Fun Facts Friday: Frank Yerby

Frank Yerby (5 September, 1916-29 November, 1991) was an American writer from Georgia. His debut novel, The Foxes of Harrow, published in 1946, sold a million copies in its first year.

Books by Frank Yerby*

Fun Facts about Frank Yerby:

1. Frank Garvin Yerby was born in Augusta, GA to Rufus Garvin Yerby and Wilhelmina Ethel Yerby. His father was a hotel doorman and his mother a teacher.
2. Mr. Yerby was the second of four children; his brother Alonzo became the Associate Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and New York City Hospitals Commissioner.
3. The family’s ancestry included African Americans, whites, and Native Americans. The future writer referred to himself as a “mini-United Nations”. Nevertheless, he was admitted to a private school for African Americans called Augusta’s Haines Institute. He graduated from Paine College in 1937 and got his M.A. in Dramatic Arts from Fisk University the next year.
4. Frank Yerby published his first poems and short stories while studying at Paine College.
5. His won his first prestigious award, the O. Henry Memorial Prize, for his short story Health Card, about an African American steel worker who becomes a boxer.
6. In 1941 Frank Yerby married Flora Helen Claire Williams. The couple had four children before separating in 1955 and divorcing in 1956.
7. Even though he started writing romance novels set in the antebellum South, he started writing historical fiction. Those novels were bestsellers and meticulously researched, often including endnotes.
8. The author lived in Nice, France for three years, and then in Madrid where he spent the rest of his life and is buried. He moved to protect racial discrimination in the United States.
9. Games of Thrones author, George R. R. Martin, cites Frank Yerby as one of the authors who influenced him
10. Frank Yerby wrote 33 novels during his life, including The Foxes of Harrow which made him the first African American to sell more than a million copies. The book was made into a 1947 motion picture starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O’Hara – it was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design.