Zora! Read online

  This photo, from the Moorland-Spingarn archives at Howard University, could be a class photo of Zora, who was thirty-three years old when she left the school.

  In May 1921 Zora experienced one of the greatest thrills an author can have. That month her work appeared in print for the first time when the Stylus published her poem "O Night" and her story "John Redding Goes to Sea." Later would come fame and prizes, but the publication of her first poem and story in Howard University's literary magazine, when she was thirty, would always remain special to Zora because it marked the birth of her writing career.

  "John Redding Goes to Sea" revealed Zora to be a writer of promise. The story's hero, a Florida youth, yearns to visit far-off lands and people. "No matter what he dreamed," Zora wrote, "he always ended by riding away to the horizon"—the same horizon that lured Zora as a child. John Redding's father, who once had similar dreams, sympathizes with him. But his mother refuses to let him go. Later, John is helping to repair a bridge when a storm strikes, causing a flood that sweeps him away. Zora concludes her story: "John Redding floated away toward the sea, the wide world—at last."

  Zora's story set the pattern in several ways for her future work. Her characters in "John Redding" speak like the people Zora had known growing up in Eatonville. For example, John's mother complains, "He kain't help from want into go rovin' cause travel dust been put down fuh him." Reading a sentence like that isn't easy, but having her characters talk like real people breathes life into them. Zora later became known for her realistic dialogue. Her love of travel and her vivid descriptions of nature also became hallmarks of Zora's writing style.

  As a Stylus editor and a published author, Zora was invited to gatherings of the Saturday Nighters, a group of black writers that met in the Washington home of the poet Georgia Douglas Johnson. The group included W. E. B. Du Bois, whose book of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, is considered a classic of African American literature. Another Saturday Nighter was James Weldon Johnson, who had written the words to the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing," often called the African American national anthem. Professor Alain Locke was another participant. Zora's encounters with famous people at the Cosmos Club served her well, for she wasn't dazzled by these writers or afraid to speak up in their presence.

  Scholar, author, sociologist, professor, and civil rights advocate W. E. B. Du Bois was one of the Saturday Nighters.

  The evenings she spent with the Saturday Nighters convinced Zora that she could become a famous author, too. It happened that in New York City in 1923, Charles S. Johnson became editor of Opportunity, a new magazine that promised to portray "Negro life as it is." Johnson wrote to a number of professors at black colleges asking if they knew of talented young writers whose work would enhance his magazine. Professor Alain Locke replied by sending Johnson the issue of the Stylus that contained "John Redding Goes to Sea." Johnson liked Zora's story and wrote to her asking whether she had any others he might consider.

  Songwriter, novelist, poet, professor, and NAACP president James Weldon Johnson attended the Saturday night gatherings, too.

  Zora had plenty of stories. She had run out of money and was spending most of her time working on the Stylus and writing. She sent Johnson "Drenched in Light," a story about the exploits of a young Florida girl named Isis who liked to "sit atop of the gate post and hail the passing vehicles." Johnson published "Drenched in Light" in the December 1924 issue of Opportunity. This marked the first time Zora's work was presented to a national audience.

  Opportunity's readers heaped so much praise on Zora's story that Mr. Johnson wrote to her with a suggestion. New York City was the center of America's publishing world. Zora should come to the big city and try to carve out a career for herself as a writer.

  Zora knew that nine out often would-be authors who moved to New York wound up working as secretaries, elevator operators, or dishwashers. But she was now well into her thirties and financially unable to continue at Howard University. What did she have to lose? Besides, she had the inner confidence that she would be the one in ten who would succeed. Also, Zora's boyfriend, Herbert Sheen, had gone to Illinois to attend medical school. That was one less reason for her to stay in Washington, D.C.

  Shortly before her thirty-fourth birthday, Zora packed her clothes, books, and stories, and took the train to the nation's biggest city. "So," she later recalled, "the first week of January, 1925, found me in New York with $1.50, no job, no friends, and a lot of hope."

  5. "A Toe-Hold on the World"

  DESPITE HAVING ONLY a dollar and a half in her pocket, Zora arrived in New York City at an opportune time. In 1925, the Big Apple, as the city was becoming known, was home to 6.3 million people, about 250,000 of whom were black. Of those quarter of a million African Americans, more than half lived in the neighborhood known as Harlem.

  Harlem was like a city unto itself. It was nicknamed the "Capital of Black America" because African Americans around the country looked to Harlem for trends in civil rights, culture, business, entertainment, and fashion. From roughly 1920 to 1935 Harlem was the center of a remarkable burst of African American creativity in the arts. Although this movement spilled over into other U.S. cities, it was so closely linked to Harlem that it became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

  At the heart of the Harlem Renaissance was an amazing outpouring of powerful literature. The writers included Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Wallace Thurman, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Alain Locke. Jazz also flourished in this period. Harlem Renaissance musicians included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, Marian Anderson, and Jelly Roll Morton. Paul Robeson and Charles Gilpin were leading actors of the era. Zora would get to know most of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance and would herself become one of its brightest stars.

  Children shared in the glory of the Harlem Renaissance. Here they carve soap in a sculpture class at the Harlem Art Workshop.

  But the Harlem Renaissance was more than a period when African Americans took great pride in their heritage. As the writer Arna Bontemps phrased it, during the Harlem Renaissance it was "fun to be a Negro." Or, to use a slang term of the 1920s, it was "hip" to be black.

  Harlem was one of the country's most crowded neighborhoods. Yet its residents had a true touch of the pioneer spirit. Newcomers like Zora were often helped by friends of friends and distant relatives. And with just $1.50 to her name, Zora certainly needed help. One of the first things she did upon her arrival was visit the office of Charles S. Johnson, the Opportunity editor who had suggested that she move to New York City. He arranged for Zora to lodge with friends at a Harlem apartment building. Later she found lodgings at a rooming house where young writers and artists were allowed to live rent-free.

  Singer Ethel Waters and Zora became best friends in New York.

  Zora spent her first few months in Harlem writing stories and plays. She attended poetry readings and discussions of books at the 135th Street public library, and plays and lectures at the local YMCA. She renewed acquaintances with old friends such as Alain Locke and James Weldon Johnson, who were frequently in Harlem, and made many new friends among the other writers she met.

  Zora also attended "rent parties." The host would invite friends and acquaintances to his or her apartment on a certain evening. On that night, dozens of people paid about fifty cents apiece to attend the party. The host would take in twenty dollars or more toward his or her rent. There would be plenty of food and drinks as well as live music. Zora loved to dance at the rent parties. Arna Bontemps recalled that Zora enlivened many a rent party by telling stories she had heard growing up in Eatonville. Sterling Brown, professor, poet, and literary critic, added that she had such a friendly and interesting personality that "when Zora was there, she was the party."

  In the spring of 1925, Zora attended an event that would launch her career. Months earlier, Charles S. Johnson had announced that Opportunity magazine was holding a writing contest. It offered prizes
for the best poems, plays, essays, and short stories by African American writers. Seven hundred entries were submitted, including several by Zora.

  Professor Alain Locke was another Saturday Nighter.

  The award winners were announced at a large banquet held on Friday, May 1, 1925. The contest judges included Alain Locke, James Weldon Johnson, the popular novelist Fannie Hurst, and the famed playwright Eugene O'Neill. Also present were Annie Nathan Meyer, who had founded Barnard College for women in New York City in 1889 when she was only twenty-two years old, and the writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten.

  Zora won four prizes. Fannie Hurst handed her the second place award for her story "Spunk." Zora also won honorable mention for her story "Black Death," second place for her play Color Struck, and honorable mention for another play, Spears. Her cash awards totaled seventy dollars—equal to about a thousand dollars in today's money. She was in good company, for the brilliant young writer Langston Hughes won the poetry award for "The Weary Blues."

  Later that evening, Zora attended a party. She wore a long, bright-colored scarf over one shoulder. Zora wanted everyone to remember the name of her prize-winning play, so as she entered the room she flung the scarf around her neck and called out in a loud voice, "Color Struck!" Several people who witnessed this grand entrance resented Zora for showing off, but most got a kick out of her shameless self-promotion. Langston Hughes was so enthralled by her that he soon wrote to Carl Van Vechten: "Zora Neale Hurston is a clever girl, isn't she? I would like to know her." The truth was, although her many setbacks had toughened her, in many ways Zora was still the cheerful girl who believed that the moon followed her.

  Zora peeks out from behind a bush in the Barnard College Class of 1927 photo.

  Shortly after the awards dinner, Annie Nathan Meyer asked Zora if she would like to attend Barnard, the college Meyer had founded. Zora jumped at the chance to continue college, especially since Mrs. Meyer said she would arrange a scholarship. Eleven days after the awards banquet, Zora sent Annie Nathan Meyer a letter thanking her profusely for helping her get into Barnard and for showing interest in her:

  My Dear Mrs. Meyer,

  I am tremendously encouraged now. My typewriter is clicking away till all hours of the night. I am striving desperately for a toe-hold on the world. You see, your interest keys me up wonderfully. I must not let you be disappointed in me.

  It is mighty cold comfort to do things if nobody cares whether you succeed or not. It is terribly delightful to me to have some one fearing with me and hoping for me, let alone working to make some of my dreams come true.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  A few months later, in September 1925, Zora entered Barnard as the college's only black student. At Barnard, she developed a keen interest in anthropology—the study of peoples and their cultures. In fact, she began taking anthropology classes at New York City's Columbia University, with which Barnard was affiliated. Her teachers, who included the famed anthropologist Franz Boas, gave Zora an unusual assignment.

  At the time, some people claimed that black people's skulls were too small to hold normal-size brains. To disprove this theory, Zora stood on Harlem street corners with a measuring device called calipers. She would ask passing strangers, "Can I measure your head?" The poet Langston Hughes, who had become Zora's friend, explained, "Almost nobody else could stop the average Harlemite and measure his head with a strange-looking anthropological device and not get bawled out, except Zora, who used to stop anyone whose head looked interesting, and measure it." Zora was naturally friendly and at ease with people, so passersby were willing to have their head placed in her measuring contraption.

  Phrenology, the study of the size and shape of a person's head, was popular in the 1920s. Some scientists tried to relate such measurements to intelligence and morality.

  Although Zora was selling some stories and articles to magazines, she received little money for her work, so she was very poor during this period. On October 17, 1925, she informed Annie Nathan Meyer, "Today I have 11 cents—all that is left of my savings. I must somehow pay my room-rent and I must have food." At about this time Zora was so impoverished that on one occasion she actually stole money from a blind beggar. According to the story, Zora had to go downtown. When she reached the subway station, she realized that she didn't have any money to pay her fare. A blind beggar approached her, but instead of putting money into his cup she took a few coins out for herself.

  "I need money worse than you today," she reportedly told the beggar. "Lend me this. Next time I'll give it back."

  Realizing that Zora was in dire need of financial assistance, Annie Nathan Meyer contacted Fannie Hurst, who had presented Zora with the award for her story "Spunk" at the Opportunity banquet. Like many others who had met Zora that night, Miss Hurst had found her to be a charming young woman. At the time, Fannie Hurst was one of the country's most popular writers—some claimed that she was the most popular author. Besides novels, she wrote magazine stories, screenplays, and newspaper articles, and she was often a guest on radio programs. Miss Hurst happened to be looking for an assistant, and in early November of 1925 she hired Zora to move into her home/office to be her live-in secretary.

  Zora's duties included taking dictation in shorthand, typing manuscripts and letters, and filing important papers. Zora, who coined pet names for people she knew, nicknamed Miss Hurst "Genius" and liked her very much. But Zora didn't put her heart into the job. Twenty years later she told a friend, "My idea of Hell is that I would all through eternity be typing a book." Miss Hurst wasn't satisfied with Zora's work, saying that her "shorthand was short on legibility, her typing hit-or-miss, her filing a game of find-the-thimble." After about two months, Hurst fired Zora. Nonetheless, the two women remained friends. It appears that Zora continued to live in Hurst's home on and off for up to a year and that Miss Hurst contributed money to help support Zora's college education.

  Then-famous author Fannie Hurst mentored Zora in the mid-1920s.

  Zora had done poorly as Fannie Hurst's secretary because she was more interested in writing her own stories than in typing and filing someone else's. In December 1925 Zora answered a Barnard College survey by declaring, "I have had some small success as a writer and wish above all to succeed at it." The next month Zora explained to Annie Nathan Meyer that she had missed a history exam at Barnard because she was daydreaming about her future as a writer instead of paying attention to the time of the test. "I shall try to lay my dreaming aside," she promised. "But, Oh, if you knew my dreams! my vaulting ambition!"

  Zora gave up neither her dreams nor her vaulting ambition. Knowing that her former secretary yearned to become a successful author, Fannie Hurst read several of her stories and articles and offered suggestions for improving them. Zora made the changes halfheartedly, complaining to Mrs. Meyer that although she appreciated Miss Hurst's help, she preferred to find her own way as a writer. "I do not wish to become Hurstized," she explained. "There would be no point in my being an imitation Fannie Hurst." Miss Hurst even showed some of Zora's work to a few of her own editors at popular magazines. None of them accepted any of it for publication, but at least the editors became familiar with the stories and name of Zora Neale Hurston.

  Meanwhile, Opportunity and other black-oriented magazines were publishing Zora's stories and articles. One of her most successful works of this period was "Muttsy." This short story about a Harlem gambler who falls in love with a young woman from Eatonville, Florida, won second place in the Opportunity writing contest in April 1926.

  Within about a year of her arrival in New York, Zora became friends with Langston Hughes. Born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902, Langston had moved around a lot. Following his parents' separation in his early childhood, he lived with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas, until the age of thirteen. His grandmother instilled in him the pride in being black, which became a feature of his writing. Langston later lived with his mother in Lincoln, Illinois, and in Cleveland, Ohio.

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nbsp; By the time he was in high school in Cleveland, Langston had begun writing poems, stories, and plays. One of his most famous poems, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was published in the Crisis, a magazine edited by W. E. B. Du Bois, when Hughes was only nineteen years old. Another famous Langston Hughes poem, "My People," was published in the Crisis two years later, in 1923:

  My People

  The night is beautiful,

  So the faces of my people.

  The stars are beautiful,

  So the eyes of my people.

  Beautiful, also, is the sun.

  Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

  Like Zora, Langston Hughes came to Harlem in the mid-1920s. Just as he had hoped, Langston got to know the "clever girl" Zora Neale Hurston. In fact, Zora and the man she called "Lang" and sometimes "Bambino" became each other's best friend. The two had a lot in common. At a time when some black authors fashioned characters who spoke, behaved, and tried to look like white people, Zora and Langston both took great pride in writing about black culture as they knew it. Both believed that "black is beautiful" forty years before the phrase became popular. Like Langston, Zora had spent much of her early life wandering from place to place. She would even name a chapter of her autobiography "Wandering," while he would call one of his two autobiographies I Wonder as I Wander.