Zora Neale Hurston : Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings :

Zora Neale Hurston : Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings : Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles (The Library of America, 75)

This Library of America volume, with its companion, brings together for the first time all of the best writing of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most significant twentieth-century American writers, in one authoritative set.

â€œFolklore is the arts of the people,â€ Hurston wrote, â€œbefore they find out that there is any such thing as art.â€ A pioneer of African-American ethnography who did graduate study in anthropology with the renowned Franz Boas, Hurston devoted herself to preserving the black folk heritage. InÂ Mules and MenÂ (1935), the first book of African-American folklore written by an African American, she returned to her native Florida and to New Orleans to record stories and sermons, blues and work songs, childrenâ€™s games, courtship rituals, and formulas of voodoo doctors. This classic work is presented here with the original illustrations by the great Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias.

Tell My HorseÂ (1938), part ethnography, part travel book, vividly recounts the survival of African religion in Jamaican obeah and Haitian voodoo in the 1930s. Keenly alert to political and intellectual currents, Hurston went beyond superficial exoticism to explore the role of these religious systems in their societies. The text is illustrated by twenty-six photographs, many of them taken by Hurston. Her extensive transcriptions of Creole songs are here accompanied by new translations.

A special feature of this volume is Hurstonâ€™s controversial 1942 autobiography,Â Dust Tracks on a Road. With consultation by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is presented here for the first time as she intended, restoring passages omitted by the original because of political controversy, sexual candor, or fear of libel. Included in an appendix are four additional chapters, one never published, which represent earlier stages of Hurstonâ€™s conception of the book.

Twenty-two essays, from â€œThe Eatonville Anthologyâ€ (1926) to â€œCourt Order Canâ€™t Make Races Mixâ€ (1955), demonstrate the range of Hurstonâ€™s concerns as they cover subjects from religion, music, and Harlem slang to Jim Crow and American democracy.

The chronology of Hurstonâ€™s life prepared for this edition sheds fresh light on many aspects of her career. In addition, this volume contains detailed notes and a brief essay on the texts.
Country USA
Brand Library of America
Manufacturer Library of America
Binding Hardcover
Color Black
ReleaseDate 1995-02-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780940450844

Country	USA
Brand	Library of America
Manufacturer	Library of America
Binding	Hardcover
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	1995-02-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780940450844

Zora Neale Hurston : Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings : Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles (The Library of America, 75)

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