Order of Zora Neale Hurston Books
Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and anthropologist who was best known for writing the classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God. While her work was known in her life, it wasn’t until after she died that she started to receive the type of recognition that she deserved for her writing.
Hurston was born as the daughter to two former slaves. She graduated from Howard University with an associate degree and then moved to New York City’s Harlem neighborhood in the 1920s. It was there that she became well known in the city’s art scene and began her writing career. One of her first acclaimed works was the short story, Sweat that told the story of a woman dealing with an unfaithful husband who takes her money, before receiving his comeuppance.
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| Jonah's Gourd Vine | (1934) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Their Eyes Were Watching God | (1937) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Moses, Man of the Mountain | (1939) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Seraph on the Suwanee | (1948) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Barracoon | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Life of Herod the Great | (2025) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
| The Gilded Six-Bits | (1986) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Sweat | (1997) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Mule-Bone | (2023) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
| Mules and Men | (1935) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... And Then Again | (1979) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Hurston Reader | (1979) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Sanctified Church | (1981) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Spunk! | (1985) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Complete Stories | (1995) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Novels and Stories | (1995) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Zora Neale Hurston: Stories | (1995) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Zora Neale Hurston: Plays | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Go Gator and Muddy the Water | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Every Tongue Got to Confess | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| In Search of Our Sister's Garden | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| What's the Hurry, Fox? | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Skull Talks Back | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Lies and Other Tall Tales | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Bookmarks in the Pages of Life | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Collected Early Works | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
Publication Order of Plays
| Three Plays: Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Woofing | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| De Turkey an de Law | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Spunk: A Play | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Three Plays: Meet the Mamma, Color Struck and Spunk | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Color Struck | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
Publication Order of Picture Books
| The Three Witches | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Magnolia Flower | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| How It Feels to Be Colored Me | (1928) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Tell My Horse | (1938) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Dust Tracks on a Road | (1942) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings | (1995) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Bottle Up and Go | (1995) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Complete Essays | (1997) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Collected Essays | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
Publication Order of Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas (MELA) Books
(with Lin Yutang)
| Chinatown Family | (1950) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com | ||
| Chinatown Family (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas | (1950) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com | ||
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Publication Order of Anthologies
If You Like Zora Neale Hurston Books, You’ll Love…
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a story told by its main character, Janie Crawford. she tells her friend her life story in a beautiful language and her life is rather interesting with many ups and downs, filled with pain and love. Janie tells of her Nanny who saw what pain did to her daughter and promises not to let it happen to her granddaughter. She didn’t want what happened to happen to her grandchild and nothing mattered, even if Janie was unhappy. The story goes on to tell of the years after Emancipation when the slaves were freed, but life was still rather difficult. The story mixes real history of this time with strong female characters and is a beloved classic.
Hurston is also the author of Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance that collects many of her short works from the period of the Harlem Renaissance that captured the zeitgeist of African American life at the time.
