Milwood Classics Book Club

Before Alice Walker or Toni Morrison, there was Zora Neale Hurston. Anthropologist, Folklorist, documentary filmmaker, ethnographer, essayist, and novelist, Hurston is truly one of history’s most interesting people. From the earliest days of recording technology, she collected firsthand accounts as well as folk tales of African descended people across the United States and Caribbean. She was a contemporary and friend to Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Hughes lived and worked at the epicenter of the Harlem Renaissance.

Born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, by the time of her death in 1960, Hurston had all but been forgotten. She was buried in an unmarked grave. It was Alice Walker (The Color Purple) and fellow academics who helped resurrect the works of Hurston in the 1970s. Their Eyes Were Watching God was reissued in 1978 and has remained in print ever since.

Their Eyes Were Watching God pulls no punches. Based both on Hurston’s life experiences as well as her research in the folklore, language, and traditions of life in the rural south, it is a book that can be hard to read for its honesty. But it is also a work that explored the philosophical nature of love and self-determination.

Over the last fifty years, scholars have argued as to the true meaning of this book. While almost all agree that Hurston’s most famous book is a masterpiece, there remain today many interpretations about what lies inside this work. So, take your opportunity to read what has become one of the most influential works in modern America and come ready with your thoughts for another lively discussion at the Milwood Classics Book Club.

Register for this event to get email updates. Registration is not required to attend.