1496827872

9781496827876

1496827821

9781496827821

9781496827838

"Rediscovering Frank Yerby: Critical Essays is the first book-length study of Yerby's life and work. The collection explores a myriad of topics, including his connections to the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances; readership and reception; representations of masculinity and patriotism; film adaptations; and engagement with race, identity, and religion. The contributors to this collection work to rectify the misunderstandings of Yerby's work that have relegated him to the sidelines and, ultimately, begin a reexamination of the importance of "the prince of pulpsters" in American literature. It was Robert Bone, in The Negro Novel in America, who infamously dismissed Frank Yerby (1916-1991) as "the prince of pulpsters." Like Bone, many literary critics at the time criticized Yerby's lack of focus on race and the stereotypical treatment of African American characters in his books. This negative labeling continued to stick to Yerby even as he gained critical success, first with The Foxes of Harrow, the first novel by an African American to sell more than a million copies, and later as he began to publish more political works like Speak Now and The Dahomean. However, the literary community cannot continue to ignore Frank Yerby and his impact on American literature. More than a fiction writer, Yerby should be put in conversation with such contemporaneous writers as Richard Wright, Dorothy West, James Baldwin, William Faulkner, Margaret Mitchell, and more"-- Provided by publisher.

"The first book-length sounding of the major contributions of the first black American novelist to sell more than a million copies"-- Provided by publisher.

Project MUSE - 2020 American Studies.

Project MUSE - 2020 Complete.

Project MUSE - 2020 Literature.

Margaret Walker Alexander series in African American studies

Introduction

Focus on Yerby: transforming teaching and research at Paine College / Catherine L. Adams

Circling the boundaries of the tradition: the strange case of Frank G. Yerby / Guirdex Masse

Frank Yerby and his readers / Donna-lyn Washington

"I ain't no man!": blackness, wartime masculinity, and the protest tradition in Frank Yerby's short fiction / Veronica T. Watson

Overstuffed and undercooked: the film adaptation of Frank Yerby's The Foxes of Harrow / Matthew Teutsch

Pirates of the Caribbean in Frank Yerby's The Golden Hawk / John Wharton Lowe

Victim's guilt: Frank Yerby's Speak Now and the "politics" of miscegenation / Gene Andrew Jarrett

Finding the "necessary anguish": Frank Yerby's "The Tents of Shem" / Stephanie Brown

A Camus for the common folk: Yerby, religion, and existentialism / Anderson Rouse

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Index.

Yerby, Frank, 1916-1991 > Criticism and interpretation.

African American authors > Criticism and interpretation.

American literature > 20th century > Criticism and interpretation.

Project Muse, distributor.