Merritt (Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South) offers an engaging biography of activist and writer Lillian Smith (1897–1966). The book begins with a description of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1960 arrest for driving without a license. Smith later revealed that the real reason the civil rights leader was arrested was that she, a white Southern woman, was riding in the car with King. Smith was known for speaking out against injustice, joining in the fight for civil rights, and working to end segregation, even when she was targeted for her words and actions. Merritt guides readers through the remarkable events of Smith’s life, including her relationship with her lifelong partner, Paula Snelling, and the publication of her bestselling and widely banned 1944 novel, Strange Fruit. Many of Smith’s papers were lost when her home was burned to the ground (likely an act of violence against her), but the author makes good use of other surviving documents and contemporary accounts to create a clear and lively portrait of this trailblazing woman.
VERDICT An excellent and inspiring biography, recommended for general collections and especially for those interested in literary figures and civil rights and LGBTQIA+ activists of the 1960s.
An Inconvenient Woman: The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America by Keri Leigh Merritt will be published in the English language by St. Martin’s Press in North America in September 2026.
Keri Leigh Merritt, Ph.D. is a historian and writer. Her first book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South, won both the Bennett Wall Award from the Southern Historical Association as well as the President’s Book Award from the Social Science History Association. She has co-edited several other books, including After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America, and her articles have appeared in outlets from Smithsonian andAeon to The Hill and CNN.