Thank you for visiting the United Way of Clallam County's Book Club! This book club was begun this year to invite readers to come together to read books about diversity, equity, and inclusion-related subjects.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
This month's book is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This book is available on the shelves in North Olympic Library System's Port Angeles and Sequim branches, and in audio and e-book formats. You may also be able to find it in local bookstores and online.
Set in Central and Southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel tells the story of Janie Crawford, a Black woman born in the South during the Jim Crow Era. The novel follows her journey to find her own identity and destiny. The story takes us from Janie's upbringing with her grandmother through her marriages and travels throughout Florida to her return to her hometown.
Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance and Hurston's most popular work. Although the book was initially not well received, it was "rediscovered" in the late 1960's. In 1977, the MLA Committee on the Literatures of People of Color in the US & Canada published its first list of out-of-print books most in demand across the nation and Their Eyes Were Watching God topped the list. Since its reissue in paperback in 1978, the novel has become "the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature." In 2005, Time included the novel in its list of the 100 best English language novels published since 1923. Unfortunately, Hurston died in 1960, never knowing how popular the book would become.
*Excepted from https://www.zoranealehurston.com/about
Zora Neale Hurston (1891 - 1960) had a fiery intellect, an infectious sense of humor, and "the gift," as one friend put it, "of walking into hearts." Hurston used these talents - and dozens more - to elbow her way into the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's, befriending such luminaries as poet Langston Hughes and popular singer/actress Ethel Waters.
By 1935, Hurston - who'd graduated from Barnard College in 1928 - had published several short stories and articles, as well as a novel (Jonah's Gourd Vine) and a well-received collection of Black Southern folklore (Mules and Men). But the late 1930's and early '40s marked the real zenith of her career. She published her masterwork, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in 1937; Tell My Horse, her study of Caribbean Voodoo practices, in 1938; and another masterful novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain, in 1939. When her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, was published in 1942, Hurston finally received the well-earned acclaim that had long eluded her. That year, she was profiled in Who's Who in America, Current Biography and Twentieth Century Authors.
Despite these accolades, Hurston died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave. During the summer of 1973, a young writer named Alice Walker traveled to place a marker on the grave of the author who had so inspired her own work. Borrowing from a Jean Toomer poem, she dressed up the marker with a fitting epitaph, "Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South."
Suggestion for an upcoming book?
If you would like to see a book highlighted in a future newsletter, please reach out to Community Impact Director Mary Beth Gregory at mary.beth@unitedwayclallam.org