Submitted information and photos:
The book launch for the biography of Lucille Selig Frank, wife of Leo Frank, by local award-winning author Ann Hite is 6 p.m. Monday in the Switzer Library Community Room, 266 Roswell St. in Marietta. The program is presented by The Georgia Room, Cobb Library Foundation, and the Bookmiser bookshop.
The new book, “I Am a Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank, 1888–1957” is about how she lived before and after the infamous 1915 lynching of her husband in Marietta. The lynching occurred near what’s now the west side of the I-75/Roswell Road overpass. It’s a story Hite says she has wanted to tell since she was nine years old after her grandmother told her of the horror of seeing Leo Frank’s body hanging from a tree.
Hite, the celebrated writer of the Black Mountain fiction series, will be interviewed in the program by author Carolyn Curry, a historian and founder of Women Alone Together, a non-profit formed in 2002 “to provide confidence, kinship and education to women who are ‘alone.’”
Copies of I Am a Georgia Girl will be available for purchase and signing at the author talk event.
The book and Hite’s extensive decades-long research for the book has won praise from her peers.
“I Am a Georgia Girl, Hite’s nonfiction feat, gleams with precision, humanity, and expert story-telling,” said Robert Gwaltney, award-winning author of The Cicada Tree. “This tautly rendered, compelling account of the courageous life of Lucille Selig Frank and events surrounding the 1915 lynching of her husband, Leo Max Frank, weaves the timely and momentous story of gross injustice, anti-Semitism, and the suppression of women’s voices. Lucille Selig Frank would be proud.”
John Pruitt, the retired WSB-TV news anchor and author of Tell It True, a novel based on real events surrounding the case of the 1964 murder of an African American serviceman, said Hite has created “a remarkable portrait” of a courageous woman.
“The roles of Lucille Frank and other women swept up in the Leo Frank saga have often been underreported,” Pruitt said. “Thanks to Ann Hite for so vividly bringing their stories to life against the backdrop of one of Georgia’s most infamous episodes.”
For information on the programs and resources of The Georgia Room, visit cobbcounty.gov/library or call 770-528-2333.
Related:
- New book about Lucille Selig Frank is a conversation from one ‘Georgia girl’ to another (ArtsATL)
- Redication of Leo Frank Memorial (from the East Cobb News archive)
More Arts Coverage:
- East Cobb author of ‘A Reindear Tale’ has book launch party
- Revel Arts Collective to present interactive display showcase
- Cobb Library Foundation donates $26K to Cobb Library System
- Atlanta Ballet 2025-26 season debuts with Balanchine pieces
- Marietta History Center presents Holocaust photography exhibit
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