Berry Fleming; Southern Author of 20 Novels

Author Berry Fleming, 90, noted for his 1945 novel about a newspaper columnist fighting political corruption in a small Georgia town. Fleming produced 20 novels, but his most famous was “Colonel Effingham’s Raid.” The novel satirized a Southern town’s struggles with a corrupt political party during the 1930s and 1940s. It was made into a movie starring Charles Coburn and Joan Bennett. Fleming was born in Augusta, Ga., and after service in World War I graduated from Harvard University in 1922 and worked for publications such as the New Yorker, Life and Punch, the British humor magazine. He also was a painter, and his abstract and watercolor works were exhibited in his hometown. Friday at his home in Augusta.