12 Facts About Frank Yerby

Frank Garvin Yerby was an American writer, best known for his 1946 historical novel The Foxes of Harrow.

Frank Yerby 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 of New Challenge, a literary magazine published by Dorothy West.

Two years later, Frank Yerby would publish his first short story, "Salute to the Flag," in the November 1936 issue of The Paineite, the student newspaper of Paine College.

Frank Yerby would continue to publish poetry and short stories while he was a student at Paine College and Fisk University.

Frank 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.

Frank Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the antebellum South.

Frank Yerby took considerable pains in research and often end-noted his historical works.

In some quarters, Frank Yerby is best known for his masterpiece The Dahomean.

Frank Yerby married Flora Helen Claire Williams in 1941.

Frank Yerby left the United States in 1952, in protest against racial discrimination, and moved to Nice, France, for three years.

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

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