Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston [Hardcover]

Lucy Hurston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2004

One of the most beguiling and captivating figures of the twentieth century, Zora Neale Hurston gained fame as a bestselling author, anthropologist, journalist, and playwright. Her remarkable life is presented as never before in SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN. An interactive package tracing Hurston’s journey from Eatonville, Florida, to her student days at Barnard College, to her emergence as a literary star and bestselling author and cultural icon during the Harlem Renaissance and her subsequent decline into obscurity, it contains beautifully crafted facsimiles of historic papers, handwritten notes, photographs, and much more.

Readers will be able to hold in their hands the charred draft notes for the novel, Seraph on the Suwannee; open a Christmas card Hurston created for her friends; and read letters illuminating her relationships with intimate friends and fellow writers like Langston Hughes and Dorothy West. SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN also provides the extraordinary opportunity to hear Hurston’s own voice talking about her life as a writer on several radio interviews, and, in a powerful interlude, singing a passionate rendition of a railroad worker’s chant she learned while collecting folklore in the Deep South.

Interest in Hurston continues to soar. Her most famous book, Their Eyes Are Watching God, is now in development at Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, and is also being adapted for Broadway. The sales of her books attest to an ever-growing audience. Whether they are discovering Hurston for the first time or are devoted fans, readers will find hours of entertainment in SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This photo- and facsimile-filled volume offers a marvelous multi-media introduction to one of the most celebrated American writers of the 20th century. Readers can follow Zora Neale Hurston’s life journey, from Eatonville, Fla., (map of the town included) where she was born in 1891, to her years as a student at Howard University (read her first published story, "John Redding Goes to Sea," reproduced from the campus literary magazine), and then to New York City and Barnard College, where she was the only black student at the time. Copies of typescripts of poems (some never before published) are included, and her success as part of the Harlem Renaissance is touched upon, as well (read her notes for various works and see the cover of the Saturday Review featuring Hurston). But perhaps the item that most brings Hurston to life is the book’s CD of her speaking and singing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the simplest terms, this book is a brief biography of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the outstanding figures in the Harlem Renaissance who has come to be recognized as a major voice in twentieth-century literature. It was written by Hurston's niece and is "the first collaborative family-sanctioned project on the life and legend." The text is a cogent and spirited conjuring of Hurston's vibrant personality and estimation of her work's place and importance, but the incredible illustrative matter is the real draw and what makes the book so amazing. The pages are full of arresting photographs as well as many pieces of removable memorabilia and writings in Hurston's own hand; these "artifacts" have been reproduced so exactly that readers will feel as if they were holding the actual items. Glued into the gutter of one page, for instance, is a beautiful envelope with the stains and smears the original one obviously bears, inside of which are folded a short story reproduced from the pages of Opportunity magazine and a scrap of wrapping paper on which Hurston typed a poem. Further on is an immaculate reproduction of a holiday card Hurston made for her friends: again, looking and feeling exactly like the original. On another page is a pull-out cover of a Saturday Review issue featuring Hurston on the cover. And then there is a facsimile of an entire sketchbook in which she kept notes for her novel Herod the Great. And more and more. Will librarians view this biography-scrapbook as a nightmare, though? Obviously, its handling will have to be carefully supervised to prevent the removable items from disappearing, but the responsible, literary-minded patron should not be deprived of the intimate pleasure this book affords. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (October 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385493754
• ISBN-13: 978-0385493758
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zora Talks! (and sings too), November 21, 2004

By 

Andre M. "brnn64" (Mt. Pleasant, SC United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (Hardcover)

Lucy Hurston (Zora's neice) produces a fascinating multimedia item for fans of the grand dame of Afrian-American folklore and literature. A short family bio of her life include removable items such as facsimilies of her letters and actual writings (including surviving notes from her lost book on Herod the Great). But the real gem here is the CD. Zora speaks in a 1943 radio interview and her down-home folksy speaking style truly compliments the stories she tells (especially about her being a "fat little baby"). Then we have a 1939 recording of her singing some Florida folksongs that would have probably been lost had this not been recorded. A most fascinating listen.

Just waiting now for a documentary with some of the films she made in the 20s, 30s, and 40s while recording folklore. What a joy for Zora fans.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Both a sympathetic summary and scrapbook of Hurson't life, December 3, 2004

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (Hardcover)

In 2003, fans and scholars of Zora Neale Hurston's work were given the invaluable opportunity to rediscover this writer's life and authorial genius through a much-awaited collection of her letters. This year, that same audience is treated to another book of admittedly different purpose and scope. Comprising only 39 pages of text, Lucy Anne Hurston's SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN offers a concise and compassionate portrait of Zora Neale Hurston as a gifted writer, a dedicated anthropologist, an impetuous lover, a reticent maid and, perhaps most of all, a fierce and uncompromising individual. Therefore, this book provides the novice with a clear and accessible digest of Hurston that will then, ideally, enable one to conduct further, more in-depth investigation.

But what really distinguishes SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN from a run-of-the-mill digest are its many valuable reproductions of photographs, contemporary reviews, and handwritten manuscripts. All of these cherished documents are either laid out clearly on every over-sized page, or are folded carefully into a sewn envelope attached to the page. Whether one examines a duplication of the author's handwritten chapter "Love" from DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD, or studies the hand-penned poem of the same title, or thrills to see "John Redding Goes to Sea" as it looked in the May 1921 issue of The Stylus magazine, SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN provides all readers of all levels with a fascinating glimpse of the material evidence of a by-gone era.

If, as an armchair historian of Hurston's life and work, I discovered little in the text that I didn't already know and occasionally (as in the case of Zora's artist-patron relationship with Charlotte Osgood Mason), noted a need for development, I was nonetheless graced with so many precious artifacts from the Hurston estate. There is even a CD attached to the inside cover where one can hear the author being interviewed, reading from various excerpts of her work and performing her legendary "crow dance."

In its dimensions and design, then, Lucy Hurston's literary biography of her Aunt Zora is as much a scrapbook/photo album as it is a sympathetic summary of one of America's most cherished writers.

--- Reviewed by Tony Leuzzi, Monroe Community College

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating keepsake, January 14, 2005

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (Hardcover)

Lucy Anne Hurston, the neice of Zora Neale Hurston, in a collaborative effort with the Estate of the great writer, has produced a beautiful tribute to her aunt and also a collector's item for fans of Zora Neale Hurston. Not only does it include biographical sketches of the famous author, but also live interviews, as well as a CD of folk songs sung by Hurston.

The pages of this book are rich in heritage, painting a kaleidoscope of her life. Touching on her childhood, her days attending Howard University, and of course her writing, the reader is able to see that even though Zora Neale Hurston wrote about memorable characters, she too could have been one of the characters she wrote about. Because of the replications of original letters, maps, photos and writings, the reader is given a more detailed account of her life, told by someone who knew and loved her. Each of these are in pull-out sleeves and envelopes, easily removed from the book to allow closer inspection upon, or displayed vividly on the full color and black and white pages of the book.

SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN is a fascinating keepsake of a writer who means so much to not only the Harlem Renaissance and to African-American readers and writers, but also to literature as we know it. Through this collection, readers are offered an intimate portrait of a literary legend.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers