Sources differ when talking about when Hurston furthered her education. Biographers state that she earned a scholarship to Barnard College in 1927, where she pursued the subject of anthropology and studied with Franz Boas. Yet, the author's own website suggests that Hurston applied to Barnard College in 1924, where she earned a scholarship and graduated four years later in 1928. College opened Hurston's eyes to the beauty of literature and made her want to pursue a career in writing. Shortly after graduation, she moved from her hometown in Florida to Harlem, New York in hopes of finding success and inspiration (About Zora Neale Hurston). Living in Harlem in the 1920s, Hurston befriended Harlem Renaissance visionaries such as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, among several others. Her apartment, according to some accounts, was a popular spot for social gatherings among young writers. Around this time, Hurston experienced a few early literary successes, including placing in the short-story "Drenched in Light" and playwriting contests in Opportunity magazine (Biography.com; Zora Neale Hurston). Hurston collaborated with Langston Hughes on a play called Mule-Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life (Biography.com; Zora Neale Hurston). These specific pieces of work became a great influence on well-known writers such as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Gayle Jones, Alice Walker and Toni Cade Bambara. Alice Walker claimed that if Their Eyes are Watching God was never published, her award winning novel, The Color Purple, would have never been created. The two novels embody many similar concerns and methods that characterize the black women's literary tradition. If it was not for Walker resurrecting Hurston's literature, it would have never gotten to be appreciated in today's world (Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston's Transforming Visions). Hurston released her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine, in 1934.