He drew from his Navy experiences, including his participation in D-Day, for his 1959 novel The Americanization of Emily. While chronicling the wartime activity of the Seabees, Lieutenant Huie had special permission to continue his own writing projects, both fiction and nonfiction. And we've offered no higher prices than were necessary to compete in the open market." World War II ĭuring World War II, Huie served in the United States Navy as a lieutenant and a war correspondent from 1943 to 1945, including a period as aide to Vice Admiral Ben Moreell of the Seabees. This piece about the University of Alabama 1940s football program included provocative quotes, such as "We who have recruited Alabama's players know who our competitors have been.
Huie's first national recognition came from his article "How To Keep Football Stars In College", Collier's Weekly, 1 January 1941. He reported on his experiences in the Los Angeles Times and later in the December 1950 issue of The American Mercury, a literary magazine. In late 1938, Huie was in Los Angeles and worked independently as an undercover reporter to gather information on gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. Huie later described the scene in his largely autobiographical first novel, Mud on the Stars (1942). Their wedding took place in her parents' home in Hartselle. In 1934, he married his grammar school sweetheart, Ruth Puckett. He attended the University of Alabama, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1930.įrom 1932 to 1936, Huie worked as a journalist for the Birmingham Post newspaper. He attended Morgan County High School and graduated as class valedictorian. Six of Huie's books were adapted as feature films during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.īorn in Hartselle, Alabama in 1910, William Bradford Huie was the son of John Bradford and Margaret Lois (Brindley) Huie, and was the eldest of three children.
Alabama open checkbook trial#
They had been acquitted at trial several months previously by an all-white jury. He could not acquire releases from the other four, so he altered the story to fit his narrative. In January 1956 he published an interview in Look magazine in which two of the six white men who killed Emmett Till admitted their guilt and described their crime. He was also known for the practice of checkbook journalism, paying subjects to gain interviews and articles about them. Huie wrote several books about controversial topics related to World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to writing 14 bestsellers, he wrote hundreds of articles that appeared in all of the major magazines and newspapers of the day. His credits include twenty-one books that sold over 30 million copies worldwide. William Bradford " Bill" Huie (Novem– November 20, 1986) was a writer, investigative reporter, editor, national lecturer, and television host.