Two chapters are devoted to her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine, set almost entirely in Florida. Others discuss her work for the WPA in Florida; Tracks on the Road, her autobiography; and Mules and Men, her collection of Florida folklore gathered under the direction of anthropologist Franz Boas. The book also treats Hurston's lesser-known works such as the play Color Struck and Tell My Horse, her first-person account of fieldwork in Haiti. The legal...

"Today the novel is often labeled condescending, but its characters--Tom, Topsy, Little Eva, Eliza, and the evil Simon Legree-- still have the power to move our hearts. Though 'Uncle Tom' has become a synonym for a fawning yes-man, Stowe's Tom is actually American literature's first black hero, a man who suffers for refusing to obey his white oppressors. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a living, relevant story, passionate in its vivid depiction of the cruelest...