William Bradford Huie (1910-1986) was a national figure in American journalism during the mid-20th-century. Born in Hartselle, he gained attention in New York in the early 1950′s as editor and publisher of The American Mercury and as an anchor on the CBS news show, Longines Chronoscope. He returned to Alabama as an independent reporter covering some of the most notorious events of the civil rights movement. Huie published 28 books, both fiction and non-fiction. His most famous is the story of American WWII deserter, Eddie Slovik. Six of his books were made into movies. A purveyor of “checkbook journalism”, Huie was no stranger to controversy. He, in fact, courted it. But the sum of his work is a landscape populated with the weak at the mercy of the powerful.

That landscape was honored in 2006 when the Hartselle Public Library was renamed the “William Bradford Huie Library of Hartselle”. A permanent collection of Huie’s primary work is on display at the library. There are also other significant documents and photographs available to the public.

This website presents the text of the reader’s guide for the Huie collection at the library. This guide serves as a time-line and biographical narrative to present Huie as a working writer. Which, above all else, is what he was.

We are pleased to announce the inclusion of William Bradford Huie and Hartselle in the Southern Literary Trail.

We invite you to join us during the last weekend of March. Or, at least, introduce yourself to William Bradford Huie via the links above.

About the Southern Literary Trail (includes event schedules)

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