About
One of the most prominent contributors to the Harlem Renaissance, she published her masterpiece novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in 1937. Also a notable folklorist, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to carry out anthropological research in Haiti and Jamaica. In 1957, she worked at the Pan American World Airways Technical Library.
Before Fame
She attended Howard University during the early 1920s. A decade later, she received a degree in anthropology from Barnard College and published the folklore-heavy work, Mules and Men.
Trivia
She moved to Harlem in the 1920s and was a close friend of Langston Hughes. However, the two later had a falling out over their co-written work, Mule Bone.
Family Life
She and her seven siblings were the Alabama-born children of a Baptist minister. She had two brief marriages: to jazz musician Herbert Sheen (1927-1931) and to Albert Price (1939).
Associated With
Her work was nearly forgotten until it was re-introduced to the public by author Alice Walker.
