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Available
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Publication
New York, Farrar & Rinehart, inc., 1934.
Description
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.
User reviews
LibraryThing member antiqueart
excellent yet disturbing Northern Journalist narrative of social life in Alabama circa 1930 (Upper class judges in KKK) etc etc
LibraryThing member datrappert
Carmer was a Northerner who taught at the University of Alabama in the 1920s. This book is a hodgepodge of personal memories and collected stories. The stories are versions of folk tales or ghost stories that may be based on fact, but have fictionalized elements added in the telling. Carmer chooses
Wayne Flynt's introduction is excellent, by the way. No surprise there, of course. Definitely read it before diving into this book.
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the best version for his book. His personal memories are also a bit fictionalized to avoid offending some of the subjects. This is a raw, honest portrayal of the endemic racism of 1920s Alabama--but probably 1920s America as well, although Carmer certainly doesn't share in that belief. Still, his stories are full of white and black people using the N-word and using other racial stereotypes that will be very jarring for a modern reader. The racism of many of the Whites is purely endemic - it is so much an accepted part of their lives that they take it for granted. But the black characters, while not using the word in the same sense, also subscribe to many of the same outmoded beliefs. Carmer does a good job of going into black households and churches, and his portrait is probably quite accurate, but it speaks of times and attitudes that are thankfully alien to most of us in 2019. If you're an Alabama native, as I am, I recommend reading this book, as so much of it will awaken old memories and places. I don't think it will mean quite as much to a non-Alabama or non-Southern reader who doesn't pick up on the accents and ways of speaking that Carmer portrays with pretty much unfailing accuracy.Wayne Flynt's introduction is excellent, by the way. No surprise there, of course. Definitely read it before diving into this book.
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Language
Original publication date
1934
Physical description
xiv, 294 p.; 22 inches