Jonah's Gourd Vine

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by Zora Neale Hurston

May 19, 1927

  Marries Herbert Sheen.

  September 1927

  First visits Mrs. Rufus Osgood Mason, seeking patronage.

  October 1927

  Publishes an account of the black settlement at St. Augustine, Florida, in the Journal of Negro History; also in this issue: “Cudjo’s Own Story of the Last African Slaver.”

  December 1927

  Signs a contract with Mason, enabling her to return to the South to collect folklore.

  1928

  Satirized as “Sweetie Mae Carr” in Wallace Thurman’s novel about the Harlem Renaissance Infants of the Spring; receives a bachelor of arts degree from Barnard.

  January 1928

  Relations with Sheen break off.

  May 1928

  Publishes “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” in the World Tomorrow.

  1930–32

  Organizes the field notes that become Mules and Men.

  May-June 1930

  Works on the play Mule Bone with Langston Hughes.

  1931

  Publishes “Hoodoo in America” in the Journal of American Folklore.

  February 1931

  Breaks with Langston Hughes over the authorship of Mule Bone.

  July 7, 1931

  Divorces Sheen.

  September 1931

  Writes for a theatrical revue called Fast and Furious.

  January 1932

  Writes and stages a theatrical revue called The Great Day, first performed on January 10 on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre; works with the creative literature department of Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, to produce a concert program of Negro music.

  1933

  Writes “The Fiery Chariot.”

  January 1933

  Stages From Sun to Sun (a version of Great Day) at Rollins College.

  August 1933

  Publishes “The Gilded Six-Bits” in Story.

  1934

  Publishes six essays in Nancy Cunard’s anthology, Negro.

  January 1934

  Goes to Bethune-Cookman College to establish a school of dramatic arts “based on pure Negro expression.”

  May 1934

  Publishes Jonah’s Gourd Vine, originally titled Big Nigger; it is a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.

  September 1934

  Publishes “The Fire and the Cloud” in the Challenge.

  November 1934

  Singing Steel (a version of Great Day) performed in Chicago.

  January 1935

  Makes an abortive attempt to study for a Ph.D in anthropology at Columbia University on a fellowship from the Rosenwald Foundation. In fact, she seldom attends classes.

  August 1935

  Joins the WPA Federal Theatre Project as a “dramatic coach.”

  October 1935

  Mules and Men published.

  March 1936

  Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study West Indian Obeah practices.

  April-September 1936

  In Jamaica.

  September-March 1937

  In Haiti; writes Their Eyes Were Watching God in seven weeks.

  May 1937

  Returns to Haiti on a renewed Guggenheim.

  September 1937

  Returns to the United States; Their Eyes Were Watching God published, September 18.

  February-March 1938

  Writes Tell My Horse; it is published the same year.

  April 1938

  Joins the Federal Writers Project in Florida to work on The Florida Negro.

  1939

  Publishes “Now Take Noses” in Cordially Yours.

  June 1939

  Receives an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Morgan State College.

  June 27, 1939

  Marries Albert Price III in Florida.

  Summer 1939

  Hired as a drama instructor by North Carolina College for Negroes at Durham; meets Paul Green, professor of drama, at the University of North Carolina.

  November 1939

  Moses, Man of the Mountain published.

  February 1940

  Files for divorce from Price, though the two are reconciled briefly.

  Summer 1940

  Makes a folklore-collecting trip to South Carolina.

  Spring-July 1941

  Writes Dust Tracks on a Road.

  July 1941

  Publishes “Cock Robin, Beale Street” in the Southern Literary Messenger.

  October 1941–January 1942

  Works as a story consultant at Paramount Pictures.

  July 1942

  Publishes “Story in Harlem Slang” in the American Mercury.

  September 5, 1942

  Publishes a profile of Lawrence Silas in the Saturday Evening Post.

  November 1942

  Dust Tracks on a Road published.

  February 1943

  Awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Race Relations for Dust Tracks; on the cover of the Saturday Review.

  March 1943

  Receives Howard University’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

  May 1943

  Publishes “The ‘Pet Negro’ Syndrome” in the American Mercury.

  November 1943

  Divorce from Price granted.

  June 1944

  Publishes “My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience” in the Negro Digest.

  1945

  Writes Mrs. Doctor; it is rejected by Lippincott.

  March 1945

  Publishes “The Rise of the Begging Joints” in the American Mercury.

  December 1945

  Publishes “Crazy for This Democracy” in the Negro Digest.

  1947

  Publishes a review of Robert Tallant’s Voodoo in New Orleans in the Journal of American Folklore.

  May 1947

  Goes to British Honduras to research black communities in Central America; writes Seraph on the Suwanee; stays in Honduras until March 1948.

  September 1948

  Falsely accused of molesting a ten-year-old boy and arrested; case finally dismissed in March 1949.

  October 1948

  Seraph on the Suwanee published.

  March 1950

  Publishes “Conscience of the Court” in the Saturday Evening Post, while working as a maid in Rivo Island, Florida.

  April 1950

  Publishes “What White Publishers Won’t Print” in the Saturday Evening Post.

  November 1950

  Publishes “I Saw Negro Votes Peddled” in the American Legion magazine.

  Winter 1950–51

  Moves to Belle Glade, Florida.

  June 1951

  Publishes “Why the Negro Won’t Buy Communism” in the American Legion magazine.

  December 8, 1951

  Publishes “A Negro Voter Sizes Up Taft” in the Saturday Evening Post.

  1952

  Hired by the Pittsburgh Courier to cover the Ruby McCollum case.

  May 1956

  Receives an award for “education and human relations” at Bethune-Cookman College.

  June 1956

  Works as a librarian at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida; fired in 1957.

  1957–59

  Writes a column on “Hoodoo and Black Magic” for the Fort Pierce Chronicle.

  1958

  Works as a substitute teacher at Lincoln Park Academy, Fort Pierce.

  Early 1959

  Suffers a stroke.

  October 1959

  Forced to enter the St. Lucie County Welfare Home.

  January 28, 1960

  Dies in the St. Lucie County Welfare Home of “hypertensive heart disease”; buried in an unmarked grave in the Garden of Heavenly Rest, Fort Pierce.

  August 1973

  Alice Walker discovers and marks Hurston’s grave.

  March 1975

  Walker publishes “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,” in Ms., launching a Hurston revival.

  About the Author

  ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1891–
1960) was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist whose fictional and factual accounts of black heritage remain unparalleled. Her many books include Dust Tracks on a Road; Their Eyes Were Watching God; Mules and Men; Seraph on the Suwanee; Moses, Man of the Mountain; and Every Tongue Got to Confess.

  WWW.ZORANEALEHURSTON.COM

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Copyright

  JONAH’S GOURD VINE. Copyright © 1934 by Zora Neale Hurston. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2008 ISBN: 9780061865831

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