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HARTSELLE: WILLIAM BRADFORD HUIE
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William Bradford Huie
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If we're ever going to understand the South,
we'll have to get our facts from men like Huie.
From THE
SATURDAY REVIEW, 1942.
William Bradford Huie wrote
about his country without the burden of conventional ideas. He
defied protocol to uncover the truth. A World War II veteran, Huie
authored The Execution of Private Slovik, revealing the
saga of the only American soldier executed for desertion since the
Civil War and arousing the ire of Ike. President Eisenhower
authorized Slovik's execution. Frank
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Sinatra bought the film
rights to Slovik but the Defense Department
interceded and kept it off screens until 1975 when
it became a successful TV movie.
Slovik
was not Huie's first book. He propelled himself as a
writer for the Birmingham Post in 1941 to national
attention at The American Mercury with his
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William Bradford Huie's home
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autobiographical Mud on the Stars that
captured his Hartselle coming-of-age in fiction. At the height
of his international fame as a journalist, novelist and news anchor
for CBS, Huie returned to Hartselle in the late 1950s, coincidental
to his success with
The Americanization of Emily. He built a house for himself and
another one for his parents on the corners of Day and Barkley, but
the comforts of home in the picturesque northwestern Alabama town
could not detour "Bill" Huie from controversy.
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Because Hartselle was located near
national events during the Civil Rights Movement, Huie
became a reliable writer for national publications needing a
fearless Southern reporter. He delivered the confession of
the murderers of Emmett Till to the nation's press and
authored Three Lives for Mississippi, the basis for
the film Mississippi Burning. The UK edition of the book featured a forward
by Rev. Martin Luther King. He also wrote The Klansman
depicting a small southern town dominated by the Klan. And
in 1967, the writer found a cross blazing on the front lawn.
Writing until his death in 1986, Huie never abandoned his
North Alabama home, even when controversy knocked on his own
door.
Hartselle celebrates its
connections to a writer who never compromised. In November 2006, the
hospitable and civic-minded town named its public library in honor
of William Bradford Huie where it displays a permanent exhibit of
his work (wbhuie.wordpress.com).
He is buried in the Hartselle City Cemetery with members of his
family.
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William Bradford Huie in Hawaii
(Courtesy, Martha Huie)
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Downtown Hartselle
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William Bradford Huie (center) with his
siblings in
1924 (Courtesy, Martha Huie) |
Hartselle Train Depot
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For more
information on William Bradford Huie, link here to his
listing in the Encyclopedia of Alabama supported by the
Alabama Humanities Foundation.
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William Bradford Huie
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