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Eugene A Stovall
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When I asked my new primary care physician if I would live to be 80 and told him I didn't drink, do drugs or have sex, he replied, "What for?"
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I have had a long association with Frank Yerby’s works both as a student as well during my teaching career. As an adjunct faculty member, St. Mary’s College, I discovered that Yerby’s works mirrored my department’s entire academic curriculum. I was convinced that Yerby’s works deserved a more critical evaluation than he had yet received.
In a 1959 Harpers Magazine article, “How and Why I Write the Costume Novel”, Yerby makes a series of enigmatic statements regarding the historical references in his novels. In order to avoid calling historical fiction, Yerby calls them ‘costume novels from which Yerby claims that Dial Press has cut almost all of the history. So my critical evaluation of Yerby begins with a fundamental question: why did Frank Yerby costume his novels?” But, very quickly, other issues lurking in the background regarding Frank Yerby, himself, begin to emerge. Mutterings within academic circles dismissed Yerby as merely a pulp fiction writer… and whisperings among the black intelligentsia accused Yerby of forsaking the race for commercial success. My critical evaluation of Yerby was forced to address these whisperings.
Darwin Turner who knew Yerby as friend and collaborator calls Yerby a ‘debunker of historical myth”. It is this insight that leads me to evaluate Yerby not only as a marvelous writer of rousing fiction for those seeking literary entertainment, but also creates a treasure chest of information about some of history’s most closely held secrets for the earnest reader.
Yerby draws upon some of the most profound thinkers of western civilization including Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Leo Strauss to provide some of his most important insights. Through my analysis of how Yerby employed these radically different thinkers to costume his novels, I come to a fuller appreciation of Yerby’s thinking as well as his personal commitment to provide African-Americans a boost forward at the intellectual level. In the end, I discover that Yerby costumes his novels to address his two audiences: those who wish merely to be entertained and amused and those searching for information. In this way, I find Yerby to be not only a debunker of historical myth, but an oracle of historical truth, as well.
Birth Place: Oakland, CA USA
Accomplishments: Attended St. Mary's College. Served in the Air Force as a radio repairman. Studied the Swedish Ombudsman at the University of Lund, Sweden. Received a master's degree from the University of California, Davis based largely on Swedish research and given membership into the Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Society Omega Chapter in 1971. Received an undergraduate degree from the Political Science Department of the University of California at Berkeley in 1969,graduating magna cum laude. Received Ph.D. in Political Theory from the Political Science Department at the University of California Berkeley, passing orals with distinction.
Born and raised in Oakland California attending catholic schools and graduating from Bishop O'Dowd High School. As a Boy Scout,earned 21 merit badges and the Ad Altare Dei medal. In 1958 at the age of eighteen, he was invested into the Knights of Peter Claver. Attended St. Joseph’s College studing for the Catholic priesthood.
Worked for the California State Legislature in the Assembly Office of Research as well as the Assembly Government Organization Committee. Served as program coordinator for the Institute of Race and Community Relations located at the University of California. Worked in the corporate world as a manager for Pacific Bell and worked as the network coordinator in the technology services department of the Oakland Public Schools.Taught at USF, St. Mary’s College, San Francisco State University as well as at Merritt College and the University of Phoenix.
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Books
|  | The Idumean Covenant: A Novel of the Fall of Jerusalem by Eugene A Stovall
GALLEY: Abraham’s twin grandsons, Jacob and Esau, were bitter enemies. Jacob ‘cheated’ his older brother, Esau, out of his birthright. As a result, Jacob’s descendants, the Judeans became God’s Chosen People and Esau’s descendants, the Idumeans became the peope that God’s hated and despised. God’s prophets, including Isaiah and Ezekiel, told the Judeans that it was permissible for them to rob and...
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 | Frank Yerby: A Victim's Guilt by Eugene A Stovall
An imaginative work that transports the reader into a mysterious world where Yerby’s characters snatch him from his deathbed and demand that he recant his doctrine of the ‘victims guilt’. They believe this doctrine has condemned Yerby to oblivion… and his characters as well. Their will to survive is pitted against Yerby’s pernicious belief with unforeseen consequences for all....
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Eloquent Press e-Book
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Short Stories
Debunking The 'scientific proof' of Cleopatra's Ancestry by Eugene A Stovall
A new twist in the ongoing controversy over Cleopatra VII's racial ancestry developed with the revelations of a skull found in 1920 by the BBC. Here is a commentary written earlier this year which cas...
Why Cleopatra Definitely Not Black by Eugene A Stovall
There were seven Cleopatras associated with Eygpt's Ptolemaic Dynasty. Eygpt's last and most famous queen was Cleopatra VII. Although many afro-centric scholars including J.A. Rogers as well as cele...
Egyptian Apologia by Eugene A Stovall
A further research into the controversy over the ethnicity Cleopatra VII ... with a surprising revelation about the origin of existence from Eygptian glyphs. ...
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Articles
REMINISCES OF A RECOVERING PIN COLLECTOR by Eugene A Stovall
Why do people collect pins? I have asked myself this question since 1985 and after having collected thousands of pins. Having satisfied myself that I have every pin I'll ever need, I am quitting.
Why I Don’t Hate Asians by Eugene A Stovall
Even though his arguments were weak and his examples were anecdotal, Eng touched a significant readership inside the Asian community with his diatribe against the Black community...
Why Yerby Costumed His Novels by Eugene A Stovall
In this essay, I retrace my own personal odyssey through academia made successful by adopting Frank Yerby's strategy of hiding or costuming my true beliefs....
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Links
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| Frank Yerby Renaissance Project
The Frank Yerby Renaissance Project collects information from around the world from his readers, sells Yerby's thirty three novels, conducts symposia and sells a book and DVDs about Frank Yerby. In addition, book signings and speakers are available.
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Additional information
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| Nearing completion of a second novel. The book is set in the turbulent period of the 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan threatens the Los Angeles Central Avenue community with a "Tulsa Solution". Pete Jenkins, a world war veteran and Garveyite, must choose between his love for Julia Duncan, the beautiful his Jamaican member of the African Blood Brotherhood wife and the heroic deeds he knows will caused him to lose her. |
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Contact
Information
Frank Yerby Renaissance Project
5848-Balmoral Drive
Oakland
CA
94619
USA |
Fax: 510-530-6621
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