Awkward, Michael, Ed. New Essays On Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

A scholarly look at the novel, tracing its history from publication in the 1930s, to the critical disdain in the 1960s, to its eventual re-emergence as an acclaimed work in the 1980s and 90s.

Bloom, Harold, Ed. Major Black American Writers Through The Harlem Renaissance. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1995.

Part of a series edited by Bloom, this volume includes biographies and works by Hurston and other important African-American writers who were part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Bloom, Harold, Ed. Zora Neale Hurston: Bloom’s BioCritiques. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003.

As part of Bloom’s series about important writers, this book presents a longer biography of Hurston and a lengthy critical look at her work.

Cooper, Jan. “Zora Neale Hurston Was Always A Southerner Too.” In The Female Tradition In Southern Literature, Ed. Carol S. Manning. Chicago: University Of Illinois Press, 1993.

In her collection of academic essays, editor Carol S. Manning shows the importance of female writers to Southern literature. Author Jan Cooper considers Hurston’s specific contributions and Southern identity.

Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Afterword To Their Eyes Were Watching God, By Zora Neale Hurston. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.

In an afterword often published with new editions of the novel, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. considers Hurston’s legacy and her efforts to improve the lives of all African-Americans.

———. “Their Eyes Were Watching God: Hurston And The Speakerly Text.” In Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past And Present, Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. And K.A. Appiah. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.

A selection of reviews and critical essays about Hurston’s work, beginning with contemporary reviews of her writing and continuing through the early 1990s.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks On A Road: An Autobiography. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, Reprint Edition 2006.

Hurston’s autobiography, which tells the story of her life as a child born into poverty who rose to become one of the most esteemed writers of her time.

Walker, Alice. Dedication To I Love Myself When I Am Laughing...And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean And Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader, Ed.

Alice Walker. New York: The Feminist Press, 1979.

The novelist Alice Walker famously went looking for Hurston’s grave, only to find that she had been buried in a potter’s field. This essay recounts that story and details Walker’s reverence for Hurston.

Washington, Mary Helen. Foreword To Their Eyes Were Watching God, By Zora Neal Hurston. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.

As a scholar of Hurston, Mary Helen Washington deftly introduces readers to the writer and her most famous work.

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