Mules and Men received mixed reviews when it was first published, according to some scholars.[18] The book fell into obscurity for several decades before being rediscovered by Alice Walker in 1975.[19] Because of Hurston's unique style and use of "frame stories" inside Mules and Men, it was generally popular with common people who found the story more approachable than other anthropologies of the time. The character Hurston presents, unassuming and non-threatening, allowed her to write about Black folklore in a way that would not upset white audiences at the time. Indeed, some white reviewers found the book a "straightforward, nonthreatening depiction of the humorous and exotic side of Black culture in the rural south."[20] Hurston's Black contemporaries were less effusive in their praise, noting that the book presented a somewhat rosy picture of Black life in the south and that it should have been more "bitter."[18]
Among the scientific community, the reception was lukewarm. Hurston's unique narrative devices created a work that the contemporary scientific establishment judged as childlike and ill-advised. Franz Boas, her academic mentor the father of American anthropology, wrote in its preface that "It is the great merit of Miss Hurston's work that she entered into the homely life of the southern Negro" with the "charm of a loveable personality and of a revealing style."[1] Boas's introduction gave some credence to Mules and Men but at the cost of Hurston's authorial autonomy. Hurston was entirely dependent on Boas's introduction to give her any respectability among the intellectual milieu.[20]
