Perceptive and iconoclastic, a trailblazing activist, she was adored by readers of her work, and respected and admired by writers such as Maya Angelou, Zadie Smith, and Paul Beatty. Toni Morrison considered her one of the greatest writers of our time.

Her name stood out for her views on atheism and her belief in the social integration of Black and white communities. Although her contribution to the Harlem Renaissance was significant, her work was largely neglected during her lifetime. It was only after an essay by Alice Walker in the 1970s that she gained renewed attention.

Their Eyes Were Watching God became one of the most widely read works of African American literature. It is regarded as the defining masterpiece of an undervalued writer—an emblematic work about free women who do not need the mercy or pity of others.

Her major works include Mules and Men (1935), an anthology of African American folklore from northern Florida, and Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938), a study of rituals in Jamaica and Haiti. She was married three times and died in 1960 in Fort Pierce, Florida.