In this Book
- Alabama Afternoons: Profiles and Conversations
- Book
- 2011
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
summary
A collection of portraits of many remarkable Alabamians, famous and obscure, profiled by award-winning journalist and novelist Roy Hoffman
Alabama Afternoons is a collection of portraits of many notable Alabamians, famous and obscure, profiled by award-winning journalist and novelist Roy Hoffman. Written as Sunday feature stories for the Mobile Press-Register with additional pieces from the New York Times, Preservation, and Garden & Gun, these profiles preserve the individual stories—and the individual voices within the stories—that help to define one of the most distinctive states in the union.
Hoffman recounts his personal visits with writer Mary Ward Brown in her library in Hamburg, with photographer William Christenberry in a field in Newbern, and with storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham and folk artist Charlie “Tin Man” Lucas at their neighboring houses in Selma. Also highlighted are the lives of numerous alumni of The University of Alabama—among them Mel Allen, the “Voice of the Yankees” from 1939 to 1964; Forrest Gump author Winston Groom; and Vivian Malone and James Hood, the two students who entered the schoolhouse door in 1963. Hoffman profiles distinguished Auburn University alumni as well, including Eugene Sledge, renowned World War II veteran and memoirist, and Neil Davis, the outspoken, nationally visible editor of the Lee County Bulletin.
Hoffman also profiles major and minor players in the civil rights movement, from Johnnie Carr, raised in segregated Montgomery and later president of the Montgomery Improvement Association; and George Wallace Jr., son of the four-time governor; to Theresa Burroughs, a Greensboro beautician trampled in the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge; and Diane McWhorter, whose award- winning book explores the trouble- filled Birmingham civil rights experience. Juxtaposed with these are accounts of lesser-known individuals, such as Sarah Hamm, who attempts to preserve the fading Jewish culture in Eufaula; Edward Carl, who was butler and chauffeur to Bellingrath Gardens founder Walter Bellingrath in Theodore; and cousins William Bolton and Herbert Henson, caretakers of the coon dog cemetery in Russellville.
Hoffman’s compilation of life stories creates an engaging and compelling look into what it means to be from, and shaped by, Alabama. “Alabama Afternoons,” he writes in the introduction, “is a small part of the even bigger question of what it means to be an American.”
Read an article about domestic lives by Roy Hoffman in the New York Times here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/garden/25Domestic.html
Alabama Afternoons is a collection of portraits of many notable Alabamians, famous and obscure, profiled by award-winning journalist and novelist Roy Hoffman. Written as Sunday feature stories for the Mobile Press-Register with additional pieces from the New York Times, Preservation, and Garden & Gun, these profiles preserve the individual stories—and the individual voices within the stories—that help to define one of the most distinctive states in the union.
Hoffman recounts his personal visits with writer Mary Ward Brown in her library in Hamburg, with photographer William Christenberry in a field in Newbern, and with storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham and folk artist Charlie “Tin Man” Lucas at their neighboring houses in Selma. Also highlighted are the lives of numerous alumni of The University of Alabama—among them Mel Allen, the “Voice of the Yankees” from 1939 to 1964; Forrest Gump author Winston Groom; and Vivian Malone and James Hood, the two students who entered the schoolhouse door in 1963. Hoffman profiles distinguished Auburn University alumni as well, including Eugene Sledge, renowned World War II veteran and memoirist, and Neil Davis, the outspoken, nationally visible editor of the Lee County Bulletin.
Hoffman also profiles major and minor players in the civil rights movement, from Johnnie Carr, raised in segregated Montgomery and later president of the Montgomery Improvement Association; and George Wallace Jr., son of the four-time governor; to Theresa Burroughs, a Greensboro beautician trampled in the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge; and Diane McWhorter, whose award- winning book explores the trouble- filled Birmingham civil rights experience. Juxtaposed with these are accounts of lesser-known individuals, such as Sarah Hamm, who attempts to preserve the fading Jewish culture in Eufaula; Edward Carl, who was butler and chauffeur to Bellingrath Gardens founder Walter Bellingrath in Theodore; and cousins William Bolton and Herbert Henson, caretakers of the coon dog cemetery in Russellville.
Hoffman’s compilation of life stories creates an engaging and compelling look into what it means to be from, and shaped by, Alabama. “Alabama Afternoons,” he writes in the introduction, “is a small part of the even bigger question of what it means to be an American.”
Read an article about domestic lives by Roy Hoffman in the New York Times here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/garden/25Domestic.html
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Cover Page
- p. 1
- Title Page
- pp. 2-7
- Introduction
- pp. 1-4
- Part I: The Makers
- Charles Moore: Witness to Change
- pp. 15-24
- Part II: The Tellers
- Frye Gaillard: Writing His Way
- pp. 61-66
- Eugene Sledge: “With the Old Breed”
- pp. 75-80
- Part III: The Journeyers
- Mel Allen: “Voice of the Yankees”
- pp. 83-90
- Gay Talese: Made in Alabama
- pp. 91-98
- Howell Raines: Coming Full Circle
- pp. 99-104
- Winston Groom: The House That Gump Built
- pp. 105-110
- Part IV: Witnesses to the Movement
- Neil Davis: Tough, Sweet Voice of Reason
- pp. 125-132
- George Wallace Jr.: The Loyal Son
- pp. 141-147
- Johnnie Carr: Sustaining the Dream
- pp. 148-155
- Theresa Burroughs: In Beauty’s Care
- pp. 156-162
- Part V: Down Back Roads
- Sara Hamm: Keeping the Faith
- pp. 165-169
- Restoring Rosenwald: The Oak Grove School
- pp. 170-175
- Bessie Papas: A Malbis Life
- pp. 176-184
- Part VI: Different Windows on Dixie
- Yolande “Bebe” Betbeze: Cinderella in Charge
- pp. 205-216
- Alex Alvarez: Voices from the Past
- pp. 217-222
- Part VII: Personal Sojourns
- Greetings from Brooklyn, Alabama
- pp. 233-237
- Joe Bear: Ice Cream Man
- pp. 238-245
- Windows: A Son Remembers
- pp. 246-252
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 253-254
- Permissions
- pp. 255-257
- About the Author
- pp. 258-273
Additional Information
ISBN
9780817385606
Related ISBN(s)
9780817317393, 9780817359034
MARC Record
OCLC
772845309
Pages
272
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2011