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Forrest Carter

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Author

The Resume

    (September 4, 1925-June 7, 1979)
    Born in Anniston, Alabama
    Birth name was Asa Earl Carter
    Speechwriter for Governor George Wallace
    Wrote the novels 'The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales' (1973), 'The Education of Little Tree' (1976) and 'Cry Geronimo' (1978)

Why he might be annoying:

    He broke from the segregationist Alabama Citizen's Council because he refused to tone down his anti-Semitic rhetoric.
    He decided that the original KKK was too soft and founded the splinter group 'the Ku Klux Klan of the Confederacy.'
    His group infamously attacked singer Nat 'King' Cole after a concert in Birmingham (1956).
    He and his brother James were jailed for fighting with Birmingham police officers (1957).
    He wrote George Wallace's slogan, 'Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.'
    After deciding Wallace was too liberal on race issues, he unsuccessfully ran against him for governor (1970).
    In one of his ads, he warned white Alabamans about the prospect of black policemen: 'Soon, you can expect your wife or daughter to be pulled over to the side of the road by one of these Ubangi or Watusi tribesmen wearing the badge of Anglo-Saxon law enforcement and toting a gun... but he'll be as uncivilized as the day his kind were found eating their kin in a jungle.'
    One biographer of Wallace said of Carter, 'It's not an exaggeration to call him something of a psychopath.'
    When he moved to Texas and distanced himself from his past, he chose his new first name in honor of former KKK Grand Wizard General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
    While discussing the sale of the film rights for 'Josey Wales,' he showed up drunk at a producer's house and took a leak on his carpet.
    He allegedly died as a result of getting into a drunken fight with his son and choking to death on his own vomit.
    He presented 'The Education of Little Tree' as a non-fiction memoir about being raised by his Cherokee grandparents after he was orphaned... even though his parents lived until he was an adult and his grandparents weren't Cherokees.
    He falsely claimed to be an official Cherokee 'Storyteller in Council.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He served in the US Navy during World War II.
    An Austin bookstore owner said of his personal appearances to promote 'Josey Wales,' 'He was such a great storyteller that people who heard him, people who didn't buy westerns, bought his books.'
    A slightly retitled 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' became a damn good Clint Eastwood film.
    'Little Tree' became a sleeper hit after his death, eventually winning an American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Award and topping the New York Times best-sellers lists (both non-fiction and, after the truth about the author's background came out, fiction).
    Several critics have argued that 'Little Tree' can still be appreciated for its message of tolerance despite its creator's past.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 175 Votes: 53.71% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 78 Votes: 55.13% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 40 Votes: 52.50% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 24 Votes: 54.17% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 53 Votes: 43.40% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 19 Votes: 57.89% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 112 Votes: 48.21% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 32 Votes: 56.25% Annoying