Alabama Book Covers (16): William P. McGivern

At some point in the dim mists of the past I ran across the Wikipedia entry for fiction and television writer William P. McGivern, which noted that although born in Chicago, he "grew up in Mobile, Alabama." Let's investigate.

McGivern was indeed born in Chicago in 1918. We can find him there in the 1920 U.S. Census, along with older brother Francis and their parents Peter and Julia. The family lived at 4903 Forrestville Avenue and the father was superintendent at a brewery.   

The future writer served in the Army in World War II and then studied in England. He spent two years as a police reporter in Philadelphia before his first novel, But Death Runs Faster [AKA The Whispering Corpse] appeared in 1948. McGivern was off and running. By the time he died in 1982 he had published more than 20 novels, mostly mystery and crime thrillers, numerous short stories and various television scripts.

Several of his novels have been adapted as films including Fritz Lang's The Big Heat [1953] starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame and Rogue Cop [1954] with Robert Taylor and Janet Leigh. A particular favorite of mine is Odds Against Tomorrow [1959] in which Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan try to rob a bank without killing each other. Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame also star. McGivern's time as a police reporter adds a realism to his crime writing and that is carried over into these films.

In addition to the crime novels, McGivern also wrote a number of short stories, including some science fiction. He wrote a World War II novel and two books with his wife Maureen, including a memoir of the family's world travels. In the 1960's and 1970's McGivern wrote scripts for a number of television series such as The Virginian, Ben Casey, Adam-12 and Kojak. He also wrote a novel as "Bill Peters". 

Ok, but what about the "grew up in Mobile, Alabama" business? Beats me where that came from. You'll find it stated in a number of places across the web, all of which seem to originate with that Wikipedia entry. Yet the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census records show McGovern living with his family in Chicago. In 1930 father Peter is listed as a real estate salesman; by 1940 he has moved to insurance sales. Perhaps the family moved to Mobile for some years between the census taking and then returned to Chicago.

Oh, well, perhaps I'll find documentation some day....

UPDATE October 16, 2021

I recently stumbled across some of that documentation. McGivern published a story "Adopted Son of the Stars" in the March 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures and also included in that issue is an "Introducing the Author" piece written by McGivern. The opening paragraph: "I was born at a very early age in Chicago, and for the next few years took little interest in anything but vitamins. Upon reaching the abuse of reason I learned that my family had transplanted me to Mobile, Alabama, a sunny little place hidden right down in the southernmost tip of the state." 

He goes on to note that there he "blasted my fond parents' hope in me by planting six of a neighbor's chick three feet in the ground" hoping to grow chicken trees. He mentions remembering his father play piano and singing, and the time he ate three bowls of chicken gumbo. Before too long the family moved back to Chicago. The rest of the piece describes McGivern's further education and early writing career, and includes a photograph of the young author. See below for both pages. 

My guess is that the McGiverns lived in Mobile either between the 1920 and 1930 censuses or the 1930 and 1940 ones. Some further research in city directories and so forth may one day produce an actual address. 

Two individual subscribers to the PulpMags@groups.io discussion list are largely responsible for this further bit of McGivern documentation. Steve Ericson is a dealer in used, rare and collectible book, pulps, etc,, specializing in science fiction and fantasy. You can find him at Books from the Crypt. He regularly posts pulp covers and contents to the list, and I noted this issue in a recent posting. Another collector and dealer on the list, Curt Phillips, kindly provided me with scans of McGivern's note. 

Since this piece was originally posted, I've written about the film Odds Against Tomorrow. Now we can say for sure it has two Alabama connections, McGivern and his novel and the appearance of Birmingham native Wayne Rogers in a very early role. 

William P. McGivern [1918-1982]

Source: Wikipedia

Source: FictionMags Index

Fantastic Adventures [v3 #2, March 1941] (20¢, 148pp, pulp, cover by J. Allen St. John) 8 · Slaves of the Fish Men [Venus] · Edgar Rice Burroughs · na 48 · Harnessing the Sahara · Jack West · ms 50 · Death Walks in Washington [Oscar] · James Norman · nv 78 · The Thought Robot · John York Cabot · ss 90 · Beyond the Time Door · David Wright O’Brien · ss 98 · Adopted Son of the Stars · William P. McGivern · ss 106 · Secret of the Stone Doll · Don Wilcox · nv 128 · Twenty-Fifth Century Sherlock · Duncan Farnsworth · ss 131 · Introducing the Author: William P. McGivern · William P. McGivern · bg Source: FictionMags Index

Whatever Happened to Advance, Alabama?

Everyone loves a mystery, so here's one. 

In the summer of 1936 writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans headed to Hale County, Alabama, on assignment for Fortune magazine. Agee had worked at the New York City publication since 1932. In 1935 Evans, working for New Deal agencies the Resettlement Administration and then the Farm Security Administration, spent time in the South documenting the effects of the Great Depression. I have written about the photographs Evans took in Birmingham on that trip in a previous blog post.   

Agee planned to write about the life of southern sharecroppers and tenant farmers, and he and Evans lived with three different families in Hale County for eight weeks that summer. The resulting lengthy article manuscript was rejected by Fortune, but in 1941 Agee published a book-length account, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, that featured many of the photographs Evans took on their trip.

Largely ignored at the time of publication, the book is now considered a classic and is a wonderful read. Although he used pseudonyms in the book, the real people have become well-known as well. The book has been very controversial in Hale County for various reasons, but I found it to be a sympathetic portrayal of noble people living in difficult circumstances. Agee was also a poet and fiction writer, and this book draws on techniques from both genres. 

Another manuscript about the trip was published in 2013 as Cotton Tenants. The original book inspired composer Aaron Copeland to write his opera The Tender Land, completed in 1954. In 1989 Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson published And Their Children After Them, which carries the stories of Agee's farmers up to the time of publication. The book won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. 

The two photographs below were taken by Evans on one of his two trips to the state and are labelled on various sites as being in "Advance, Alabama." The Photogrammer site at Yale University makes available thousands of photos taken in the 1930's and 1940's by New Deal photographers. These two are identified there is being taken in 1935 in Lee County.

Both the date and place seem wrong. Evans was indeed in Alabama in late 1935, but I have not encountered any reference to him in Lee County. The first photograph below appears in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men right after a photo of downtown Greensboro. That would seem to indicate the photos were taken on that summer 1936 trip with Agee.

"Advance" does not appear in Foscue's Place Names in Alabama or Harris' Dead Towns of Alabama. I've looked at 1937 road maps of Hale and Tuscaloosa counties and did not find "Advance." I also did not find such a town listed in the U.S. Geological Survey's Geographical Names Information System.

We should remember that Agee used pseudonyms for both the people and places in his book except for Birmingham. The county seat in Hale, Greensboro; the town nearest to the tenant families, Akron; and even Moundville are given other names. I wonder if "Advance" is the name given by Agee to some abandoned place in Hale County or if these shots were taken somewhere in Akron, Moundville or Greensboro. The only internal clue I can find, the C.W. Lewis Furniture Company, is described below. I did not find anything on the "Dunnvant General Merchandise" store. 

If you have any more info about the mystery of Advance, Alabama, let all of us know in the comments!!

This photo appears in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men right after one of downtown Greensboro. 

Source: Photogrammer at Yale University

On the side of this Dunnavant General Merchandise store is an advertisement for a Tuscaloosa business, C.W. Lewis Furniture Company. The ad urges "Come to See Us." 

Source: Photogrammer at Yale University

An invoice from July 1924


Source: University of Alabama Digital Collections

A C.W. Lewis Furniture Co. advertisement from the 1925 volume of the University of Alabama's yearbook, The Corolla 

Source: Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum

Walker Evans in 1937

Source: Wikipedia

Some Family Photos from the 1960s

I recently posted an item on some family photographs I took, or at least were taken with, a camera I had during the 1960's. This post continues that saga, and don't worry--there are plenty more to come as we travel back in time via old family photographs.

In 1960 we moved from a house on Cloverdale Drive in Huntsville to one on Lakeview Drive in the Lakewood subdivision. At the time that section of northwest Huntsville across Memorial Parkway from Alabama A&M was booming. Both houses are still standing, by the way. I'll be doing some posts on photos taken at Cloverdale sometime soon.

As we can see from the front and rear views of the house, we must have recently moved into it. The front and back yards are dirt with no trees or the basement entrance cover and patio dad would later build out back. 

Some comments are below each photo. Based on the clothing, these pictures were probably taken during two different visits by my grandparents from Gadsden. 

Here's the front of the house. Based on the rocks and the dirt, these photos were taken soon after we moved in. I think my brother Richard spent much of our lives picking up the rocks in the front and back yards before they were sodded.  

I

Ah, Christmas back in the day. Popcorn strung and put on the tree. All those thin aluminum strips that went everywhere. That's our grandmother Rosa Mae Wright [1900-1997] in the lower right corner. The small desk to the right of the tree is in mom's den at her current house in southeast Huntsville. That lamp may still be around, too. I may be proudly showing off a new wristwatch. 

Another view with mom, Richard and the train set. These photos were probably taken after the Christmas festivities and the arrival from Gadsden of the grandparents. 

These folks may be getting tired of being photographed. That's the patriarch, Amos Jasper Wright, Sr. [1894-1975], on the left. That side table under the lamp is in mom's sun room now. 

Grandparents watch the grand kids play. 

Now here's dad--Amos Jasper Wright, Jr.--on the right with his parents and younger son Richard. I probably took the picture; mom was probably in the kitchen. 

On the wall behind them are mounted evidence of dad's early interest in Alabama archaeology. We still have these gems in the family. Mom, dad, Richard and I spent many winter Saturdays in the 1960s walking cotton fields and other areas in north Alabama surface collecting whole ones and pieces of projectile points [arrowheads], pottery sherds, etc. We would bring them home, and after washing dad would meticulously label them with the University of Alabama Office of Archaeological Research in Moundville's site number and the finder's initials. We picked up thousands of these things over the years. Much of that material has since been donated to OAR.

Dad was very active in archaeology in Alabama for many years. He served as President of the Alabama Archaeological Society and edited their Stones and Bones newsletter for a long period. In addition to several articles, his research resulted in two books: The McGillivray and McIntosh Traders: On the Old Southwest Frontier, 1716-1815 and Historic Indian Towns in Alabama, 1540-1838.

His research materials and collection of books on Alabama and Southeastern Indians were donated to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Father and son talking about the guns, or maybe that crazy kid taking photographs. The bookshelf on the left is in my basement in Pelham; the other one is in mom's basement in Huntsville. 

These two photos show the family around the table. I guess I took this one, and dad took the one below. Mom stil has that hutch on the right. The table and chairs are still around, too.

And finally the back yard of that Lakeview Drive house. The door on the lower left led to the basement. Dad would later build a small room off that door for garden tools and our future beagle Duchess. That previous post I mentioned at the beginning has a photo or two of her on top of the roof. Dad would also put in a patio in this backyard. 

Birmingham Photo of the Day (53): Students at the Zoo in 1968

The photograph below was taken in May 1968 by John McDavid. Six students from Minnie Holman School are posing in front of a fence at the Birmingham Zoo. Behind them is a giraffe surveying the scene; further in the background at the lower left is a camel.

Minnie Holman School, located in what is now the Crestwood North area, opened in 1928 and was demolished in the early 1990's. Minnie Holman became the second wife of John Phillips in 1898; he was a longtime early Superintendent of Birmingham City Schools. The former Phillips High School was named after him. You can see many photos from the school's history here.

Photos, scrapbooks and other materials related to the history of the Birmingham Zoo can be found here. The Zoo opened in 1955.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Old Alabama Stuff (14): Dr. Charles T. Jackson Examines a Meteorite from Clarke County

I could have subtitled this post "It Came from Outer Space!" or perhaps "Alabama's connection to the 1846 'discovery' of anesthesia". But I did not. Bear with me, though, and you'll see why either of those designations would have been accurate. After a fashion....

Let's begin with the main character here, Dr. Charles Thomas Jackson. He was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on June 21, 1806. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1829, but an early interest in geology continued during his studies there. With a friend he visited Nova Scotia in 1826 to collect minerals; return trips to that area in 1827 and 1829 led to his first publication.

Jackson traveled to southern Europe in 1831 for further medical experience and geological exploration. From 1837 to 1839 he conducted geological surveys for Maine and Massachusetts; in April 1839 he began a survey of geological and agricultural resources in Rhode Island. At various times he worked as state geologist for Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. 

His geological work continued into the 1870's and proved to be his main source of income. Between 1828 and 1873 he published numerous works related to geology; his medical publications number less than two dozen. In 1873 he suffered what was probably a stroke; his family paid for his care at McLean insane Asylum in Belmont, Massachusetts, until his death on August 28, 1880.

During his long life Jackson was a physician, chemist, geologist and surveyor. Yet he had difficulty completing projects; his ideas were often brought to fruition by others. He helped dentist William Morton who was searching for a suitable pain reliever; Jackson suggested sulfuric ether. Using that agent, Morton demonstrated its usefulness in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in October 1846. The two received a patent for the process, but were forced to abandon it when local physicians refused to use the agent under those conditions. 

Jackson had similar brushes with the development of the telegraph and guncotton, an early form of nitrocellulose discovered by C.F. Schonbein in Switzerland in 1846. Jackson did demonstrate it in Boston in December of that year. A recent article has speculated that Jackson may have suffered from some form of attention deficit disorder.

By 1834 Jackson was attempting to establish a medical practice in Boston, and in that year married Susan Bridge. He also had a laboratory for his geological and chemical studies on which most of his income depended. His brother-in-law Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Jackson there on various occasions, and referred to the place in Conduct of Life. Emerson compared nature to a rag merchant "like some good chemist whom I found the other day in his laboratory, converting old shirts into pure white sugar."

In 1838 Jackson published an article in Silliman's American Journal of Science and Arts entitled "Chemical analysis of meteoric iron from Claiborne, Clark Co., Alabama". Dated August 5, 1834, Jackson's article opens by telling us that "Mr. F. Alger handed me this remarkable mineral..." Francis Alger was the friend who had accompanied Jackson on that first trip to Nova Scotia and who became a well-known mineral collector and author. Jackson further notes the mineral came to Alger via "Mr. Hubbard, who had obtained the specimen during his travels in Alabama..." 

I have been unable so far to identify "Mr. Hubbard" for certain. The likeliest candidate I've found is Lucius Virgilius Hubbard, born in Vermont in 1803 and died in New Orleans in 1849. He graduated from Harvard in 1824. I haven't found any more information about him, but interestingly his son Lucius Lee Hubbard, born shortly after his father's death, had a life-long interest in collecting and writing about minerals. He also served in a Minnesota infantry unit deployed in Alabama during the Civil War. Yet none of that says anything about his father's possible presence in Alabama in 1834.

Jackson declares that Mr. Hubbard's find is a "most peculiar and remarkable meteorite." The specimen was found on the surface "near Lime Creek, in Claiborne, Alabama." The piece was so large that Mr. Hubbard had to employ "a negro to break it with a sledge-hammer." He was unable to do so, but Mr. Hubbard himself managed to detach the piece that ended up in Jackson's laboratory in Boston.

Jackson described the sample in some detail, followed by his analysis, which can be read below. Both iron and nickel were present, meaning it was an iron meteorite made up of an iron-nickel alloy. Some 5% of meteorites fall into this category. 

Claiborne is now a ghost town, but in the 1830's it was a thriving port and trading center on the Alabama River in Monroe County. In 1825 on his American tour the Marquis de Lafayette visited the town, which then had about 2500 residents. Claiborne was the county seat until 1832, when it was moved to Monroeville. Despite outbreaks of yellow fever and cholera, the town remained active until the Civil War. Looted at the end of that conflict, Claiborne quickly declined. Today all that is left are three cemeteries. 

Jackson made use of this Clarke County meteorite in two other venues. At the 1842 meeting of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists, "Dr. C.T. Jackson exhibited a specimen of meteoric iron from Clairborne County, Alabama, in which he discovered chlorine, in the form of chloride of iron and nickel, in 1834" [Proceedings, published in Boston in 1843, p. 62].

In the following year he made "Remarks on the Alabama meteoric iron" at a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History. You can read that material below.



FURTHER READING


Martin RF, Desai SP. An Appraisal of the Life of Charles Thomas Jackson as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Anesthesia History 2015 Apr; 1(2): 38-43

Woodworth JB. Charles Thomas Jackson. American Geologist 1897 August; 20(2): 68-110 [overview of Jackson's geological career and lengthy bibliography of all his publications]

Wolfe, Richard J. and Richard Patterson, Charles Thomas Jackson: "The Head Behind the Hands". History of Science, 2007

Source: Wikipedia [French]

A street in Claiborne in the 1850's

Source: Wikipedia 

Source: Rural Southwest Alabama

Silliman's American Journal of Science and Arts, 1838

Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1844

This biography of Jackson by Richard J. Wolfe and Richard Patterson appeared in 2007.

Pondering Alabama Maps (7): October 2, 1866

I stumbled across this map in my random wanderings around the web and found it interesting. On the bottom right is noted "Department of Interior/General Land Office, October 2, 1866" thus making the map seem to be a snapshot of the state on a particular day. Perhaps that's actually the date the map was finished and ready for printing.

Published in Philadelphia, the map has an abundance of information about the state at that time. In Jefferson County the only town we see is Elyton, the county seat until moved to Birmingham in 1873 just seven years later. At the bottom is this note:  "The whole central region of this state is underlaid with iron ore, in vast beds. There are also coal measures of great thickness and extent. Lead ore is also found." 

In east central Alabama along the Georgia line we see Benton County. Created in 1832, the county was named after Missouri senator and defender of slavery Thomas Hart Benton. In the 1850's Benton became an opponent of slavery, and the name was changed to honor secessionist John C. Calhoun. 

North of Walker County is Hancock County. Established in 1850 from a part of Walker County, the name originally honored the famous signer of the Declaration of Independence John Hancock. The name was eventually changed to Winston after state governor John A. Winston.  

At the time this map was created Alabama had entered the Reconstruction period. 

Source: Library of Congress 

Some Family Photos from Back in the Day

Well, the 1960's anyway.

Most of these photos were taken by yours truly, or at least using the black and white camera I had in those days. The location for the first four was my paternal grandparents' house on Chandler Street in Gadsden. I imagine we were visiting for Sunday lunch. The other four were taken at our family home on Lakewood Drive in Huntsville. Some comments are below each one. 

I also have photos from the 1950's that will do just nicely for another post someday soon...and probably more from the 1960's...

Here I am on the left along with younger brother Richard and our grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr. Pawpaw worked for the L&N Railroad for many years and died in 1975. I remember one of his favorite sayings: "See you in the funny papers." I've written about his World War I training at Auburn here. 

This photograph features my mother and grandmother washing dishes. Mawmaw seems about to laugh at her silly grandson taking pictures. She died in 1997. That little iron skillet hung on the wall there for a long time.  

Here's Mawmaw again sitting in their long narrow den off the kitchen. I think she's looking at some photographs. The clock on the television--a Zenith, I think--tells us it's one-thirty. Mawmaw would later move her Singer sewing machine to that alcove on the left where it sat for many years. That ancient machine is now sitting in my daughter Becca's home in Oklahoma: 

Younger brother Richard poses in the same den a half hour earlier. That clock on the shelf behind him is still in the family. On the table on the lower left is a candy dish Mawmaw always kept there and a book. Wonder if it was one I was reading and brought with me? Looks like a library call number on the lower spine. That appears to be one of Mawmaw's African violets on the television with the other clock. 

Now we come to the house in Huntsville. Our beagle Duchess surveys her back yard domain from the roof over the basement entrance. 

Here's Duchess behind bars--er, the fence--probably wondering why I'm taking pictures instead of playing with her. 

And here's Duchess in another roof pose. We lived in a house halfway up a fairly steep hill, and sometimes she would be sitting on the other side of the roof. That gave passersby coming up the hill or even some neighbors the impression that we had a dog on our roof.

Brother Richard faces the camera in one of our bedrooms; it looks too neat to be his. Before he became seriously interested in Alabama archaeology, dad did a lot of woodworking and that desk and lamp are two of his pieces.