Annotated Biography
“Biography” BibliographyBoyd, Valerie. Zora Neale Hurston: The Howard University Years. The JBHE Foundation 2003Hill, Marion Lynda. Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston. Howard University Press Voices from the gaps biography. Zora Neale Hurston. University of Minnesota 2006“Sweat” BibliographySeidel, Kathryn Lee. “The Artist in the Kitchen: The Economics of Creativity in Hurston’s Sweat.’” Zora in Florida. Eds. Steve Glassman and Kathryn Lee Seidel. Orlando: U of Central Florida P, 1977. 110-120.
Sweat” reveals much of Hurston’s nostalgic memories, though it primarily focuses on Eatonville’s economic dependence on the neighboring town of Winter Park. When Hurston was growing up many of Winter Park’s inhabitants were white snow birds with money. Like Delia in “Sweat,” African-American residents of Eatonville made daily pilgrimages across the rail road tracks to clean houses, tend gardens, cook meals and watch the children of Winter Park
Williams, Barbara L. Fall From Eden: God’s Judgment in Hurston’s “Sweat”.
Because of its semi-tropical climate and its idealistic mission, Eatonville is an appropriate background for Hurston’s Edenic imagery in “Sweat.” The basic reference to the black/white and male/female conflict is very much at home within a tale whose foundational images underscore marital and moral tension.
Uppling, Jill. “Sweat” and “The Gilded Six-Bits”:Between Hurston’s Biography and Education.
“Sweat” is influenced not only by Hurston’s childhood town but also by her relationship with her employer, Fannie Hurst. Hurston met the writer Hurst at Opportunity’s award dinner, May 1, 1925, one year prior to the writing of “Sweat.” Hurston felt dependent on Fannie Hurst’s white patronage for recognition, much like Delia did in “Sweat.”