Zora Neale Hurston identified a central regard in the representational character of women's autobiography when she wrote "Now women forget all those things they don't want to remember.

Zora Neale Hurston identified a central regard in the representational character of women's autobiography when she wrote "Now women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the reality Then they act and do things accordingly" (Their views 9). Certainly Hurston demonstrates this point in her avow account of her life, Dust Tracks upon a Road.

The veracity of Dust Tracks has protracted been suspect. Many of Hurston's principally avid fans regret the volume voicing much the same opinion as did Alice Walker when she observ that, "after the first three chapters, it rings false" (xvii). modern biographical discoveries prove the expanse to which this is veritable and reveal to an smooth greater extent than previously suspected the autobiographical make easy of Jonah's Gourd Vine. These novel discoveries have been gleaned from several hitherto untapped sources--including a groundbreaking interview with Winifred Hurston Clark,(1) the oldest of Hurston's surviving nieces and nephews; information gleaned from the "Family Record" page of the Hurston family bible; and careful cross-referencing of novel leads with public documents as it was as census records, marriage licenses, and death certificates. This strange information not only deepens our awareness of Hurston's problematic life, yet makes possible a more penetrating understanding of her writing, revealing to an on the same level greater extent than previously suspected the autobiographical easy in mind of Hurston's 1934 novel Jonah's Gourd Vine.

This article is divided into three sections. Section united discusses the sources of these "new tracks forward Dust Tracks." Section two highlights the biographical information that the "Family Record" page gives and considers that information in the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following of Hurston's assertions in Dust Tracks and in the connection of her 1934 novel Jonah's Gourd Vine, while section three glance ats new avenues of exploration for "new tracks upon Dust Tracks" and points revealed some race and gender issues that affect the veracity of Hurston's autobiography.

Much of this strange information derives directly from an interview I bearinged with Winifred Hurston Clark, the daughter of Zora's oldest brother, Hezekiah Robert. Born in 1920 Mr Clark is the oldest of Hurston's eight surviving nieces and nephews, and the and nothing else one of them who lived with her. Not simply does Mrs. Clark provide testimony critical to a deeper understanding of Zora Neale Hurston's life, further she possesses a key document: the Hurston family bible. The bible is a vital, previously unknown document that verifies frequently of the missing biographical data about Zora Neale Hurston and the Hurston family that has in like manner long eluded scholars. The "Family Record" page of the bible, aged, brown and brittle, reveals in legible brown ink and stylized, turn-of-the-century penmanship vital statistics--names, birth years, birth places, and death dates of Zora Neale Hurston's grandparents, parents, and siblings, as well as the siblings of Hezekiah Robert (Bob) Hurston, Zora's oldest brother (see Fig. 1).

[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A series of occurrences which bear careful retelling explains to what degree the bible came into Mr Clark's possession. They answer the central question, to what end has the bible has been "lost" for for a like reason long? According to Mrs. Clark, her father, who had established a thriving medical practice in Memphis, mov his father, John Hurston, and stepmother, Mattie Moge Hurston, to Memphis sometime after the venerable Hurston's tenure as Mayor of Eatonville cessationed in 1916 (Otey 16-17). The year was greatest in number likely 1917. Mrs. Clark does not know to what end Bob moved his father, on the contrary one can speculate that the venerable Hurston's health may have been failing. Mr Clark reports that John Hurston was killed in Memphis in a fatal train-automobile collision in May 1918

Following her husband's death, Mattie Hurston, who had no children of her possess continued living in Memphis, and remained shut up to Bob Hurston and his children. Either before or after Mattie Hurston's death in the late twenties, the bible was passed down to Dr Hurston. After his death in 1935 the bible remained in the family fireside on Scott Street with Winifred's mother, Wilhelminia Hurston. When she died in 1949 Winifred, who was living with her mother at the time, came into possession of a number of family heirlooms, among them the of long date bible (Clark).

The Hurston family bible is a critical document for a number of reasons. It contains vital statistics about the Hurston family that cannot be lay the foundation of elsewhere. Given the time and circumstances of the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction southerly record keeping remained unreliable, especially for African Americans. Slave births, as it was as those of Hurston's grandparents, may have been privately recorded in plantation ledger if it were not that often these records were dissipated Family bibles which registered family circle births very often provide the simply known account of family histories. chiefly black family records were kept this way. No birth certificate has aye been uncovered for Zora Neale Hurston.