Frank Garvin Yerby was born on September 5th, 1916, in Augusta, Georgia, to Rufus Garvin Yerby, a hotel doorman of mixed ancestry, and Wilhelmina Ethel Smythe, a teacher of mixed ancestry. He attended the Haines Institute, a private elementary and secondary school for black students, and later received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Paine College and a Master of Arts in English from Fisk University in 1938.
Yerby's writing career began to take off in the 1940s, with his short story "Health Card" winning the O. Henry Memorial Award for best first published short story in 1944. His first novel, "The Foxes of Harrow", was published in 1946 and became an immediate success, making him the first African American novelist to reach the Best Seller Lists in the United States. The novel was later adapted into a movie by 20th Century Fox, making Yerby the first African American novelist to have a movie adapted by a major Hollywood studio.
Yerby's novels are known for being action-packed period pieces, often featuring a strong white hero in conflict with his times. His stories typically take place in the American South and include characters of all ethnic backgrounds, with an emphasis on black characters. Yerby's writing style is characterized by colorful language and a focus on historical accuracy.
Despite his success, Yerby was criticized by some in the African American community for not writing more about the struggles and experiences of black people. However, Yerby believed that writers should focus on entertaining their readers rather than preaching to them, and that his novels could help to expose the injustices of the "old south" to a wider audience.
Throughout his career, Yerby wrote thirty-three novels and sold more than seventy million hardback and paperback books worldwide. He was a prolific writer who was known for his ability to craft engaging stories that appealed to a wide range of readers. Despite the criticisms he faced, Yerby remained a prominent figure in American literature and his work continues to be widely read and studied today.
Yerby's later years were marked by controversy and exile. He left the United States in 1952 and lived in self-imposed exile in Nice, France, and later in Madrid, Spain, where he died on November 29th, 1991.
