It is appropriate that Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God should be reissued almost simultaneously. Both works can rightfully be considered classic studies of Afro-American culture. Zora Neale Hurston—novelist, folklorist, and essayist—wrote about Afro-American culture with an insight and perception shared by few black writers.

Throughout her varied career Hurston tended to combine her two passions, folklore and literature, in interesting and compelling ways. She has often been accused of making her folklore studies too literary and her literary works too folkloristic, a criticism which has some merit. Mules and Men stands as a testament to this inclination in Hurston's treatment of folklore materials. Although the narrative structure of Mules and Men was included because of publisher's objections to printing the straight folklore texts collected by Hurston, it provided her with a unique opportunity to present storytelling context. In the process, she demonstrated...