A review by colin_cox
Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal by Yuval Taylor

4.0

Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes shared many passions and convictions. Like many writers, poets, and artists, they wanted autonomy to work how and when they pleased, and they sought ownership of the work they produced, something their patron Charlotte Osgood Mason too often curtailed. They also shared a vision of what African American literature should be. As Yuval Taylor writes in Zora and Langston, "They helped to keep the most vital strands of it (African American literature) separate by insisting that its value was distinct from that of white literature, and by writing lasting works that proved the point" (244). Therefore, it is not surprising that the conflict which ended their friendship was one of authorship of a literary text, the play Mule Bone, which neither Hurston nor Hughes saw staged in their lifetimes.

Broadly speaking, Zora and Langston is a book about literary production, but specifically, it is about the ideas that underpin the production of African American literature. Zora and Langston is a quick and concise read, but for anyone interested in understanding how Hurston and Hughes influence the sensibilities of African American literature, Zora and Langston is a fine place to start.