Frank Yerby

Frank Yerby
Born	Frank Garvin Yerby (1916-09-05)September 5, 1916 Augusta, Georgia, United States
Died	November 29, 1991(1991-11-29)(aged 75) Madrid,Spain
Occupation	Historical novelist
Spouse	Flora Williams; Blanca Calle Perez
Children	Jacques Yerby, Nikki Yerby, Faune Yerby, Jan Yerby
Relatives	Alonzo Yerby(brother)

Frank Garvin Yerby((1916-09-05)September 5, 1916 –(1991-11-29)November 29, 1991) was an American writer, best known for his 1946 historical novelThe Foxes of Harrow.

Early life

Yerby was born inAugusta, Georgia,on September 5, 1916, the second of four children of Rufus Garvin Yerby (1886–1961), a hotel doorman, and Wilhelmina Ethel Yerby (née Smythe) (1888–1960), a teacher.Yerby's ancestry was Black, White, and Native American. Yerby would later refer to himself as "a young man whose list of ancestors read like a mini-United Nations."One of Yerby's siblings wasAlonzo Yerby,Associate Dean of theHarvard School of Public Healthin Boston and New York City Hospitals Commissioner.

As a child, Yerby attended Augusta's Haines Institute, a private school for African Americans founded byLucy Laney,from which he graduated in 1933.In 1937, he graduated fromPaine Collegewith a B.A. in English, and earned his M.A. in Dramatic Arts fromFisk Universityin 1938.

In 1938, he began courses for a doctorate in English at theUniversity of Chicago,but left school for financial reasons in 1939.He was a professor of English atFlorida A&M Universityfrom 1939 - 1940 and thenSouthern Universityin Louisiana from 1940 - 1941, before moving to Detroit and New York, where he worked in wartime defense industries.

He began his literary career while he was a student at Paine College by publishing poetry, starting with the poems "Miracles" and "Brevity" in the September 1934 issue ofNew Challenge,a literary magazine published byDorothy West.Two years later, Yerby would publish his first short story, "Salute to the Flag," in the November 1936 issue ofThe Paineite,the student newspaper of Paine College.He would continue to publish poetry and short stories while he was a student at Paine College and Fisk University. While he was a student at the University of Chicago, he worked for theFederal Writers Project,writing about religious groups he observed on the south side of Chicago as part of the social historyThe Negro in Illinoisunder the supervision of the dancer, choreographer, and anthropologistKatherine Dunham.

Yerby continued to publish short stories and wrote the manuscript of a protest novel, "This is My Own," about a black steel worker turned boxer who comes to a tragic end while he worked in the defense industry. That manuscript was rejected, but the editor Muriel Fuller ofRedbookencouraged him to send her something else. He sent her the short story "Health Card." She decided it was unsuitable forRedbook,but she sent it toHarper's,which published it in 1944."Health Card" won the prestigiousO. Henry Memorial Prizefor best short story.The success of "Health Card" earned Yerby a book contract with Dial Press. The rejection of "This is My Own" caused Yerby to abandon protest literature in favor of historical fiction.

Novelist

Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in theantebellumSouth.In mid-century, he began writing a series of best-selling historical novels ranging from theAthensofPericlesto Europe in theDark Ages.Yerby took considerable pains in research and often end-noted his historical works. In all, he wrote 33 novels.

In 1946, he publishedThe Foxes of Harrow,a Southern historical romance, which became the first novel by an African American to sell more than a million copies. In this work he faithfully reproduced many of the genre's most familiar features, with the notable exception of his representation of African-American characters, who bore little resemblance to the "happy darkies" that appeared in such well-known works asGone With the Wind(1936). That same year he also became the first African American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when20th Century FoxoptionedFoxes.Ultimately, the book became a 1947 film of the same name starringRex HarrisonandMaureen O'Harawhich was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Production Design(Lyle R. Wheeler,Maurice Ransford,Thomas Little,Paul S. Fox).

In some quarters, Yerby is best known for his masterpieceThe Dahomean(1971).The novel, which focuses on the life of an enslaved African chief's son who is transported to America, serves as the culmination of Yerby's efforts toward incorporating racial themes into his works. Prior to that, Yerby was often criticized by blacks for the lack of focus on African-American characters in his books.

In 2012,The New York TimescolumnistNicholas Kristofwrote an article featuring an at-risk child whose life was turned around by reading Yerby books that one of his teachers was secretly providing to him.

Private life

Yerby married Flora Helen Claire Williams (1921 - 2001) in 1941. They had four children. The couple separated in 1955, and their divorce was finalized in 1956.

Yerby left the United States in 1952, in protest against racial discrimination, and moved toNice,France, for three years. In 1955, he moved toMadrid,Spain where he remained for the rest of his life.Yerby married Blanca Calle-Perez in 1956.

Yerby died from liver cancer in Madrid and was interred there in theCementerio de la Almudena,the biggest Spanish cemetery.

Posthumous honors

In 2006, Yerby was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

In 2013, the Augusta Literary Festival created an award to honor Frank Yerby. This award is given to three fiction authors from a submission pool.

In 2023, theGeorgia Historical Society,in partnership with theLucy Craft LaneyMuseum of Black History, Haines Alumni Association, andPaine College,erected a Georgia historical marker in Augusta, Georgia recognizing the life and career of Frank Yerby.

In popular media

Uncle Percy inThomas Mullen'sDarktownis partly based on Frank Yerby.

George R. R. Martincites Frank Yerby as an influence on his own writing.

Novels

• The Foxes of Harrow(1946) (filmed under the same name), the sixth best-selling novel in the US in 1946.
• The Vixens(1947), the fifth best-selling novel in the US in 1947.
• The Golden Hawk(1948) (filmed under the same name)
• Pride's Castle(1949)
• Floodtide(1950)
• A Woman Called Fancy(1951)
• The Saracen Blade(1952) (filmed under the same name)
• The Devil's Laughter(1953)
• Bride of Liberty(1954)
• Benton's Row(1954)
• The Treasure of Pleasant Valley(1955)
• Captain Rebel(1956)
• Fairoaks(1957)
• The Serpent and the Staff(1958, with jacket byGeorge Adamson)
• Jarrett's Jade(1959)
• Gillian(1960)

• The Garfield Honor(1961)
• Griffin's Way(1962)
• The Old Gods Laugh(1964)
• An Odor of Sanctity(1965)
• Goat Song(1967)
• Judas, My Brother(1968)
• Speak Now(1969)
• The Dahomean(1971, later published asThe Man from Dahomey)
• The Girl From Storeyville(1972)
• The Voyage Unplanned(1974)
• Tobias and the Angel(1975)
• A Rose for Ana Maria(1976)
• Hail the Conquering Hero(1977)
• A Darkness at Ingraham's Crest(1979)
• Western: A Saga of the Great Plains(1982)
• Devilseed(1984)
• McKenzie's Hundred(1985)

Short stories

• "Salute to the Flag" (The Paineite16, November, 1936, pp. 4, 13, 23)
• "Love Story" (The Paineite16, February, 1937, pp. 15 – 16)
• "A Date with Vera" (The Fisk Herald31, October, 1937, pp. 16 – 17)
• "Young Man Afraid" (The Fisk Herald31, November, 1937, pp. 10 – 11)
• "The Thunder of God" (The Anvil1, April–May, 1939, pp. 5 – 8)
• "Health Card" (Harper's188, May, 1944, pp. 548 – 553)
• "White Magnolias" (Phylon5, Fourth Quarter, 1944, pp. 319 – 326)
• "Roads Going Down" (Common Ground5, Summer, 1945, pp. 67 – 72)
• "My Brother Went to College" (Tomorrow5, January, 1946, pp. 9 – 12)
• "The Homecoming" (Common Ground6, Spring, 1946, pp. 41 – 47)

Veronica T. Watson published an anthology of Frank Yerby's short stories,The Short Stories of Frank Yerby(2020). It includes five previously published and eleven previously unpublished short stories.

Poems

• "Miracles" (New Challenge1, September, 1934, p. 27)
• "Brevity" (New Challenge1, September, 1934, p. 27)
• "To a Seagull" (New Challenge1, May, 1935, p. 15)
• "Three Sonnets" (Challenge1, January, 1936, pp. 11 – 12)
• "Weltschmerz" (Shards4, Spring, 1936, p. 9)
• "Wisdom" (Arts Quarterly1, July - September, 1937, p. 34)
• "Calm After Storm" (Shards4, Spring, 1936, p. 20)
• "All I Have Known" (The Fisk Herald31, November, 1937, p. 14)
• "You Are a Part of Me" (The Fisk Herald31, December, 1937, p. 15)
• "Bitter Lotus" (The Fisk Herald31, December, 1937, p. 22)
• "The Fishes and the Poet's Hands" (The Fisk Herald31, January, 1938, pp. 10 – 11)

Magazine articles

• "How and Why I Write the Costume Novel" (Harper's219, October, 1959, pp. 145–150)

Journal articles

• "A Brief Historical Sketch of the Little Theater in the Negro College" (The Quarterly Journal of Florida A&M University10, 1940, pp. 27 – 32)
• "Problems Confronting the Little Theater in the Negro College" (Southern University Bulletin27, 1941, pp. 96 – 103)

Film adaptations

• The Foxes of Harrow(1947)
• The Golden Hawk(1952)
• The Saracen Blade(1954),

Further reading

• Bibliography of Yerby's work, interviews, and scholarship.
• Fleming, KaToya Ellis (March 17, 2020)."You Never Can Tell About a River".Oxford American.
• Garcia Gomez, Emilio (December 21, 1983)."Entrevista con Frank Yerby".Etnografo.Madrid. Archived fromthe originalon July 7, 2014.
• Garibaldi, Korey, "The Business of Black and Interracial Children's Literature."Book History25 (Fall 2022): 443-478.
• Hill, James Lee (1976).Anti-heroic Perspectives: The Life and Works of Frank Yerby.The University of Iowa.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Hill, James L.(2011). Tracy, Stephen C. (ed.).Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance.Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. pp. 386–412.ISBN9780252036392.
• Jarrett, Gene Andrew (2007).Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature.University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Lowe, J."Subversive Romanticism, Haitian Specters, in Yerby'sThe Golden Hawk".allacademic.(unpublished manuscript of conference paper).
• Robbins, Hollis (March 21, 2019). "Frank Yerby, Protest, and the Picturesque".The Best American Poetry.
• Smiles, Robin V. (November 4, 2004)."Uncovering Frank Yerby".Black Issues in Higher Education.Archived fromthe originalon May 6, 2006.
• Teutsch, Matthew (January 31, 2018). "African American Novelist Frank Yerby's Writing on Race".Black Perspectives.
• Teutsch, Matthew (January 2020). "Frank Yerby and Lillian Smith: Challenging the Myths of Whiteness."TheBitter Southerner.
• Watson, Veronica (2020).The Short Stories of Frank Yerby.
• Williams, John A. (September 1963)."Negro In Literature Today".Ebony.