Folklore, memoirs, and other writings

Book

Folklore, memoirs, and other writings / Zora Neale Hurston ; Cheryl A. Wall, editor.

Hurston, Zora Neale, (author.). Wall, Cheryl A., (editor.).

Summary:

When she died in poverty and obscurity in 1960, all of Zora Neale Hurston's books were out of print. Today her groundbreaking works, suffused with the culture and traditions of African-Americans and the poetry of black speech, have won her recognition as one of the most significant African-American writers. This volume, with its companion, Novels & Stories, brings together for the first time all of Hurston's best writings in one authoritative set. "Folklore is the arts of the people", Hurston wrote, "before they find out that there is any such thing as art". A pioneer of African-American ethnography who did graduate study in anthropology with the renowned Franz Boas, Hurston devoted herseif to preserving the black folk heritage. In Mules and Men (1935), the first book of African-American folklore written by an African-American, she returned to her native Florida and to New Orleans to record stories and sermons, blues and work songs, children's games, courtship rituals, and formulas of hoodoo doctors. This classic work is presented here with the original illustrations by the great Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias. Tell My Horse (1938), part ethnography, part travel book, vividly recounts the survival of African religion in Jamaican obeah and Haitian voodoo in the 1930s. Keenly alert to political and intellectual currents, Hurston went beyond superficial exoticism to explore the role of these religious systems in their societies. The text is illustrated by 26 photographs, many of them taken by Huston. Her extensive transcriptions of Creole songs are here accompanied by new translations. A special feature of this volume is Hurston's controversial 1942 autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road. With consultation by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is presented here for the first time as she intended, restoring passages omitted by the original publisher because of political controversy, sexual candor, or fear of libel. Included in an appendix are four additional chapters, one never before published, that represent earlier stages of Hurston's conception of the book. Twenty-two essays, from "The Eatonville Anthology" (1926) to "Court Order Can't Make Races Mix" (1955), demonstrate the range of Hurston's concerns as they cover subjects from religion, music, and Harlem slang to Jim Crow and American democracy. The chronology of Hurston's life prepared for this edition sheds fresh light on many aspects of her career. In addition, this volume contains detailed notes and a brief essay on the texts.

Record details

ISBN: 0940450844
ISBN: 9780940450844
Physical Description: 1001 pages : illustrations, music ; 21 cm.
Publisher: New York : Library of America, [1995]
Distributor: [New York] : Distributed to the trade in the United States by Penguin Books USA Inc.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 981-1001).
Formatted Contents Note:: MULES AND MEN -- Part 1. Folk tales -- John and the frog -- Witness of the Johnstown flood in heaven -- How the brother was called to preach -- How the preacher made them bow down -- Pa Henry's prayer -- How the church came to be split up -- Why negroes are black -- Why women always take advantage of men -- Sue, Sal and that pretty Johnson gal -- The quickest trick -- How to write a letter -- A fast horse -- Ah'll beatcher makin' money -- The workinest pill you ever seen -- How Jack beat the devil -- John Henry -- Ole massa and John who wanted to go to heaven -- Massa and the bear -- Why the sister in black works hardest -- De reason niggers is working so hard -- Deer hunting story -- Big talk -- The first colored man in massa's house -- What smelled worse -- The fortune teller -- How the negroes got their freedom -- The turtle-watch -- From pine to pine Mr. Pinkney -- God an' de devil in de cemetery -- Praying for rain -- Kill the white folks -- Member youse a nigger -- You think I'm gointer pay you but I ain't -- Why the mocking bird is away on Friday -- Man and the catfish -- How the snake got poison -- How the woodpecker nearly drowned the whole world -- How the possum lost the hair off his tail -- How the 'gator got his mouth -- How Brer 'Gator got his tongue worn out -- How the 'gator got black -- How Brer Dog lost his beautiful voice -- What the rabbit learned -- The goat that flagged a train -- Shooting up hill -- Tall hunting story -- The hawk and the buzzard -- Why they always use rawhide on a mule -- Why we have gophers -- How God made butterflies -- How the cat got nine lives -- The son who went to college -- Why the waves have whitecaps -- How the lion met the king of the world -- Sermon by travelling preacher -- Card game -- Ella Wall -- Ah'm gointer loose dis right-hand shackle from 'round my leg -- Strength test between Jack and the devil -- Why the porpoise has his tail on crossways -- Why the dog hates the cat -- How the devil coined a word -- How jack o'lanterns came to be -- Why the East Coast has mosquitoes and storms -- How a loving couple was parted -- All these are mine -- How the squinch owl came to be -- The talking mule -- High walker and bloody bones -- Fight at Pine Mill -- Part 2. Hoodoo -- Origin of Hoodoo -- Eulalia : ritual to get a man -- Turner and Marie Leveau -- Marie Leveau : confounding an enemy -- Marie Leveau : putting on curse -- Turner : initiation ceremony -- Turner : routine to keep a husband true -- Anatol Pierre -- Ritual : initiation ceremony -- Ritual : to make a death -- Ritual : to swell with a brick -- Father Watson -- Ritual : initiation ceremony -- Ritual : to punish -- Ritual: to get a person out of the house -- Ritual : to keep a person down -- Ritual : getting the black cat bone -- Dr. Duke -- Ritual : to help a person in jail -- Ritual : to silence opposing witnesses -- Ritual : to uncross -- Ritual : to send away -- Dr. Jenkins -- Concerning the dead -- Conjure stories -- Kitty Brown -- Ritual : ceremonial dance to put away a man -- Ritual : to make love stronger -- Ritual : to bring a lover back -- Ritual : to rule the man you love -- Glossary [includes Jack or John, woofing, testimony, John Henry, Long house, Blue baby, Georgia skin game] -- [Appendix] I. Negro songs with music : John Henry ; East Coast blues ; Please don't drive me ; Cold rainy day ; Going to see my long-haired babe ; Can't you line it? ; There stands a blue bird ; Mule on de mount ; Let the deal go down -- [Appendix] II. Formulae of Hoodoo doctors -- [Appendix] III. Paraphernalia of conjure -- [Appendix] IV. Prescriptions of root doctors.

TELL MY HORSE -- Part 1. Jamaica -- The rooster's nest -- Curry goat -- Hunting a wild hog -- Night song after death -- Women in the Caribbean -- Part 2. Politics and personalities of Haiti -- Rebirth of a nation -- The next hundred years -- The black Joan of Arc -- Death of Leconte -- Part 3. Voodoo in Haiti -- Voodoo and the voodoo gods -- The Isle of La Gonave -- Archahaie and what it means -- Zombies -- Sect rouge -- Parlay cheval ou (Tell my horse) -- Graveyard dirt and other poisons -- Doctor Reser -- God and the Pintards -- [Appendix] I. Songs of worship to voodoo gods : Maitresse Ersulie ; Féraille ; Rada ; Janvalo (Jean Valdo) -- Saint Jacques ; Petro ; Ibo ; Damballa ; Ogoun ; Salongo ; Loco ; Mambo Isan ; Dambala ; Agoë (Agoué te royo) ; Sobo ; Ogoun -- [Appendix] II. Miscellaneous songs : Sect rouge ; Chant beginning all rada ceremonies ; La mystérieuse, méringue / A.L. Duroseau ; Etonnement, méringue caractéristique / A. Herandez ; Bonne humeur, méringue Haitïenne / Arthur L. Duroseau ; Olga, méringue par / Arthur Lyncíe Duroseau ; Chanson de Calicot ; La douceur.

DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD -- My birthplace -- My folks -- I get born -- The inside search -- Figure and fancy -- Wandering -- Jacksonville and after -- Back stage and the railroad -- School again -- Research -- Books and things -- My people! My people! -- Two women in particular -- Love -- Religion -- Looking things over -- Appendix : My people! My people! ; Seeing the world as it is ; The inside light: being a salute to friendship ; Concert.

SELECTED ARTICLES -- The Eatonville anthology -- How it feels to be colored me (from Negro : an anthology) : Characteristics of negro expression ; Conversions and visions ; Shouting ; Mother Catherine ; Uncle Monday ; Spirituals and neo-spirituals -- Works-in-progress for Florida Federal Writers' Project, "The Florida Negro, 1938" : Folklore and music ; Negro mythical places ; The Ocoee riot ; The sanctified church ; Art and such -- Stories of conflict : Richard Wright's "Uncle Tom's Children" -- The "pet negro" system -- High John de Conquer -- Negroes without self-pity -- My most humiliating Jim Crow experience -- The rise of the begging joints -- Crazy for this democracy -- What white publishers won't print -- Court order can't make races mix -- Chronology.