William Bradford Huie was born November 13, 1910 in Hartselle to John Bradford Huie and Lois Brindley Huie. Bill Huie, as he was most commonly called, graduated as valedictorian from Morgan County High School in 1927 and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Alabama with an English AB in 1930. He joined the Birmingham Post as a reporter for $17.50 per week and married high school sweetheart Ruth Puckett in 1934. With backing from Birmingham’s “Big Mules”, he left the Post to start Alabama Magazine and, later, he and brother Jack started The Cullman Banner. A natural charmer with looks, intellect and ambition, Bill Huie soon branched out of Alabama as a lecturer and freelancer. He began to cultivate contacts in California and New York and started a career as a nationally-known, commercial writer.
Collier’s, January 1, 1941, “How To Keep Football Stars In College”
This piece brought Huie his first national attention. His exploration of the 1940’s University of Alabama football program created a firestorm. A recent public debate about this article between Forrest Gump author, Winston Groom, and Auburn historian, Wayne Flynt recalls the tenderness of that subject and Huie’s ability to provoke.
The American Mercury, November, 1941, “The South Kills Another Negro”
The American Mercury Reader, “The South Kills Another Negro” Blackiston Company, 1944
This story of the execution of an innocent black man named Roosevelt Wilson began Bill Huie’s relationship with The American Mercury magazine. Controversial at the time of publication, this article is a painful reminder of the language and mores of a dark period of the American experience. Huie remained proud of the story of Roosevelt Wilson until the end of his life. He repeated it in his first novel, Mud on the Stars, again in 1953 in his last issue as publisher of The American Mercury and in his 1959 book, Wolf Whistle. H.L. Mencken told Huie he would “go on to write more, but nothing finer.”
Mud on the Stars, 1941
Mud on the Stars, The University of Alabama Press, 1996 (currently in print)
Mud on the Stars, The New American Library (Signet paperback), 1955
Huie’s first book was a novel but a thin veil. It is actually a coming-of-age autobiography about his experiences growing up in Hartselle, his depression-era days at the University of Alabama and his battles as a reporter covering Birmingham’s labor wars and emerging racial struggles. Saturday Review said in 1942, “If we’re ever going to understand the South, we’ll have to get our facts from men like Huie.” Elia Kazan bought the screenrights and used it for most of the 1960 movie, Wild River, starring Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick.
The Saturday Evening Post, April 29, 1944, “Slickest Trick of the War”
Life, October 9, 1944, “The Navy’s Seabees: They Build The Roads To Victory”
Can Do, E.P. Dutton, 1944
The Case Against the Admirals, E.P. Dutton, 1946
Like most able-bodied Alabama men, Huie went to war. At 32, he became a Navy lieutenant and press agent. His ability and connections landed him in direct service of a set of powerful Navy officers. Assigned to the colorful construction battalions, he extolled the exploits of the Seabees from one end of the war to the other. He wrote two Seabee books: Can Do and From Omaha to Okinawa. His 1959 novel, The Americanization of Emily, is based experiences as WWII admiral’s “dog robber.” He also wrote two books during this period in support of the national lobby for a stronger and independent Air Force: The Fight for Air Power and The Case Against the Admirals.
