This Goodly Land

George Wylie Henderson (June 14, 1904–April 28, 1965)

Other Names Used

• George Wylie Henderson, Jr.: full name

Alabama Connections

• Warriorstand, Macon County: birthplace, childhood residence
• Wetumpka, Elmore County: childhood residence
• Tuskegee, Macon County: childhood residence, education

Selected Works

• Henderson, George Wylie. Ollie Miss: A Novel. New York: F. A. Stokes, 1935. Rpt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1988.
• Henderson, George Wylie. Jule. New York: Creative Age Press, 1946. Rpt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989.
• Henderson, George Wylie. Harlem Calling: The Collected Stories of George Wylie Henderson: An Alabama Writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Ed. David G. Nicholls. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Biographical Information

George Wylie Henderson was born in Warriorstand, Ala. When he was young, his family moved to Wetumpka, Ala., where his father was a minister for a local church. In 1915, Henderson’s father became pastor of Butler Chapel AME Zion Church, and the family moved to Tuskegee, Ala. Henderson attended Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) and learned the printing trade there. He graduated from Tuskegee in 1922 and married soon afterward. In the late 1920s or early 1930s, Henderson and his family moved to New York City, where he worked as a linotype operator for the New York Daily News.

Henderson’s first published short story appeared in the Daily News as part of a series called “The Daily Story from Real Life.” He published nine stories in the Daily News in 1932 and 1933. Henderson expanded one of these stories, “Thy Name Is Woman,” to book length. His novel, Ollie Miss, was published in 1935 and was praised by critics. At this time, Henderson began publishing short stories in Redbook magazine. His second novel, Jule, was published in 1946. Jule was not well received, and Henderson published only one more short story after its publication. He did not stop writing, however. He was working on a third novel, Baby Lou and the Angel Bud, toward the end of his life. It was not completed before his death and has not been published.

Interests and Themes

George Wylie Henderson’s fiction is based in the American black experience in the first half of the twentieth century. Ollie Miss and many of his Daily News stories are based in Alabama, while Jule and his Redbook stories feature black characters who have recently migrated North from the rural South.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Articles

• Nicholls, David G. "George Wylie Henderson: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography". Bulletin of Bibliography 54.4. (1997): 335-338.
• Nicholls, David G. "The Short Fiction of George Wylie Henderson". African American Review 39.4. (2005): 491-499.

Reference Book Prefaces

• Greene, J. Lee. Introduction. Jule by George Wylie Henderson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama, . vii-xix.
• Jackson, Blyden. Introduction. Ollie Miss by George Wylie Henderson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama, . vii-xix.
• Nicholls, David G. Introduction. Harlem Calling: The Collected Stories of George Wylie Henderson: An Alabama Writer of the Harlem Renaissance by George Wylie Henderson. Ed. David G. Nicholls. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, . 1-12.

Photo courtesy of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, Auburn University.

Last updated on Oct 10, 2009.