By linking Hurston’s work to her Florida experiences, the authors explicate her love of black culture and her attitude toward the lot of women in a man’s world. An important contribution to the Hurston revival. –Booklist

Following years of neglect, Zora Neale Hurston’s status in American letters is restored: she is now recognized as one of the foremost African-American writers of the twentieth century–an artist of the Harlem Renaissance and a native Florida writer. Zora in Florida focuses on the place that nurtured and inspired her work, the frontier wilderness of central Florida and the all-black town of Eatonville.

Two chapters are devoted to her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, set almost entirely in Florida. Others discuss her work for the WPA in Florida; Tracks on the Road, her autobiography; and Mules and Men, her collection of Florida folklore gathered under the direction of anthropologist Franz Boas. The book also treats Hurston’s lesser-known works such as the play Color Struck and Tell My Horse, her first-person account of fieldwork in Haiti. The legal troubles, professional eclipse, and personal opprobrium Hurston endured late in life are discussed in the final chapter.