930s, the first great collection of black America’s folk world, including oral histories, sermons, and songs, some dating as far back as the Civil War.

  Seraph on the Suwanee (1948)

  A novel that explores the nature of love, faith, and marriage set at the turn of the century among white “Florida Crackers.”

  Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938)

  Hurston’s travelogue of her time spent in Haiti and Jamaica in the 1930s practicing and learning about voodoo ceremonies, customs, and superstitions.

  Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

  The most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in African American literature and the piece of writing for which Zora Neale Hurston is best known. Tells the story of Janie Crawford as she develops a sense of self through three marriages and grows into an independent woman.

  Lies and Other Tall Tales. Adapted and illustrated by Christopher Myers. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

  The Six Fools. Adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas. Illustrated by Ann Tanksley. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

  The Skull Talks Back and Other Haunting Tales. Adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas. Illustrated by Leonard Jenkins. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

  The Three Witches. Adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas. Illustrated by Faith Ringgold. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

  What’s the Hurry, Fox? and Other Animal Stories. Adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

  Now and always, thank you to my husband, Drew Baughman. You made this book possible with your love and insight. Thank you as well to friends who, over the course of nearly five years, read drafts and supported and encouraged me: Allison Pease, Christen Madrazo, Yasmin Dalisay, Charles Davidson, and Dianne Rodgers. To T. R. Simon, thank you for inviting me to cocreate this series; I will always be grateful for your generosity. Thank you to Sarah Haley: your scholarship and dedication to justice inspired so much in this book. To Lucy Hurston, Zora’s niece: your blessing from the start has been good juju. And to my editor, Mary Lee Donovan: There is no way that I can ever repay the debt I owe you. At every turn, you guided my imagination and my pen to something better, something clearer, something truer. To Andrea Tompa: you have my gratitude for your thoughtfulness, especially about character motivations as the key to a sound story. To my grandparents, Charles and Dolores Biot, who have helped to author my life, I will always be grateful to you for my love of stories, history, and the life of the mind. And thank you to Zora Neale Hurston herself, whose life and work, a testament to the beauty, brilliance, and struggle of the African American experience, continues to inspire.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

  Copyright © 2020 by Victoria Bond

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2020

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number pending

  Candlewick Press

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  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

  www.candlewick.com