Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston's life seemed full of up's and down's. Born in 1891 as the fifth child in a family of eight, she enjoyed the privileges of living in Eatonville, Florida, which was the first integrated all black community in the United States. Here, blacks were able to exist without the prejudices of the age and area. Zora, thusly, portrayed much of her characters and their outlooks from this vantage point.
Although a participant in the Harlem Renaissance, she later found disfavor for her portrayal of black dialects in her writings. As an anthropologist, she remained true to this recording and has preserved some of this language. Reading books such as Their Eyes Were Watching God, you feel the power of utilizing this language instead of changing it to the "proper" English form. The rhythm and flow is uninterrupted through Zora's pen in this manner.
She eventually found herself becoming a resident in St. Lucie County Welfare Home and later died of hypertensive heart disease.