Veronica Watson'sThe Short Stories of Frank Yerbyis now available to the public via online distributors and in bookstores once they reopen.
Frank Yerby's first novel,The Foxes of Harrow, established him as a writer andlaunched a 49-year career in which he published 33 novels.Yet, few know that Yerby began his writing career with the publication of a short storyin hisschool newspaper in 1936, the first of nine stories he would publish in the 1930s and '40s. This groundbreaking collection brings together 15 stories, 11 of which have never before been published, to represent the diversity of Yerby'swriting styles and interests. Through Watson's engaging introduction and the breadth of stories in the collection, Yerby emerges from the shadows as a writer and intellectual who thought deeply about philosophical questions at the center of understanding what it means to be human.
The collection is the culmination of research Watson completed in Madrid, Spain as well as Boston, Nashville, and Augusta, Georgia over a five year period, and grew out of her first book, The Souls of White Folks: African American WritersTheorize Whiteness.
Watson is a faculty member in the Department of English and director of Graduate Studies in Literature and Criticism.