William Bradford Huie facts for kids

William Bradford Huie (November 13, 1910 – November 20, 1986) was an American writer, reporter, and editor. He wrote many books and articles that were very popular. More than 30 million copies of his 21 books were sold around the world. He also wrote hundreds of articles for major magazines and newspapers.

Huie wrote about important and sometimes difficult topics. These included World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. He was also known for paying people for interviews. This helped him get stories for his articles. For example, in 1956, he published an interview in Look magazine. In it, two men admitted they killed Emmett Till. They had been found not guilty by a jury before this.

Six of Huie's books were made into movies. These films were released in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

Early Life and First Jobs

William Bradford Huie was born in Hartselle, Alabama in 1910. He was the oldest of three children. He went to Morgan County High School and was the top student in his class. He then attended the University of Alabama and graduated in 1930.

From 1932 to 1936, Huie worked as a journalist for the Birmingham Post newspaper. In 1934, he married his childhood sweetheart, Ruth Puckett. He later wrote about their wedding in his first novel, Mud on the Stars (1942).

In 1938, Huie worked as an undercover reporter in Los Angeles. He gathered information about a gangster named Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. He wrote about his experiences in the Los Angeles Times. He also wrote about it later in The American Mercury magazine.

Becoming a Known Journalist

Huie first became known across the country for an article he wrote. It was called "How To Keep Football Stars In College." It appeared in Collier's Weekly on January 1, 1941. This article was about the University of Alabama's football team. It included some surprising quotes about how players were recruited.

Reporting During World War II

During World War II, Huie served in the United States Navy. He was a lieutenant and a war reporter from 1943 to 1945. He worked with Vice Admiral Ben Moreell of the Seabees. Huie wrote about the Seabees' activities during the war. He also had special permission to work on his own writing projects.

His Navy experiences, including being part of D-Day, inspired his 1959 novel The Americanization of Emily. This book was made into a movie in 1964. It starred James Garner and Julie Andrews. Both actors said it was their favorite film they made.

After leaving the Navy in 1945, Huie went to the Pacific theatre as a war reporter. His time at Iwo Jima led to his nonfiction work, "The Hero of Iwo Jima." This story was about the life of Ira Hayes, who helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima. This account became the 1961 film The Outsider, starring Tony Curtis. Huie's experiences in Hawaii during the war also inspired his novel The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1951). This book was made into a film in 1956, starring Jane Russell. Huie reported from almost every war front during World War II.

Working at The American Mercury

Before the war, Huie wrote for The American Mercury. This was a literary magazine started by H. L. Mencken. Like Mencken, Huie did not agree with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" policies. After the war, he returned to the Mercury and became an editor.

In 1950, a publisher named Clendenin J. Ryan bought the magazine. Ryan and Huie wanted the magazine to focus on the growing conservative movement in America. They brought in new writers like Billy Graham and J. Edgar Hoover. William F. Buckley, who later started National Review, was one of Huie's early staff members.

By the mid-1950s, the magazine faced money problems. Huie and Ryan had to sell it. After Huie left, the magazine changed direction. It started to promote racism, which disgusted Huie. He felt it lost its good reputation.

Freelance Work and Civil Rights Reporting

From 1950 to 1955, Huie was a popular speaker. He traveled across the country giving talks. He also became well known from his appearances on a weekly TV show called Longines Chronoscope. As a co-editor of this talk show, he interviewed many important people. These included John F. Kennedy and Joseph McCarthy. They discussed topics like politics, military defense, and world events.

In the late 1950s, Huie and his wife moved back to their hometown of Hartselle. Ruth worked as a first-grade teacher. Huie continued to write full-time as a freelance journalist and novelist.

During this time, the Civil Rights Movement became very active. Magazines like the New York Herald Tribune and Look asked Huie to cover important events in the South. In 1954, the US Supreme Court said that separate public schools for different races were illegal. However, many southern areas did not change their schools right away.

Huie reported on the killing of Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, in Mississippi in 1955. After two men were found not guilty by an all-white jury, Huie paid them for an interview. They described how they committed the crime. Because of a law called double jeopardy, they could not be tried again for the same crime. Huie published their story in Look magazine in January 1956. Some journalists criticized him for paying for the interview. Huie also wrote a book about the case called Wolf Whistle (1959).

Huie also reported on activities of the Ku Klux Klan. This included the 1964 killing of "Freedom Summer" workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. His books about this included The Klansman (1965) and Three Lives for Mississippi (1965). The KKK even burned a cross on his lawn in 1967 to try to scare him.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the introduction for a later edition of Huie's Three Lives for Mississippi. King said the book helped people understand the terrible events that happened. In 1970, Huie published He Slew the Dreamer. This book was about the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. Huie had interviewed the killer, James Earl Ray, for the book.

Huie's book The Execution of Private Slovik (1954) told the true story of Eddie Slovik. He was a soldier in World War II. He was the only American soldier since the American Civil War to be executed for desertion (leaving his post without permission). The government had kept this a secret. After the book came out, Huie tried for years to get a pension for Slovik's widow. The book was later made into a TV movie in 1974, starring Martin Sheen.

Later Life and Work

In 1973, Huie's father passed away. A few months later, his wife Ruth died from cancer. In 1975, Huie met Martha Hunt Robertson. She was an art teacher. They married in 1977. They lived in different towns in Alabama before settling in Guntersville.

Huie wrote one more important book after Ruth's death. In the Hours of Night is a story about the creation of the atomic bomb. It looks at how it affected the scientists and leaders involved.

William Bradford Huie died of a heart attack on November 20, 1986. He was working on a novel called "The Adversary" when he died. His widow, Martha Huie, managed his literary works until her death in 2014. Now, Martha Huie's daughter, Mary Ben Heflin, manages his literary properties.

Legacy and Awards

William Bradford Huie wrote over twenty books, and fourteen of them became best sellers. Many organizations have recognized his work and contributions:

• Inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame in 2018.
• The University of Alabama held a year-long celebration in 2010 to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth.
• The City of Tuscaloosa honored him for his service in World War II and his writing.
• The William Bradford Huie Collection was started at The University of Alabama in 2009.
• Selected for the Southern Literary Trail in 2009, which celebrates famous Southern writers.
• The Guntersville Museum added a section about William Bradford Huie to its collection.
• The public library in Hartselle, Alabama, was renamed the "William Bradford Huie Library of Hartselle" in 2006.
• Received the Alabama Library Association's Best Fiction Book Award in 1977 for In the Hours of Night.
• Won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime in 1957 for Ruby McCollum, Woman in the Suwannee Jail.
• He was an Eagle Scout in 1925.

After Huie's death, his papers, writings, and letters were given to The Ohio State University and The University of Alabama Special Collection Libraries.

Since his death in 1986, many publications have used or written about his work. These include The Fifties by David Halberstam and The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff.

See also

• Conservatism