Huey Long (biography)

Last updated

Huey Long (1969) is a biography of Louisiana Governor and US Senator Huey Long written by historian T. Harry Williams. [1] The work was well received, winning a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award.

Contents

Writing

Williams spent 12 years writing and researching Huey Long in order to write the 896-page work. [2] [1] Due to the lack of documents regarding Long, Williams collected oral history. Beginning in 1955, Williams interviewed those who had known Long. [1] He outlined his work in a 1959 address to the Southern Historical Association. [3]

The work is sympathetic to Long, painting him as a tragic figure and emphasizing his leftist leanings over his often claimed fascist tendencies. According to Kirkus Reviews , Williams "made pretty darn sure that his is going to be the definitive biography of Long." [1] Williams reportedly regarded Huey Long as "the ultimate writing endeavor of his life." [3]

Critical reception

The work was a popular bestseller and well-received by critics. [3] In addition to garnering Williams the National Book Award for History and Biography, [4] the work won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulitzer Prize</span> Award for achievements in journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States

The Pulitzer Prize is an award administered by Columbia University for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher. As of 2023, prizes are awarded annually in twenty-three categories. In twenty-two of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a US$15,000 cash award. The winner in the public service category is awarded a gold medal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Faludi</span> American feminist author and journalist

Susan Charlotte Faludi is an American feminist, journalist, and author. She won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1991, for a report on the leveraged buyout of Safeway Stores, Inc., a report that the Pulitzer Prize committee commended for depicting the "human costs of high finance". She was also awarded the Kirkus Prize in 2016 for In the Darkroom, which was also a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huey Long</span> American politician from Louisiana

Huey Pierce Long Jr., byname "The Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. He was a left-wing populist member of the Democratic Party and rose to national prominence during the Great Depression for his vocal criticism of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, which Long deemed insufficiently radical. As the political leader of Louisiana, he commanded wide networks of supporters and often took forceful action. A controversial figure, Long is celebrated as a populist champion of the poor or, conversely, denounced as a fascistic demagogue.

<i>The Kansas City Star</i> Newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri, US

The Kansas City Star is a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes. The Star is most notable for its influence on the career of President Harry S. Truman and as the newspaper where a young Ernest Hemingway honed his writing style. The paper is the major newspaper of the Kansas City metropolitan area and has widespread circulation in western Missouri and eastern Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Caro</span> American journalist and author (born 1935)

Robert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colson Whitehead</span> American novelist (born 1969)

Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and The Nickel Boys, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020. He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David McCullough</span> American historian and author (1933–2022)

David Gaub McCullough was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award.

Alan Brinkley was an American political historian who taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University Provost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. K. Williams</span> American poet, critic and translator (1936–2015)

Charles Kenneth "C. K." Williams was an American poet, critic and translator. Williams won many poetry awards. Flesh and Blood won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1987. Repair (1999) won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, was a National Book Award finalist and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The Singing won the 2003 National Book Award and Williams received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2005. The 2012 film The Color of Time relates aspects of Williams' life using his poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Chernow</span> American writer (born 1949)

Ronald Chernow is an American writer, journalist, and biographer. He has written bestselling historical non-fiction biographies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laila Lalami</span> Moroccan-American writer, and professor (born 1968)

Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her Licence de lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debby Applegate</span> American historian and biographer

Debby Applegate is an American historian and biographer. She is the author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age and The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

Hilton Als is an American writer and theater critic. He is a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, an associate professor of writing at Columbia University and a staff writer and theater critic for The New Yorker magazine. He is a former staff writer for The Village Voice and former editor-at-large at Vibe magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. J. Stiles</span> American biographer (born 1964)

T. J. Stiles is an American biographer who lives in Berkeley, California. His book The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt won a National Book Award and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. His book Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Annalyn Swan is an American writer and biographer who has written extensively about the arts. With her husband, art critic Mark Stevens, she is the author of de Kooning: An American Master (2004), a biography of Dutch-American artist Willem de Kooning, which was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. De Kooning also won the National Book Critics Circle prize for biography and the Los Angeles Times biography award, and was named one of the 10 best books of 2005 by The New York Times. In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: "The elusiveness of its subject makes the achievements of de Kooning: An American Master that much more dazzling."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Kaufman</span> American journalist born 1956

Jonathan Kaufman is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, author, Director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism, and professor of journalism.

Mark Stevens is an American writer who was co-awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography with Annalyn Swan for De Kooning: An American Master. His book with Swan also received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 2004 and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2005. During his writing career, Stevens was an art critic for Newsweek, The New Republic and New York between the 1970s to 2000s. Other publications by Stevens include a 1981 work on Richard Diebenkorn's art and a 1984 book called Summer of the City.

Huey Long, governor of Louisiana and US Senator, has inspired or been portrayed in numerous cultural works. He has served as the template for fascistic politicians in novels like It Can't Happen Here (1935), A Lion Is in the Streets (1945), and All the King's Men (1946). The latter two were adapted into Oscar-winning films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hernan Diaz (writer)</span> Author and academic

Hernan Diaz is a writer. His 2017 novel In the Distance was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He also received a Whiting Award. For his second novel Trust, he was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Thomas Harry Williams was an American academic and author. For the majority of his academic career between the 1930s to 1970s, Williams taught history at Louisiana State University. While at LSU, Williams was a Boyd Professor of History from 1953 to 1979. Near the end of his tenure at LSU, the university created the T. Harry Williams Chair of American History. Additional academic institutes Williams taught at include extension schools, in Wisconsin and at the Municipal University of Omaha.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Huey Long" . Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on December 24, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  2. Goodman Jr., George (July 7, 1979). "T. Harry Williams, scholar, Dies; Huey Long Book Won a Pulitzer". The New York Times . Archived from the original on June 9, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 "T. Harry Williams: A Remembrance". VQR. Autumn 2000. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  4. "Huey Long". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  5. "Huey Long, by T. Harry Williams (Knopf)". The Pulitzer Prizes. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.