Zora Neale Hurston, the legendary author and anthropologist, was born 130 years ago today—and her legacy endures.

Hurston, known for her books including Their Eyes Were Watching God, was born on Jan. 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama. She was raised in Eatonville, Florida, where her father, a Baptist preacher, would eventually be elected mayor.

She was educated at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Barnard College in New York, where she studied anthropology. In 1934, she published her first book, the novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine; a collection of Black folklore, Mules and Men, would follow the next year.

In 1937, she published Their Eyes Were Watching God, a coming-of-age novel now considered one of the greatest English-language books of the 20th century. She would go on to write several more books, the last of which, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”, was finally published in 2018.

Admirers of Hurston are celebrating her career on social media. Author Evette Dionne tweeted, “Happy birthday to Zora Neale Hurston, the icon, the standard, and the writer who saved my life. Zora’s work is always prescient, but my prayers, always, is that her soul is at peace. She deserves that.”

And writer Judicaelle Irakoze tweeted, “I think about Zora and what it means to live in a world that kills you then celebrate you after you are gone. Her writings received the recognition they deserved years later after her death. Happy bornday to our ancestor.”

Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.