Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters (Paperback)

~ Carla Kaplan Ph.D. (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Whatever happened to Zora Neale Hurston? In the 1930s her stories, novels, folklore studies, and plays were all over the bestseller lists. By the '60s she was forgotten--a reversal of fortune captured in the extraordinary collection Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters.

Why did Hurston's star fade? Simple weariness, her correspondence suggests. She was happier, it seems, tilling her Florida garden than revealing her soul to the world. She was also not shy of crossing swords with the likes of W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes, and in a time of growing militancy and the awakening civil rights movement Hurston became increasingly conservative, developing political stances that, editor Kaplan writes, "have often baffled her admirers." Hurston developed a pen-stilling, probably ungrounded suspicion that anything she wrote would be stolen by other writers, who would "then hate me for being alive to make their pretensions out a lie. And then take all kinds of steps to head me off."

Having enjoyed early fame, Hurston died alone and in poverty. This well-assembled and very welcome book traces her sad path, and it adds much to our understanding of the once-neglected writer. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Many of the questions that Hurston scholars have asked are addressed, and occasionally answered, in this momentous collection of letters by one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance: Why did she constantly alter her age? Did she take a job as a maid toward the end of her life out of desperation or, as she claimed, for a lark? Why did she switch from writing about blacks to writing about whites? And why didn't she ever write anything about her teen years? Kaplan, a leading Hurston scholar at the University of Southern California, calls the letters "one of the few existing sources of personal commentary by a black female intellectual on American life and literature." Spanning the 1920s to the 1950s, Hurston's letters reveal an energetic writer of many voices. The collection includes confiding, sharp-tongued missives to close friends Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten; correspondence with Franz Boas, one of the fathers of American anthropology and Hurston's mentor at Barnard College; and her saccharine (and perhaps ironic) notes of gratitude and supplication to wealthy white patron Charlotte Osgood Mason. A portrait emerges of a heterodox woman who alienated many of her supporters with her increasingly conservative politics and was hampered all her life by financial troubles and romantic disappointments. At 864 pages, this volume contains numerous mundane letters, but it is a comprehensive document of the notoriously unself-revealing woman, beautifully executed. Illus.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 912 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (December 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385490364
• ISBN-13: 978-0385490368
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #493,334 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book revealed more than a life...The legend continues, January 29, 2003

By	Alvin C. Romer "The Jackal" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters (Hardcover)

Putting words to paper, from writing letters, notes, or even a book often epitomizes the need to garner those thoughts that should be preserved lest we forget that when done right, can be worth the work. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters, edited by Karla Kaplan captivates an anthology revealing contradictions and conjectures of a woman who was the most brazenly impious of the Harlem literary avant-garde, and who never fit happily within any political group. This is truly a big book at 880 pages, certainly not one to read verbatim. Even in bulk, the substance therein is worth spending time getting a gist of what was on her mind while appealing to the personalities that she directed the letters to. Ironically, I used a unique method to get more out of this tome by reading it in tandem with Wrapped In Rainbows, a biography written by journalist Valerie Boyd. By doing it this way, I was able to make direct reference to certain passages outlined in the biography whenever emphasis was made to specific letters written. This book has a character of its own, and allows you to feel the essence of Zora herself. The fact that Zora was quoted often enough to be elevated to legendary status, and what you read therein is Zora at her best. The letters were more than 500 in all, written through the eyes of a woman who always had something to say and said it vociferously.

I personally feel that her life in letters reveal more about her than perhaps the entire body of her published works combined, especially since books that were considered autobiographical didn't reveal nearly as much as they should have. Her tone and tenor for the most part was vivacious illustrating wit, irony, satire, and quirky anecdotes that were evident in some capacity as she conveyed her thoughts. The subjects of her intent were to authoritative figures such as Carl Van Vecten, Lanston Hughes, Franz Boaz, Dorothy West, W.E.B. DuBois, Alain Locke, and many others..And you could see what gave her spunk. The true essence of the book other than giving you what you already know about Zora, would be other facets of her personality. I was able to get views of different transitional periods as she endeavored to reinvent herself whenever the mood struck. To wit: Her years as a Barnard College undergrad; Turbulent years trying to conform to Columbia University studying under Franz Boaz; Zora the twice honored Guggenheim fellow; Zora the folklorist; and, Zora in total chaos.

To suffer bitterly and not be considered within the public domain for acceptability, A Life In Letters reads like a gigantic reference manual with gobs of information, a well-documented glossary of the people, places, events, and institutions meticulously annotated by Ms Kaplan. Check out how each decade is introduced by an essay on societal and personal points that distinguished Zora relative to that specific time frame. This is a fine, well put together, if not revealing work into the intimate psyche about this brilliant and complex woman who all acknowledge now of being way ahead of her time. Reading this book, Hurston fans will slake thirst, appease hunger, and get a better flavor to what has been cooked up about her....real or imagined. What better way to shed light than to illuminate periphery than with the vivid letters she wrote?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zora Writ Large, March 6, 2005

By	Speed Racer - See all my reviews

You'll fall in love with Zora through the letters that she wrote from the early 20s until her death in 1960. A compelling and fascinating woman who didn't leave much unsaid. The letters still brim with vitality and energy and reflect the character of a woman way ahead of her time.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Writing Spirit, March 6, 2005

By	Melanie Gilbert (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Zora Neale Hurston told her life story through the many novels and plays she wrote, but she also told it through the incredible volume of letters she wrote to friends and supporters as well as to her enemies and detractors. She was a prolific letter writer whose main theme was always on her public life of writing.

Through Kaplan's "A Life in Letters," Hurston reveals all the joys and frustrations, the highs and lows of a writing life. They also reveal her constant struggles, despite critical acclaim, to make ends meet.

But this woman loved to write and loved an audience. Her letters are inside proof of her amazing talent and joyful, triumphant will. They very clearly convey her belief that words and stories can transform people and shape events.

It's a complex and impressive book to read. Kaplan organizes the letters by decade and provides a personal and professional context for each chapter through scholarly introductions and extensive footnotes. Even some 50 years after her death, the tone and flavor in Hurston's letters are so charged and immediate you almost want to drop her a line. Who knows? This woman's spirit was so strong, she may even write back.