Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States - Softcover

Hurston, Zora Neale

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060934549 ISBN 13: 9780060934545

Publisher: Amistad, 2002

Synopsis

Every Tongue Got to Confess is an extensive volume of African American folklore that Zora Neale Hurston collected on her travels through the Gulf States in the late 1920s.

The bittersweet and often hilarious tales -- which range from longer narratives about God, the Devil, white folk, and mistaken identity to witty one-liners -- reveal attitudes about faith, love, family, slavery, race, and community. Together, this collection of nearly 500 folktales weaves a vibrant tapestry that celebrates African American life in the rural South and represents a major part of Zora Neale Hurston's literary legacy.

About this title

About the Author

Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. An author of four novels (Jonah’s Gourd Vine, 1934; Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937; Moses, Man of the Mountain, 1939; and Seraph on the Suwanee, 1948); two books of folklore (Mules and Men, 1935, and Tell My Horse, 1938); an autobiography (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942); and over fifty short stories, essays, and plays. She attended Howard University, Barnard College and Columbia University, and was a graduate of Barnard College in 1927. She was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and grew up in Eatonville, Florida. She died in Fort Pierce, in 1960.  In 1973, Alice Walker had a headstone placed at her gravesite with this epitaph: “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.”

 

From AudioFile

Traveling alone through the southern United States in the early part of the twentieth century, Barnard scholar Zora Neale Hurston meticulously collected the stories and anecdotes told by this country's African Americans. Her work, recorded word by word in transcripts, lay largely unpublished for decades. Now Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis bring it to life in a stunning audio production that captures the richness of the language as well as the culture behind the stories. Listening to their performance is like listening to the original story-tellers sharing "lies" with friends on a warm summer evening. Given the spoken nature of folklore, theexcellent audio rendition can only improve on the original written publication. A foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an introduction by Carla Kaplan provide fascinating insight into both the collection and the recording of the stories, as well as their place in African-American history. A cultural treasure. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Amistad
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060934549
• ISBN 13: 9780060934545
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320