Stars Fell on Alabama

xiv, 294 pp. Among the images in the book by Baldridge is one of a group of KKK members at a cross-burning. Includes also a section titled "From the author's notebook" which includes folk remedies, superstitions & other notes. "Here is a book about a country as foreign as the Congo. It is filled with tales of lynchings and conjure women, of white-hooded Klansmen, feuds, river baptisms, barn dances and alligator hunts. It is a book whose beauty quickens the overtones of the past and catches the turbulent music of the present." "Stars Fell on Alabama is truly a classic. The book enjoyed enormous popularity and notoriety when it was first published (it was a selection of The Literary Guild and also sold widely in Europe). It can be described as a book of folkways—not journalism, or history, or a novel. At times it is impressionistic; at other times it conveys deep insights into the character of Alabama. Carmer visited every region of the state, always accompanied by someone intimately familiar with the locality. The mosaic that emerges from the pages of his book portrays Alabama’s human landscape in all its variety, and it is a work essential to an understanding of Alabama and its culture." ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "Carl Carmer (October 16, 1893 - September 1976) was an author of nonfiction books, memoirs, and novels, many of which focused on Americana such as myths, folklore, and tales. His most famous book, Stars Fell on Alabama, was an autobiographical story of the time he spent living in Alabama. He was considered one of America's most popular writers during the 1940s and 1950s."