Elizabeth Lee Wheaton (née Fulton; 26 May 1902 – 14 December 1982) was an American educator and novelist.[1]

Mr. George's Joint

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Wheaton's first novel, Mr. George's Joint, was a decorated and controversial novel depicting African-American life in the American South. The award citation when the novel won the 1941 Thomas Jefferson Southern Award for the best book manuscript by a Southern author said the novel had "artistic truth and rich human appeal" unusual in its depiction of African-American life compared to other fictions which present African-Americans as "quaint and sentimental" or "falsified ... for purposes of social reform."[2]

The novel garnered as much criticism as acclaim. Lewis Gannett called its characters "black apes ... consistently subhuman."

References

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  1. ^ Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982
  2. ^ Current Biography 1942, 886-88.