210 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Present1931, Hurston’s relationship with Sheen ended in early- Her second marriage to Albert Price III, who was 23
years old when they married in June 1939 in Fernandina,
Florida, was short-lived also. Divorce papers were fi led in
early 1940, and aft er a brief reconciliation, the divorce was
fi nalized on November 9, 1943. Th ere has been speculation
that both marriages ended as a result of her fi erce indepen-
dence and commitment to her career.
Th e 1930s were Hurston’s most prolifi c and productive
years as a writer, although much of her writing received
mixed reviews. Many of her major works were published
during this decade, including Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934),
Mules and Men (1935), Th eir Eyes Were Watching God
(1937), Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica
(1938), and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). Hurston
possessed an exuberant personality, which she was able to
bring to bear in her writing. She oft en elected to write in
a narrative style that combined the scientifi c voice of her
formal training with a voice of a writer who had no qualms
about taking creative license with the stories of her infor-
mants. Some critics frowned on this practice, fi nding it dif-
fi cult to ascertain where Hurston’s creative writing stopped
and the authentic lore began.
Hurston’s writing embodies storytelling as a distinct
cultural marker of the communities she describes. While
carrying on the traditions of orality, Hurston skillfully
translates spoken communication into the written medium
of literature. Performing stories through written texts is ul-
timately Hurston’s genius. Hurston was able to set down on
paper the performed behaviors she observed while mov-
ing between the role of insider (subject) and outsider (one
who objectifi es).Hurston adopted a storytelling strategy to
mimic the very folklore she sought to articulate for a mass
audience by positioning herself as an insider and product of
the environment she researched. Hurston’s choices were re-
buff ed by many of her fellow contemporaries of the Renais-
sance, who also sometimes accused Hurston of maintaining
a sense of ambiguity and silence when confronting issues of
race and politics. She oft en elected to focus on individual
potentiality, while avoiding the larger problems of race that
many of her contemporaries were dedicated to exposing.
Hurston traveled extensively, negotiating territory be-
tween Florida, New Orleans, and the Caribbean as she set
about the work of collecting tales, jokes, dances, and music
on front porches and in jook joints as both participant and
observer. She was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships
as the only black student in the fall of 1925. While at Bar-
nard, Hurston studied anthropology under the guidance of
famed anthropologist Dr. Franz Boas, who arranged, upon
her graduation in 1928, for a fellowship to collect Negro
folklore in the South. Supported by the Association for the
Study of Negro Life and History, this initial trip left little
to show for her eff orts. However, in future trips, Hurston
developed into a more mature and thoughtful scholar who
gained success in her ventures and was able to discover
the literary potential in celebrating the culture that had
birthed her.
Support for additional research trips came to Hur-
ston through Mrs. Rufus Osgood Mason, a patron of the
arts (called “Godmother” by black artists Mason supported
fi nancially) who provided a stipend of $200 a month for
two years and additional sporadic support for fi ve years.
It was also during this time that Hurston met the fi rst of
her two husbands, Herbert Sheen, whom she married on
May 19, 1927. Although they did not divorce until July 7,
Zora Neale Hurston, renowned scholar and author, was a cele-
brated fi gure of the Harlem Renaissance (Library of Congress)