Published by Farrar and Rinehart in 1934 and illustrated by LeRoy Baldridge, the story was so unusual that it defied conventional literary definition. Carmer quoted Tartt extensively in the book through a character called Mary Louise.įor six years, Carmer travelled to every corner of the state, kept copious notes, and later turned them into Stars Fell On Alabama, referring to an 1833 meteor event that appeared as a shower of stars falling on the countryside. Among the most interesting was a Sumter County woman named Ruby Pickens Tartt, who related numerous tales she had heard from the rural African American tenant farmers in her home town of Livingston.

Carmer discovered almost immediately upon settling in west Alabama that although he did not like some of the food, the people he met offered as many interesting stories as his father had. In 1921, he accepted a position teaching English at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Army in World War I, he taught briefly at Syracuse University. After Carl graduated from Albion High School, he earned an undergraduate degree in English at Hamilton College and then a master’s degree from Harvard University. He sat at his father’s feet and listened to stories that centered on the hills and hollows of the area around Dansville and Albion, where Willis Griswold Carmer was principal of the high schools. More than 70 years after its publication, students, scholars, and the general public still read the book and enjoy the stories that Carmer heard during his years in Alabama.Īs a boy, Carmer enjoyed history and folklore. In it, Carmer relates his six years of living among the people and culture of Alabama in the 1920s. I was thinkin of California, and learned that they have a new single, one that doesnt sound special on first listen, but Ill be giving it more chances based on the way their songs have had a track record of growing on me.Īs for other contenders for most the romantic song ever, you could turn to this Love Spins at 78 RPM post of mine from Valentines Day a year ago.Stars Fell on Alabama Stars Fell on Alabama was written by Carl Lamson Carmer (1893-1976), who grew up in upstate New York. Now I got goin on this due to a throwaway, but quite good, version from She & Him. On a much less critical note, I dont think the well-known Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong duet really gets the song either, but its of course fun.

Tara Nevins’ recent country version kinda excludes the central feeling of the song, but it remains decent for those who havent heard the original. I also think the hit British version by Vera Lynn is very solid. There are some other good versions of itmany would understandably swear by Billie Holidays (she also has an earlier 30s version, perhaps even better). No professor can really teach the Symposium and such without playing his students this. Our heartfelt thanks must go out to one auguzto from somewhere in the Spanish speaking world. Via you-tube surfin I learned, lo and behold, that on October 10, last year, THE MOST ROMANTIC RECORD EVER, the very early 30s version by Jack Teagarden of Stars Fell on Alabama, the one with the harp, was finally posted. The sociologists next door to my office were talking kinda loudly about race/class/gender, race/class/gender, etc., and I just had to get some other sounds goin in my head.

Stars fell on alabama she and him