Events on January 07, 2007:

Author Birthday: Zora Neale Hurston (1903)

Today is the birthday of Zora Neale Hurston (1903). The African-American folklorist/writer outraged fellow Harlem Renaissance writers with her second novel, Their Eyes were Watching God (1937), for using dialect. Today, her novel is widely admired and has influenced authors such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.