Updated January 07, 2025 at 09:34 AM ET
Until today, outside of a handful of scholars, the world had not seen Zora Neale Hurston's final novel, The Life of Herod The Great.
Hurston, the accomplished Black writer, folklorist and anthropologist in the Harlem Renaissance era, worked for many years on the pages to The Life of Herod the Great until she died in Fort Pierce, Fla., in 1960 at the age of 69.
In this novel, Hurston looked to redefine the legacy of Herod, who reigned as king of Judaea from 37 BCE to 4 BCE. In a 1953 letter to her editor Hurston wrote, "You have no idea the great amount of research that I have done on this man. No matter who talks about him, friend or foe, Herod is a magnificent character."
Following Hurston's death, the unfinished manuscript sat in a trunk that was nearly consumed in a fire along with many of her other belongings.
Lucky for readers of Hurston, a neighbor and friend of the writer intervened with a hose, saving hundreds of pages that ended up in the hands of Deborah G. Plant, a scholar specializing in the life and works of Hurston. Plant edited the work that is out today, Jan. 7 — the mark of Hurston's 134th birthday.
Morning Edition spoke with Plant about the process of restoring The Life of Herod the Great and Hurston's interest in a figure who until now was largely considered a tyrant of his times.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Adriana Gallardo: When did you realize that she [Hurston] was a monumental figure for you as a professor, reader and writer?
Deborah G. Plant: I began to see the importance of Hurston after I accidentally came across one of her books in the Shrine of the Black Madonna Bookstore in Atlanta, Ga. … And what captivated me was that she managed to really depict Black Southern folk culture in such a way that really resonated with me because that's my culture and I hadn't seen my culture depicted in literature in that way … And for someone to have that ability to to capture us that way, I wanted to know as much about her as it seemed she knew about us, and about me. And that began my journey with Hurston.
Gallardo: What about Herod, this history figure from so long ago, from across the world, interested Hurston so much?
Plant: She had been interested in Herod as early as 1942 … she had always been interested in religious figures and all of those questions about church and church doctrine and church history and whatnot. Her father was a minister and her mother was a Sunday school teacher... She was interested in researching and writing about the history of the Jewish people after Moses, what became of their civilization, their culture… and as she was researching it and learning about it, she discovered Herod. And more and more Herod became a central figure, moving from the margins of her thought and research to the center.
She wanted Herod to be seen in his full character and in all of the depths of his many dimensions. She wanted people to know who he was and she wanted people to know that he was not this terrible, oppressive tyrant, as he was purported to be, but quite a popular king who ruled for 37 years.
Gallardo: Can you talk to us a bit about the condition of the manuscript when you got it? What it looked like?
Plant: It was in pretty good condition. And what I mean by that is that so much of it had been recovered. Yes, there's pages and pages that were missing and then also pages and pages that were burnt or singed.
But at the same time, there were many pages that were still intact. And that was, to me, amazing. That was like almost 400 pages and maybe about a third of that or a little more than a third of that had been exposed to fire and smoke. I was able to create a digital version of the typescript and longhand pages.
Gallardo: I wanted to talk about Jan. 7 when the novel debuts, which would have been Hurston's 134th birthday. What should the world remember about Hurston?
Plant: She loved life. And she loved humanity. And everything she did, her anthropological work, her work as a novelist, dramatist, her political activism, everything was about having us see one another as different variations of divine expression … We want to remember her as a humanitarian who was courageous in her effort to have us see ourselves, whole and complete. Undiminished.
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