I Am a Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank, 1888-1957

by Ann Hite

Twenty-five-year-old Lucille Selig Frank's whole life changed on April 26, 1913, as the Confederate Memorial Parade marched through Atlanta, Georgia. Lucille was attending the opera matinee with her mother. Her husband, Leo Frank, sat in his office in the National Pencil Company, where he was superintendent, working on a financial report. The brutal murder of fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan, an employee of Leo's, took place in the pencil factory that day. Lucille's husband would be the last known person to see Mary alive. While much has been written about Mary Phagan's murder and Leo Frank's subsequent trial over the past 115 years, very little has given voice to Lucille Selig Frank and other women connected to the horrific events that took place between 1913-1915. Lucille was part of a mission to make Governor John Slaton aware of the antisemitism being shown to Leo during his arrest and trial. She paid a heavy price for her courage. The story of Lucille and the women connected to this case is as timely today as it was in the early 1900s. This book has many diverse characters, including place which influences the outcome. Within this complexity, Hite's telling of Lucille's story will help others see that antisemitism, the marginalization of women, and mobs taking justice into their own hands cannot be tolerated. How many people were complicit in Leo and Lucille's journey? Was justice truly served? This book leaves the reader to answer these questions.

401 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 2, 2025

About the author

Ann Hite’s debut novel, Ghost On Black Mountain, not only became a Townsend Prize Finalist but won Georgia Author of the Year in 2012. Her personal essays and short stories have been published in numerous national anthologies. The Storycatcher, her second Black Mountain novel, will be released by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster on September 10th. Lowcountry Spirit, an eBook novella, is available from Pocket Star, also an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Ann is an admitted book junkie with a library of over a thousand books. She lives in Smyrna, Georgia with her husband and daughter, where she allows her Appalachian characters to dictate their stories.

Reviews

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expertly researched and crafted. A book ten years in the making has finally arrived, and I am so lucky to be one of the first to read it. The truth this book will bring to light for Georgia will rock the state to its core. Some of us have been waiting for this book, and some have been dreading the day that their hatred and bigotry would be displayed.

But that’s not to say that the hard truths and research are the strongest parts of the book. I Am a Georgia Girl will leave you with quotes you will want to type out and hang on the wall. The prose is reminiscent of Truman Capote and Harper Lee. It’s as if To Kill a Mockingbird was nonfiction and told in the manner of In Cold Blood. Both chilling and beautiful.

I Am a Georgia Girl is definitely one of the must reads of nonfiction for 2025!

[Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann, author of the award winning Black Mountain novels (fiction), a deeply personal memoir entitled Roll Away The Stone, and more, returns with a biography of Lucille Selig Frank, the wife of Leo Frank who was accused (and later convicted) of the brutal murder of 14 year old Mary Phagan at the National Pencil Factory where he was superintendent and she was an employee in Georgia in 1913. Lucille believed her husband was innocent. She fought to prove his innocence and gain his freedom. But in 1915 local citizens decided to take matters into their own hands and give Leo the sentence they felt he deserved.

"While much has been written about Mary Phagan's murder and Leo Frank's subsequent trial over the past 115 years, very little has given voice to Lucille Selig Frank and other women connected to the horrific events that took place between 1913-1915. Lucille was part of a mission to make Governor John Slaton aware of the antisemitism being shown to Leo during his arrest and trial. She paid a heavy price for her courage."

I Am A Georgia Girl also touches on many other issues of that time period like families who needed their children to work to make ends meet and how seemingly normal, everyday "good" citizens could celebrate a lynching like it was a holiday in the park.

The seed for this biography was planted when Ann was just a girl and has been more than a decade in the making.

Ann never fails to leave me in utter awe of her writing, regardless of genre and the more I read I Am A Georgia Girl, the more the hairs on my arms stood as the timely relevance of this story hit me despite the events having taken place more than a century ago. This isn't just a book for those who live in Georgia or the South, it is a book for everyone.

[Jeffrey Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it was interesting, there really was not much written about Lucille Frank. Facts about her family, mainly, and how she did support her husband, but little else. The bulk of the book centered on the trial, of which there is a better book.

[Kimberly Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Hite’s soulful work always captures stories just before they can recede into the shadows. She knows her ghosts. She stays them on the page, not by the use of flimsy nostalgia, but with indelible truths of humanity and courage. And with every word of her latest, I imagine a conversation, two heads together in the early hours before dawn, one Georgia girl to another, both in fervent agreement that this work doesn’t ask us to remember, it asks us to change.

[Robert Gwaltney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I AM A GEORGIA GIRL Ann Hite's nonfiction feat, gleams with precision, humanity, and expert storytelling. 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, antisemitism, and the suppression of women's voices. Lucille Selig Frank would be proud.

[Odessa Blaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally read historic biographies because they can be incredibly dry and dull. This was not. Lucille Selig Frank's life looked like it was going to be idyllic until a horrific crime tore everything apart for her.
Hite does a beautiful job of respectfully and engagingly painting the events while giving depth to each of the people involved.

[Stacia Pelletier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully and masterfully written— this book narrated a piece of Georgia history that I had never heard about before. I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend!

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading about Lucille Frank's life. But the book mainly consists of text about the trial of Leo Frank. The title is very misleading. I was greatly disappointed.