"Hurston and Hughes, two giants of the Harlem Renaissance and American literature, were best friends--until they weren't. Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God) and Langston Hughes ('The Negro Speaks of Rivers,' 'Let America Be America Again') were collaborators, literary gadflies, and close companions. They traveled together in Hurston's dilapidated car through the rural South collecting folklore, worked on the play Mule Bone, and wrote scores of loving letters to each other. They even had the same patron: Charlotte Osgood Mason, a wealthy white woman who insisted on being called 'Godmother.' Paying them lavishly while trying to control their work, Mason may have been the spark for their bitter falling-out. Was the split inevitable when Hughes decided to be financially independent of their patron? Was Hurston jealous of the woman employed as their typist? Or was the rupture over the authorship of Mule Bone? Yuval Taylor answers these questions while illuminating Hurston's and Hughes's lives, work, competitiveness and ambition"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction. Lovingly yours -- Spring 1925. Opportunity -- 1891/1924. I laugh, and grow strong -- Summer 1926. The Niggerati -- Spring 1927. Enter godmother -- Summer 1927. The company of good things -- Fall 1927. A deep well of the spirit -- Winter 1928/winter 1930. This is going to be big -- Spring 1930. The bone of contention -- Winter 1931. A miasma of untruth -- 1932/1960. The aftermath -- Conclusion. The legacy.