Zora!

Zora!

Juvenile biography
"Often Zora could barely support herself, and sometimes she
descended into abject poverty. One day in March 1951, she counted
'four pennies' as all the money she had in the world. There were
times when she had to pawn her typewriter just to buy groceries. To
make matters more difficult, she suffered from a long list of
illnesses, including heart and intestinal ailments.
Through it all Zora continued to write, never losing faith that
great success waited just around the corner. Almost until the day she
suffered a fatal stroke in a Florida charity home, she worked on a
book that had occupied her for most of the 1950s, fervently believing
that it would revive her career. It didn't, but more than a decade
after her death Zora was discovered by a new generation of readers who
admired her writing and her unconquerable spirit."
Well after Zora Neale Hurston's death her works were
rediscovered. This posed quite the challenge for the people who
valued her work in a pre digital decade. All her books were out of
print. Copies had to be tracked down in used book stores and
libraries without the Internet to aid in the quest. Some of her
original manuscripts had been burned by people hired to clean out her
house after she died. Still her books that were published earlier
went into print again along with manuscripts publishers originally
turned down. By 2012, when this biography was published, people had
purchased over five million copies of her most famous book, Their Eyes
Were Watching God, which had also been made into a movie. This was in
sharp contrast to when she was alive.
"None of Zora's books sold more than a few thousand copies while
she was alive, and as a result she didn't earn much of a living from
her writing. The largest royalty check she ever received from the
sale of her books was only $943.75, and she earned such a meager
income from her books that she had to take on other jobs..."
Once her author status actually caused her to lose one of her
day jobs. In 1950 she was cleaning and cooking for a white couple in
an upscale Florida suburb. The wife saw one of her stories in the
Saturday Evening Post. Amazed by the newly achieved achievements of
their "girl Zora" they called the Miami Herald. Its story inspired
others in newspapers all over the country. From the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch:
"One of the nation's most accomplished Negro women is now working in a
swank Gold Coast home. Press the doorbell at her fashionable Rivo
Alto address and she will greet you--in uniform. Miss Zora Neale
Hurston, distinguished author of seven books published in six
languages, is presently employed as a maid."
Evidently this created cognitive dissonance for an employer who
believed that "Servants are servants and must act accordingly unless
the whole traditional relationship of employer and employee is to be
endangered." As if that would be a bad thing?
This incident is only one of the fascinating ones described in
Dennis Brindell and Judith Bloom Fradin's Zora! In her too short
lifetime she had adventures most contemporaries--black or white--never
dared to imagine. If you're a fan or want to learn more about one of
the most fascinating women who ever walked the face of this earth,
read the book.
I know I'm very inspired by Zora. The most I've ever earned as
a writer was $75 a review when the Bangor Daily News had freelance
money. As for my poetry, I expect to collect enough to paper Fogler
(UMaine) Library. When people say, "You're such a good writer. Maybe
you should try..." they usually suggest ideas that would make me feel
like I was selling my soul to the devil. Unless I find the right
publishers I'll believe and try (and of course have adventures until
death interferes.
On a personal note, I realize how truly blessed I am now to be
surrounded by people who love and are there for me. There's my loving
husband and our three wonderful children who are also going to lose a
precious being. There are my work and school friends and very good
people I know from other contexts. It's such a contrast to when I
lost my parents under much more isolated circumstances.
A great big shout out goes out to all the wonderful people who are
there for me and for the best little cat in the world.
jules



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