Details from the exhibit curated by Brenda Cooper to celebrate Hurston and her time in Fort Pierce.

Details from the exhibit curated by Brenda Cooper to celebrate Hurston and her time in Fort Pierce.

Credit: MICHAEL ADNO

Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a staple on high school and college reading lists. Published in 1937, it could have easily disappeared into obscurity if it wasn't for a young Georgia writer named Alice Walker. 

A decade before winning the Pulitzer Prize, Walker made a pilgrimage to south Florida to learn more about Hurston's life. Her essay about discovering Hurston's unmarked grave in an overgrown cemetery helped revive interest in the author, anthropologist and folklorist who spent her final years in poverty.

So, what happened to one of the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance movement? Michael Adno wrote about her ghostly trail for The Bitter Southerner. Adno joined On Second Thought host Virginia Prescott to discuss myths circulating around the life of Hurston, as well as her legacy.

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