William Bradford Huie
| William Bradford Huie | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 13, 1910 |
| Died | November 20, 1986 (aged 76) |
William Bradford "Bill" Huie (November 13, 1910 – November 20, 1986) was an American journalist and novelist. He wrote several books about controversial topics related to World War II and the Civil Rights Movement.
He was also known for the practice of checkbook journalism, paying subjects to gain interviews and articles about them. In January 1956 he published an interview in Look magazine in which the two white men who killed Emmett Till admitted their guilt and described their crime. They had been acquitted at trial several months previously by an all-white jury.
Huie had several of his books adapted as feature films during the 1960s and 1970s.
Born in Hartselle, Alabama in 1910, William Bradford Huie was the son of John Bradford and Margaret Lois (née Brindley) Huie, and was the eldest of three children. He attended Morgan County High School and graduated as class valedictorian. He attended the University of Alabama, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1930.
From 1932 to 1936, Huie worked as a journalist for the newspaper The Birmingham Post. In 1934, he married his grammar school sweetheart, Ruth Puckett. Their wedding took place in her parents' home in Hartselle. Huie later described the scene in his largely autobiographical first novel, Mud on the Stars (1942).
In late 1938, Huie was in Los Angeles and worked independently as an undercover reporter to gather information on gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. He reported on his experiences in the Los Angeles Times and later in the December 1950 issue of The American Mercury, a literary magazine.
Huie's first national recognition came from his article "How To Keep Football Stars In College," Collier's Weekly, 1 January 1941. 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. And we've offered no higher prices than were necessary to compete in the open market."
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