Go Gator And Muddy The Water

...[A]n archivist's dream: a complete collection of Hurston's writings for the Florida Federal Writers' Project in the late 1930s...

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The writings of distinguished African-American Harlem Renaissance author, folklorist, playwright and anthropologist Hurston during her tenure (1938-39) in the Florida division of the Federal Writers Project, many of them previously unpublished, are collected here. They are augmented by Bordelon's biographical essay about Hurston's life during the year she participated in the project, and by her analysis and commentary. The FWP, a federally funded relief program that provided impoverished writers with employment, offered Hurston the lowliest position of "relief reporter," a title for which she was clearly overqualified. But Hurston, just three generations away from slavery, was accustomed to discrimination in a South where Jim Crow laws were still staunchly upheld. As a reporter for the FWP she was assigned to write 1500 words per week describing the lore of African-American Floridians, as part of a larger project, which was never realized and which, moreover, deleted most of Hurston's contributions from the manuscript-in-progress. Other work she submitted for the FWP was often ignored or heavily edited; a few pieces were included in an automotive guidebook, Florida. Included here are Hurston's transcriptions of African-American oral history: traditions, habits, folklore, lyrics and dances; as well as photographs of Hurston and associates, and her performance pieces and essays. Her notable observations on race, writing, her hometown and the upward mobility of blacks in her time are now invaluable historical resources. For Hurston fans, especially scholars, this book will offer a fuller picture of the writer's lesser-known literary endeavors. (Feb.)

Library Journal

In 1938, Hurston had to turn to the Florida branch of the Federal Writers Project (FWP), a New Deal relief program, to save herself from starvation. As its informal "Negro Editor" (supervisors refused to make her a real editor because she was black), she recorded Florida folklore--her soul food--from "jook joint" women to sanctified churchgoers for a state guidebook and The Florida Negro. This title marks the first-time publication of Hurston's complete FWP writings. Three essays that were cut from The Florida Negro for championing art over racial politics make up the meat of this collection; the remaining folktales, folk songs, interviews, and outlines are unsatisfying fodder that are only of interest because Hurston used them in some of her novels. Bordelon, an independent scholar, introduces this work with an intense biographical essay that covers Hurston's self-made mysteries, insatiable work ethic, and manipulations of Jim Crow laws. Highly recommended on the strength of "Go Gator and Muddy the Water" and "Art and Such," essays in which Hurston defines and defends folklore with her sinewy voice.--Heather McCormack, "Library Journal"

Kirkus Reviews

New work by Hurston (1889-1968), the Harlem Renaissance writer and folklorist. (Hurston's first collection of folklore, Mules and Men, is generally considered the first such compilation by an African-American. It was followed by Tell My Horse.) During the Depression, like many writers, Hurston went to work for the Works Progress Administration. As part of the Florida Federal Writers Project, she compiled this collection of folklore, parts of which have never been published before. Bordelon, an independent scholar who recovered the manuscript while researching the FWP, contributes a biographical essay on Hurston that focuses in particular on her years with the FWP. In her proposal, reprinted here, Hurston divides Florida into four areas, with different economic, social, and cultural factors influencing local folklore, including black folk religion. "Folklore is the boiled-down juice of human living," she writes. "Folklore in Florida is still in the making. Folk tunes, tales, and characters are still emerging from the lush place of primitive imagination before they can be finally drained by formal education and mechanical inversions." This volume represents part of Hurston's effort to capture that critical momoent in the development of black folklore, which included the creation of a new prison folk hero, Daddy Mention. .