Synopses & Reviews
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Alabama Afternoons is a collection of portraits of many remarkable 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 and Gun, these profiles preserve the individual storiesandmdash;and the individual voices within the storiesandmdash;that help to define one of the most distinctive states in the union.and#160;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 andldquo;Tin Manandrdquo; Lucas at their neighboring houses in Selma. Also highlighted are the lives of numerous alumni of The University of Alabamaandmdash;among them Mel Allen, the andldquo;Voice of the Yankeesandrdquo; 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.and#160;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 Teresa 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.and#160;Hoffmanandrsquo;s compilation of life stories creates an engaging and compelling look into what it means to be from, and shaped by, Alabama.
andldquo;Alabama Afternoons,andrdquo; he writes in the introduction, andldquo;is a small part of the even bigger question of what it means to be an American.andrdquo;
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
Review
Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4andldquo;Hoffman is a gifted writer. His style is easy to read. Every sentence is clear, strongly constructed, and connected to the overall theme. . . . Iandrsquo;m fortunate to either know or be acquainted with several of his subjects, and he has captured each of them nicely.andrdquo;andmdash;Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie: A Personal Odyssey through Events that Shaped the Modern South
Review
andquot;[Hoffman's] profiles preserve the individual stories that make Alabama unique.andquot;--Southern Jewish Life
Synopsis
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 remarkable 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
Synopsis
Alabama Afternoons is a collection of portraits of many remarkable 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 and Gun, these profiles preserve the individual storiesandmdash;and the individual voices within the storiesandmdash;that help to define one of the most distinctive states in the union.
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
About the Author
Roy Hoffman is author of the novels
Almost Family, winner of the Lillian Smith Award for fiction, and
Chicken Dreaming Corn, a BookSense pick endorsed by Harper Lee. He is author of two essay collections,
Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile and
Alabama Afternoons: Profiles and Conversations, and his articles and reviews have appeared in the
New York Times,
Fortune,
Southern Living, and the
Mobile Press-Register, where he was a long-time staff writer. A graduate of Tulane University who worked as a journalist and speechwriter in New York City before moving back south to Fairhope, Ala., he received the Clarence Cason Award in nonfiction from the University of Alabama and is on the faculty of the Spalding Brief Residency MFA in Writing Program. On the web: www.Facebook.com/RoyHoffmanWriter
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Table of Contents
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Introduction 1
Part I: The Makers 5
William Christenberry: Pilgrimage of the Heart 7
A visual artist in search of the essence of rural byways and childhood haunts
Charles Moore: Witness to Change 15
A photojournalistandrsquo;s nation-shaking images of the civil rights movement
Bernice Sims: A Folk Artistandrsquo;s Stamp on History 25
A folk artist renders the past, and the passing scene, in rich colors
Kathryn Tucker Windham and Charlie Lucas:
Kathryn and the andldquo;Tin Manandrdquo; 30
She tells ghost stories; he makes art from metal; they are neighbors and best friends
Part II: The Tellers 37
Mary Ward Brown: Black Belt Storyteller 39
A first-time author at age 69, she still hears the muse twenty years later
Sena Jeter Naslund: A Story Deep Inside Her 46
A novelist turns to a civil rights tragedy as basis for a wrenching tale
Diane McWhorter: Taking Pictures from the Inside 53
A journalist weaves hometown Birminghamandrsquo;s
tumultuous history with her own
Frye Gaillard: Writing His Way Home 61
Leaving behind Mobile in his 20s, a native son returns in his 50s to start anew
Artelia Bendolph: The Girl in the Window 67
Aged and blind, a woman tells of her famous, long-ago photograph in Geeandrsquo;s Bend
Eugene Sledge: andldquo;With the Old Breedandrdquo; 75
The WWII memoirist speaks of his boyhood, the war, and a book he had to write
Part III: The Journeyers 81
Mel Allen: andldquo;Voice of the Yankeesandrdquo; 83
His homerun cry, andldquo;Going, going, gone!andrdquo; captivated baseball fans everywhere
Gay Talese: Made in Alabama 91
A train to Tuscaloosa began his journey to becoming a famous New Journalist
Howell Raines: Coming Full Circle 99
Meditations on a legendary newspaper career and different paths taken
Winston Groom: The House That Gump Built 105
When Forrest Gump told his story, he transformed the authorandrsquo;s world, too
Tommy Tarrants and Stan Chassin: Deliver Us from Evil 111
A Jew and a Klansman, violence and forgiveness, lives intersecting after over forty years
Part IV: Witnesses to the Movement 123
Neil Davis: Tough, Sweet Voice of Reason 125
The editor from Auburn brought his pen to bear on a time of strife and hope
Vivian Malone and James Hood:
The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 133
The University of Alabamaandrsquo;s first black students recall the day the nation watched
George Wallace Jr.: The Loyal Son 141
Loving, defending, and coming to terms with a father controversial to the world
Johnnie Carr: Sustaining the Dream 148
In her 90s, the Montgomery Improvement Associationandrsquo;s leader keeps on
Theresa Burroughs: In Beautyandrsquo;s Care 156
When Dr. King needed safety in Greensboro, her beauty shop was his refuge
Part V: Down Back Roads 163
Sara Hamm: Keeping the Faith 165
In the last Jewish family in Eufaula, a woman strives to keep traditions vibrant
Restoring Rosenwald: The Oak Grove School 170
Former students shore up the legacy of Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington
Bessie Papas: A Malbis Life 176
Residing at the Greek Orthodox settlement since 1920, she tells of a vanished world
Edward Carl and Walter Bellingrath: Driving Mr. Bellingrath 185
From behind the wheel of a Packard limousine, an unusual friendship develops
William Bolton and Herbert Henson: Visiting Old Pals 192
At the coon dog cemetery, old cousins reminisce about dogs theyandrsquo;ve known
Scoop, Red, Moon, and Shorty: The Oak Tree Social Club 197
For twenty years the domino game has continued, as has the talk and the laughter
Part VI: Different Windows on Dixie 203
Yolande andldquo;Bebeandrdquo; Betbeze: Cinderella in Charge 205
Miss America 1951 looks back on a life of beauty, social conviction, and controversy
Alex Alvarez: Voices from the Past 217
In south Alabama, a Creek language teacher deepens his Native American culture
Abby Fisher: andldquo;What Miss Fisher Knows
about Old Home Cookingandrdquo; 223
The elusive author of what was, possibly, the first African American cookbook
Part VII: Personal Sojourns 231
Greetings from Brooklyn, Alabama 233
A sojourn from one Brooklyn to another
Joe Bear: Ice Cream Man 238
A summer job, a Polish immigrantandrsquo;s tale, and the clanging bells of freedom
Windows: A Son Remembers 246
The nameplate was still on the door: Charles Hoffman, Lawyer
Acknowledgments 253
Permissions 255
About the Author 258