This book explores the creativity and life of Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), the most published African American woman writer of the first half of the twentieth century.

Her life spanned a period of rapid technological change and advancement, and one of entrenched racial stratification. A Barnard-educated anthropologist, folklorist and novelist, Hurston was a modern woman on the move, and, as Cheryl R. Hopson relates, this movement is reflected in her work as a collector of folklore.

Hopson also foregrounds how the Jim Crow legal system in the United States formed the material backdrop to Hurston's life and work, and explores Hurston's signature novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as her lesser-known works. This biography is an insightful and illuminating look at a remarkable figure, and chronicles the rediscovery of Hurston years after her death.