Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston had limited literary success in her lifetime. She started out her career winning writing contests in Opportunity magazine. She published Mules and Men in 1935, which was a series of African American folk tales. She also wrote two plays called From Sun to Sun and The Great Day. Jonahs Guard Vine was the first novel that she published in 1934. She then practiced voodoo in Haiti, where she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God. She published Dusks Tracks on a Dirt Road which was an autobiography in 1942. Unfortunately her career and reputation came to an end when she was falsely accused of molesting a nine year old boy. She had proof that the accusation was false on her pass port, but the rumors ruined her. She died from a stroke while living in poverty in Fort Peirce, Florida in 1960. Her grave remained unmarked until 1973.