Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal
A Finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography
“A complete pleasure to read.” —Lisa Page, Washington Post
Novelist Zora Neale Hurston and poet Langston Hughes, two of America’s greatest writers, first met in New York City in 1925. Drawn to each other, they helped launch a radical journal, Fire!! Later, meeting by accident in Alabama, they became close as they traveled together—Hurston interviewing African Americans for folk stories, Hughes getting his first taste of the deep South. By illuminating their lives, work, competitiveness, and ambitions, Yuval Taylor savvily details how their friendship and literary collaborations dead-ended in acrimonious accusations.
"1128958894"
Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal
A Finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography
“A complete pleasure to read.” —Lisa Page, Washington Post
Novelist Zora Neale Hurston and poet Langston Hughes, two of America’s greatest writers, first met in New York City in 1925. Drawn to each other, they helped launch a radical journal, Fire!! Later, meeting by accident in Alabama, they became close as they traveled together—Hurston interviewing African Americans for folk stories, Hughes getting his first taste of the deep South. By illuminating their lives, work, competitiveness, and ambitions, Yuval Taylor savvily details how their friendship and literary collaborations dead-ended in acrimonious accusations.
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Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal
A Finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography
“A complete pleasure to read.” —Lisa Page, Washington Post
Novelist Zora Neale Hurston and poet Langston Hughes, two of America’s greatest writers, first met in New York City in 1925. Drawn to each other, they helped launch a radical journal, Fire!! Later, meeting by accident in Alabama, they became close as they traveled together—Hurston interviewing African Americans for folk stories, Hughes getting his first taste of the deep South. By illuminating their lives, work, competitiveness, and ambitions, Yuval Taylor savvily details how their friendship and literary collaborations dead-ended in acrimonious accusations.
Yuval Taylor is the coauthor of Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop and Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Antioch Review, the Oxford American, and other publications. He lives in Chicago.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Lovingly Yours 3
1 Spring 1925: Opportunity 7
2 1891-1924: I Laugh and Grow Strong 25
3 Summer 1926: The Niggerati 50
4 Spring 1927: Enter Godmother 83
5 Summer 1927: The Company of Good Things 98
6 Fall 1927: A Deep Well of the Spirit 127
7 Winter 1928-Winter 1930: This is Going to Be Big 135
