William Bradford Huie

Born January 1, 1910, in Hartselle, Alabama

William Bradford Huie (1910 – 1986) was born in Hartselle, Alabama. Educated at the University of Alabama, his first novel, Mud on the Stars (1942), dealt with the Depression in the Deep South. He followed this with the best-selling The Revolt of Mamie Stover. Huie became involved in the campaign for black civil rights and wrote about the activities of Asa Earl Carter and the Ku Klux Klan for national magazines such as Time. This included cases such as the castration of Edward Aaron and the lynching of Emmett Till. Articles about the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were later published as a book, Three Lives For Mississippi (1964). Other books by Huie included The Execution of Private Slovik (1954), The Klansman (1967) and an investigation into the assassination of Martin Luther King, He Slew the Dreamer (1970). Bradford published 21 books, and they have sold over 28 million copies.