By Maranda Christy and Aspasia Luster
Maranda Christy, Special Collections Library Assistant (Reese Library) and Aspasia Luster, Access Services Librarian (Greenblatt Library), recently attended the Georgia Historical Marker Dedication ceremony for Frank Yerby, a successful local author. Yerby’s first published novel, The Foxes of Harrow, sold over one million copies and was adapted into a movie in 1947, both firsts for any African American author! More film adaptations followed with The Golden Hawk in 1952 and The Saracen Blade in 1954. In all, Yerby wrote thirty-three novels and many short stories and poems.
Local history lovers and researchers attended the unveiling of the historical marker and remarks were given by Gerald Yerby, Frank Yerby’s nephew; Corey Rogers, historian at the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History; Dr. Cheryl Evans-Jones, President of Paine College; Jared Williams, District Attorney, Dr. Lejeune Hickson, Haines Alumni Association, Breana James of the Georgia Historical Society, and the “spirit of Franky Yerby” as re-enacted by Leon Maben. Furthermore, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity sang the Paine College Hymn—written by Frank Yerby himself.
Reese Library’s Special Collections & Institutional Archives houses a collection of over thirty Frank Yerby novels, including The Foxes of Harrow, Yerby’s most well-known work. There are also several records in our manuscript collections about Frank Yerby: Frank Yerby vertical file, a studio portrait of Mr. Rufus Yerby (father to author Frank Yerby) and a photograph of the Frank Yerby house in Augusta.
Click here to access other Frank Yerby books in the library catalog.
