Politically conservative and staunchly individualist, Zora Neale Hurston often wrote against the grain and suffered the negative criticism of her contemporaries as a result; the choices she made in her professional life reflect the independent spirit that was evident from early childhood, a spirit that made it possible for her to become one of the most published black woman writers of her era. Hurston managed to publish seven books during her lifetime: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934; a novel); Mules and Men (1935; folklore); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937; a novel); Tell My Horse (1938; folklore); Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939; a novel); Dust Tracks on a Road (1942; autobiography); and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948; a novel). All volumes except Seraph on the Suwanee were published by J. B. Lippincott. Hurston never produced a contracted second volume of her autobiography; however, she wrote and/or produced scores of shorter works, including short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston's seven book-length works and some of her most often anthologized short stories are examined below.

Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934; a novel)

Time period and setting

The action of Jonah's Gourd Vine proceeds from around 1880 through the first decades of the twentieth century as we follow John Buddy Pearson from his tenant-farmer adolescence through his courtship and marriage to Lucy Ann Potts, his many infidelities, and his two subsequent marriages. The time period covers roughly forty-five years.