Her books include "Tell My Horse," "Mules and Men," "Dust Tracks on a Road," and "Mule Bone." "Their Eyes Were Watching God," however, is generally acknowledged to be Hurston's finest work of fiction. Still, it was controversial. Richard Wright once called the book "counter-revolutionary" in a New Masses article while Alice Walker has said, "There is no book more important to me than this one."

Listen to MP3 excerpt of "Mules and Men," read by actress Ruby Dee and courtesy of HarperAudio.