Showing posts with label author. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Alabama Author: John Craig Stewart

One thing I like to do on this blog is highlight some of Alabama's lesser known authors. The state has a rich literary history that's not limited to such well known figures as Harper Lee, Fannie Flagg and Rick Bragg. So next up in this post is John Craig Stewart.

 Stewart was born in Selma on January 20, 1915 and died in North Carolina in 2003. According to the 1940 U.S. Census he was living in Montgomery and had been there since 1935. His address was given as 615 South Perry Street. Stewart had married Patti Gee Martin in February 1939. On October 16, 1940, he registered for the military draft, and that form gives us more information. Stewart was six feet tall and weighed 160 pounds, with light complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. 

 We can find a fairly detailed outline of his subsequent life and career at the Alabama Authors site maintained by the University of Alabama Libraries. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1941 until 1945, leaving the military with the rank of major. By 1950 he had earned bachelor and master degrees from the University of Alabama and joined the faculty there. He and Patti divorced in 1952; Stewart married Lila Harper in 1960.

 Stewart taught in Tuscaloosa until 1964, when he relocated to Mobile and the newly established University of South Alabama. He left that school in 1983 and moved to North Carolina, where he died on April 16, 2003. He was buried in that state in Saint Paul's in the Valley Cemetery in Transylvania County. The University of South Alabama's McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library has a collection of his papers and publications. The Alabama Authors entry notes, "The University of South Alabama established the John Craig Stewart Creative Writing Award, given annually to outstanding student writers, in his honor." I have been unable to find out anything more about this award.  
Stewart's publications include both fiction and non-fiction. His first novel Through the First Gate appeared in 1960; a second, Muscogee Twilight in 1965 and a third one, The Last to Know in 1981. He also published short stories and  articles on Alabama history. His one non-fiction book was the 1975 The Governors of Alabama. He also contributed to the textbook for elementary school students, Know Alabama, and to Rivers of Alabama.

 More details and comments are below.   



New York; Dodd, Mead, 1960




Northport, Ala.: American Southern Pub. Co., 1965








This back cover offers a bit more information about Stewart. Several magazines that published his short stories are mentioned; I've only found details on one, noted below. We learn that Stewart was living in Spanish Fort, a town of less than 2400 people at the time. Also mentioned is the publisher's plan to issue a collection of his short stories, a volume that apparently never appeared. The Lincoln-Mercury Times 1951 article by Stewart, "University of Alabama", can be found here.
 Gretna, La.; Pelican Pub. Co., 1975







Northport: Colonial Press, 1957

 A fifth edition was published in 1981. The first edition appeared in 1955.




Huntsville: Strode Publishers, 1968

Stewart published the novel The Last to Know in 1981, but I have been unable to find a cover image.




Source: Find-A-Grave




The only published short story by Stewart I've tracked down so far is this one in a 1955 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. I notice some fellow named Kurt Vonnegut also had a story in this issue; he sounds familiar....

Source: FictionMags Index




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Friday, October 26, 2018

Alabama Author: William E. Vance

According to his entry at Find-A-Grave linked below, William Elbert Vance was born on June 21, 1911, in a place in Jefferson County, Alabama named Virginia. Other sources use the name Virginia City. That probably refers to the company town at the Virginia Mines, a coal operation that opened early in the 20th century in what is now the Hueytown area. 

 Mary K. Roberts' in her book Hueytown [Images of America Series, Arcadia Publishing 2010] includes a photo of the Virginia City Mines superintendent's home built in 1902 [page 53] and one of Virginia Mines Elementary School [page 94]. The original mine opened in 1899, and the mining operation ceased after World War II. The community remained intact and was added to the Alabama Register of Historic Places.

 For more information, see Pat Cargile, "Virginia Mines Community" in The Heritage of Jefferson County, Alabama [2002, page 71].

 My mother and one of her older sisters were born in two other now-gone  Jefferson County mining towns, Powhatan and Praco. You can read about them here. 

 Vance's obituary below has other details of his life; so far I've discovered little else. He graduated from Marion Military Institute in Perry County and did further work at the University of California-Berkeley and University of Utah. He eventually settled in Seattle which is where he died in May 1, 1986. His body was returned to Alabama for burial as noted below. 

 Vance wrote more than 40 novels and numerous short stories under his own name and the pseudonym George Cassidy. Most were westerns; he did write several stories published in detective magazines. I've included a few novel covers and a list of the stories included in the FictionMags Index.  








"Big Medicine", a short story by Vance appeared in this pulp magazine Western Novel and Short Stories in October 1956.









I have this paperback, but have yet to read it. The book was originally published in 1967; this edition appeared in March 1986. 





Source: Birmingham News May 28, 1986



Vance is buried in Valley Creek Cemetery in Hueytown. 

Source: Find-A-Grave




Short stories by Vance under his own name & Cassidy pseudonym
Source: the Fictionmags Index


VANCE, WILLIAM E. (1911-1986); see pseudonym George Cassidy; (about) (chron.)

 * The Bandit and the Lady, (nv) Exciting Western Jan 1952
    Exciting Western (UK) Oct 1952
* The Big Hand, (ss) 2-Gun Western May 1957
* Big Medicine, (ss) Western Novel and Short Stories Oct 1956
* Brothers at Law, (ss) Thrilling Western May 1952
* Bullwhip, (ss) Western Novels and Short Stories Feb 1953
* Bunch Quitter, (nv) .44 Western Magazine Mar 1952
* Clean Getaway, (ss) Manhunt Oct 1954
   Giant Manhunt #5 1955 (var.1)
   The Phantom Suspense-Mystery Magazine v1 #4 195?
* The Collaborator, (ss) Hunted Detective Story Magazine Feb 1955
* Dangerous Game, (ss) The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine Mar 1954
     Verdict (UK) Aug 1954
     Pursuit—The Phantom Mystery Magazine Mar 1955
* Death on the Sweetwater, (ss) Zane Grey Western Magazine Mar 1970
* Deep Trouble, (ss) The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine Mar 1955
* Drifter’s Gal, (ss) Star Western Apr 1954
* Everything’s Crooked, (ss) Popular Detective Jan 1953
     Popular Detective (UK) #12 195?
* Good Night, Mr. Holmes, (ss) The Saint Detective Magazine Nov 1956
     The Saint Detective Magazine (Australia) Nov 1957
     The Saint Detective Magazine (UK) Jan 1958
* Greater Crime, (vi) Western Short Stories Jun 1954
* Gun the Man Down!, (nv) Dime Western Magazine Jan 1954
* Gun-Meeting at Sundown, (nv) 10 Story Western Magazine Feb 1953
* Heritage of Hate, (ss) Big-Book Western Magazine Aug 1954
* The Home Place, (ss) Western Short Stories Jun 1957
* The Hoods, (ss) Malcolm’s Mar 1954
* Job for a Tophand, (ss) Western Short Stories Mar 1957
* A Job to Do, (ss) 2-Gun Western Aug 1955
* Judge, Jury, and Hangman, (ss) 2-Gun Western May 1954
* Killer’s Town, (ss) Western Rangers Stories Dec 1953
* The Lawless Lover, (ss)
   Western Magazine (UK) #8 195?
* Legacy of Hate, (ss)
   10 Story Western Magazine (Canada) Aug 1951
* The Long Chance, (nv) Best Western Dec 1954
* Look Over Your Shoulder, (na) Best Western Sep 1955
* Louie’s Mad Ride, (ss) Best Western Mar 1955
* Lust or Honor, (ss) Manhunt Dec 1966/Jan ’67
* Mad Enough to Kill, (ss) Menace Jan 1955
* Man Running, (ss) Ranch Romances Jan 1959
* The Missing Piece, (ss) American Agent Aug 1957
* Mr. Harband’s Girls, (ss) Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine Mar 1964
   Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine (UK) Aug 1964
* Murderer’s Manual, (na) Terror Detective Story Magazine Dec 1956
* Never Love an Outlaw!, (ss) Star Western Dec 1952
* No Man’s Guns, (nv) Big-Book Western Magazine Jan 1953
* Occupational Hazard, (nv) The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine Nov 1953
   Verdict (UK) Jun/Jul 1954
   Pursuit—The Phantom Mystery Magazine Apr 1955
   Tough Stories Magazine Feb 1956
* Pirate on Horseback, (nv) 5 Western Novels Magazine Dec 1952
* The Rawhide Rannyhan!, (nv) 10 Story Western Magazine Oct 1952
* The Red Mare, (ss) Giant Western Dec 1952
* The Road Agent, (na) Complete Western Book Magazine Mar 1955
* Routine Pick-Up, (ss) Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine (Australia) Nov/Dec 1957
  Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine (UK) Mar 1958
* Run Copper Run, (ss) The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine Nov 1954
   Pursuit—The Phantom Mystery Magazine Jun 1955
* Savage, (nv) Western Novels and Short Stories Mar 1954
* A Slight Case of Murder, (nv) Fifteen Detective Stories Sep 1954
  Detective Tales (UK) Aug 1955
* The Straight and Narrow, (nv) Best Western Jun 1956
* These Guns Are My Law!, (nv) Dime Western Magazine Jul 1954
* Tip Off, (ss) The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine Jul 1954
   Pursuit—The Phantom Mystery Magazine May 1955
* Too Much Woman, (nv) Trapped Detective Story Magazine Feb 1957
* Tough-Luck Pilot, (ss) Adventure Dec 1953
* Two Guns Two Faces, (nv) Best Western Sep 1956
* Two-Bit Hero, (ss) .44 Western Magazine Nov 1952
   Adam (Australia) Oct 1963
* What Am I Doing?, (ss) Manhunt Sep 1953
   Giant Manhunt #2 1953 (var.1)
   Manhunt (UK) May 1954
   Manhunt Detective Story Magazine (Australia) Jun 1954
   Bloodhound Detective Story Magazine Nov 1961
* Wild Bunch Law Hits Town, (nv) Dime Western Magazine May 1953
* Without Orders, (ss) Tales of the Sea Spr 1953
* [unknown story], (ss) 10 Story Western Magazine Aug 1951
CASSIDY, GEORGE; pseudonym of William E. Vance, (1911-1986) (chron.)

 * Cleanup Man, (ss) Menace Jan 1955
* Death Rides This Road, (nv) 10 Story Western Magazine Jun 1954
* The Murdered Mistress, (ss) Hunted Detective Story Magazine Feb 1955
* Time to Cry, (ss) The Pursuit Detective Story Magazine Jul 1954
   Pursuit—The Phantom Mystery Magazine May 1955


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Thursday, August 9, 2018

My Son Amos Has a New Book Out!

In March 2014 I wrote a blog post entitled "Three Generations in One Library" that discussed our family's presence on the shelves of UAB's Sterne Library. Covers of books by dad and myself are below. I also included this passage:

 "My son Amos IV finished his M.A. in creative writing at UAB in 2011, and a copy of his thesis, a collection of three short stories, is held at Sterne along with all theses and dissertations done at the university. The library's catalog record for "Nobody Knows How It Got This Good" can be found here. Maybe one day Sterne will be able to buy a more formally published version."

 After more than a year of anticipation since manuscript acceptance, my son Amos' collection of short stories has finally been published by Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama. The blurb on the publisher's web site notes,

 "Drawing heavily on the author's experiences growing up in Central Alabama, Nobody Knows How It Got This Good explores themes of racial injustice, class, the Civil Rights Movement, environmental catastrophe, imprisonment, suburbanization, and the perennial themes of love, life and loss. 

Through sixteen stories sharing common environments and characters – a used car salesman, a cook on death row, a lynching survivor, a U.S. Census enumerator – Nobody Knows How It Got This Good, the author’s first short story collection, attempts to come to terms with the modern South. Though set in the Deep South, these stories aspire with humor and pathos to address national dilemmas."

 The stories are set in the Birmingham area, and follow these characters as they move their own personal damaged landscapes in a place as problematic as Alabama and the "Magic City". Serious and funny combine in unexpected ways in this collection.

 The book is available from various independent bookstores and libraries around the country, and online from Small Press Distribution, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million. The book has been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews and New Southern Fugitives. The Louisiana Book News blog has recently picked son Amos’ new collection of stories set in the #Birmingham #Alabama area for its list of “Exciting new releases by Louisiana authors”. 

 Amos was interviewed about the book by Alina Stefanescu of the Alabama Writers Conclave. Deep South Magazine published a "cover reveal" back in February. The cover photo was taken by William Widmer and the cover design is by Paul Halupka. 

His fiction and poems have appeared in Arcadia, Birmingham Arts Journal, Clarion, Fieldstone Review, Folio, Grain Magazine, Gravel, The Hollins Critic, Interim, New Ohio Review, New Orleans Review, Off the Coast, Pale Horse Review, Roanoke Review, Salamander, Tacenda Literary Magazine, Union Station Magazine, Yes, Poetry and Zouch. 

 After years living in Boston and Lafayette and Baton Rouge, he now lives and works in New Orleans. His author website can be found at www.amosjasperwright.com

 Alabama has produced a number of short story authors, including Truman Capote and Mary Ward Brown. I'm proud to see Amos join such distinguished company!
















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Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Alabama Author: William Chambers Morrow

In 1985 Doubleday published Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural : A Treasury of Spellbinding Tales Old & New, 650 pages of stories, many written by giants of literature ranging from Bram Stoker to Tennessee Williams and J.R.R. Tolkien. Tucked in among these works is "His Unconquerable Enemy" by W.C. Morrow, who just happened to be born in Selma on July 7, 1854. Another of his stories was adapted for the "Young and the Headless" episode of the Monsters TV series broadcast on November 25, 1990, and starring Karen Valentine. "An Original Revenge" appears in The Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories published in 1995 by Carroll & Graf. 

 Morrow died in 1923. Let's investigate. 

Morrow's Wikipedia entry and his information on the Tellers of Weird Tales site offer some information about his early years in Alabama. Wikipedia's source is a critical essay on Morrow's work in S. T. Joshi's book The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004). Terence Hanley, who maintains the Tellers site, does not give a source for most of his material, although he does quote another book by Joshi on Ambrose Bierce and his remarks about Morrow's writing. I've also done a bit of research in the U.S. Census and elsewhere, so here's the scoop so far.

 Wikipedia notes, "Morrow's father was a Baptist minister and the owner of a farm and of a hotel in Mobile, Alabama. The American Civil War meant that the family lost its slaves and by 1876 the young Morrow was running the hotel, having graduated from Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham at the age of fifteen." 

 Hanley says, "William Chambers Morrow was born on July 7, 1854, in Selma, Alabama, son of a slaveholder. The Civil War and Reconstruction put an end to that of course. In 1870, when the census enumerator found them, Morrow's father and mother were keeping a hotel with their sixteen-year-old son in residence. Morrow graduated from Howard College (now Samford University) at age fifteen and moved to California in 1879. "

 Apparently Hanley also relies on the Joshi essay about Morrow. I have not found the family in the 1860 U.S. Census, but I did locate them in the 1870 one. Father William Chambers Morrow and wife Martha are included, as well as daughter Georgia (20), W.C., Jr. (16) and younger sister Dozella (7). The occupation of Morrow's father was given as "Hotel Keeper"; the mother was "Keeping Hotel." They were living in the town of Evergreen in Conecuh County. 

 Via Ancestry.com I found Morrow and his father listed in Mobile city directories for 1875 and 1876. The father was Manager of the Gulf City Hotel; his son was the "Proprietor". Both lived at the hotel. So far I have not found the name of the hotel in Evergreen or anything about the Gulf City Hotel in Mobile except it's listing in the 1878 city directory which placed it at the southeast corner of Water and Conti.

  In addition, I've found nothing about Morrow's time at Howard College, which was incorporated in Marion in 1841 by the Alabama Baptist State Convention. The college did not move to East Lake in Birmingham until 1881. If the elder Morrow had indeed been/remained a Baptist minister, he may well have sent his son to Howard.

 Morrow apparently left Alabama behind for good in 1879 and moved to California. Why the move there and how he began writing remain mysteries, but from the 1880's until about 1908 he published a number of stories. Listed below are those pieces currently included in the FictionMags Index. Some of his tales and novels were published in newspapers, including William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner. 

 Many of Morrow's short stories are science fiction or horror. One of his best-known tales is "The Surgeon's Apprentice" (1887), later published as "The Monster-Maker" in his collection The Ape, the Idiot and Other People (1897). A 2000 collection of Morrow's horror and science fiction stories is The Monster Maker and Other Stories. The title story tells of a doctor/mad scientist who has a patient wishing to die. The doctor removes the patient's head and then keeps his body alive. His stories "Over an Absinthe Bottle" [p. 473-4] and "His Unconquerable Enemy" [p. 628-629] are discussed in Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana (2005).

 Morrow also published several novels and other works. His first novel, Blood Money, came out in 1882. The work is based on a land title dispute that took place in May 1880 on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley near Hanford, California. A clash between settlers and a U.S. Marshall and others representing the Southern Pacific Railroad resulted in seven deaths. The incident, known as the Mussel Slough Tragedy, later became the basis for Frank Norris' novel The Octopus (1901) and May Merrill Miller's novel First the Blade (1938). Ironically, Morrow began work in public relations for the Southern Pacific Railroad almost a decade later. 

 His suspense novel A Strange Confession appeared in the Californian newspaper in 1880 and 1881 but has not been reprinted. Much later he published two adventure novels, A Man; His Mark (1900) and Lentala of the South Seas (1908). He also wrote some non-fiction, such as Bohemian Paris of Today (1900), from "notes by Edouard Cucuel", and a short travel booklet, Roads Around Paso Robles (1904). In 1889 he drew on his youthful experience for a 32-page pamphlet, Souvenir of the Hotel Del Monte, Monterey, California. A history of that hotel can be found here.

Morrow seems not to have published anything after 1908. Almost a decade earlier he had begun to teach writing. The Tellers of Weird Tales site notes, 

 "Ambrose Bierce mentioned his friend W.C. Morrow in an essay entitled "To Train a Writer" from 1899. Bierce observed that "Mr. W.C. Morrow, the author of 'The Ape, the Idiot and Other People,' a book of admirable stories, is setting up a school to teach the art of writing. If he can teach his pupils to write half as well as he can write himself he may be called successful." (Quoted in Ambrose Bierce, A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography, edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz (1998)."

 What Morrow did for the remaining years of his life is unknown. He died on April 3, 1923, in Ojai, Ventura County, California. In 1881 he had married Lydia H. Houghton; she is listed with him in the 1920 U.S.Census. The couple is said to have had a child that was either stillborn or died in infancy and no other children. 

 Various other questions about Morrow remain to be investigated. Where is he buried? What happened to his wife and his parents and siblings back in Alabama? Did he ever return to his home state before he died? Perhaps one day a fuller biography will be written. 

 Morrow lived and worked in San Francisco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries at a thriving time for the city's literary scene. Majors writers such as Bret Harte, Jack London and Frank Norris as well as many lesser known authors plied their trade alongside Morrow. And this group, which preceded the San Francisco Renaissance and west coast Beat writers in the city by many decades, had an Alabama connection.  










Source: Wikipedia

















Frontispiece to A Man: His Mark

Artwork by Elenore Plaisted Abbott, a well-known book illustrator and painter of the time




Source: Internet Archive




William Chambers Morrow listing at the FictionMags Index









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