biography of zora neale hurston
...ather and stepmother always trying to make her into something she isn’t. One day she got fed up with it and ran away to Harlem (www.csustan.edu/english/rueben/pal.chap9/hurston.html#bio). From the year 1905 to 1912 are referred to as the “lost years”, because no one is really sure what went on in this seven-year period. Some say that she went from town to town, and relative to relative. Then she found a job as a maid for a singer named Miss M, in the Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Company. Zora fell so in love with the stage that she toured with the company for the next year and a half. On this trip Zora learned how to do many things. She read books given to her by the company tenor, a man who had gone to Harvard. She also learned how to give manicures, and she acquired extensive education in music and stage production. When the company stopped in Baltimore Miss M gave her some money and told her to go get her education (www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/hurston_z.htm). When situated in Baltimore she made plans to finish high school, but sadly found out that she was eight years over the age limit. Zora lied and fooled the school into thinking she was sixteen. When she started she attended Morgan Academy. Shortly after she was encouraged to switch to Howard Academy were she could take college prep courses. In May of 1919 Hurston received her diploma. That fall, she began college at Howard University. While at Howard she became a journalist in the college’s journal, “The Stylus”. In May of 1921 she made her first story publication called, “John Redding Goes to Sea” (www-hsc.usc.edu/`gallaher/hurston/hurston.html). Her piece caught the attention of one of her professors, who is also a writer, Alain Locke. Locke was a very close acquaintance of Dr. Charles S. Johnson, editor of “Opportunity”. Locke, very impressed by Hurston’s work, recommended her to Dr. Johnson. After Johnson read Zora’s story “John Redding Goes to Sea”, he wrote her a letter inviting her submit a story into Opportunity. She wrote a story “Drenched in Light”, and sent it in. It was published in the December issue of Opportunity. Johnson urged Hurston to go to New York and make a career out of her writing. She arrived in New York with a dollar and fifty cents in her pocket, and a lot of hope (www.csustan.edu/english/rueben/pal/chap9/hurston.html#bio). During the Harlem Renaissance Hurston published very little works. She wrote short stories and essays to publish in Journals. In September of 1932, Zora was able to publish the stories from her travels. In the stories that she began to write she referred to what she knew, southern black heritage ...