Ollie Miss

"Ollie Miss is a character you don't forget ... this book is part of American as well as Black American literature." — Academic Library Book Review
Men are paralyzed in the presence of Ollie Miss, stunned by her vivid sensuality. Combining beauty, strength, composure, and self-sufficiency, she emerges from nowhere to take an all-black backwoods settlement in Macon Country, Georgia, by storm. Despite her poverty and her lack of education, Ollie Miss is determined to make a life for herself as she struggles to find independence, romance, and fulfillment.


One of the key novels of the 1930s Harlem Renaissance, Ollie Miss was published to widespread critical acclaim. A major contribution to the rich legacy of African-American literature, the evocative tale unfolds in the early decades of the twentieth century. Set amid a community of sharecroppers in the deep South, the story provides an atmospheric record of the period of social change that culminated in the civil rights movement.