. . . . "Praised by many for her studies of African derived religions in the American South, Haiti, and Jamaica, she is most famous for her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and her literary works inspired such writers as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ishmael Reed, Gloria Naylor, and Jewell Parker Rhodes, among others. (Source: The Official Zora Neale Hurston Website." . . . .