Early twentieth century writer's house trivia

Every once in a while I branch out from courthouse trivia questions.  This summer I had a question about F. Scott Fitzgerald's house in St. Paul.  And now I want to present a question about another writer.  This one was not quite a fiction writer, though some of his work may have been semi-fictional.  He was best known for I guess what we'd call a memoir now.  He wrote about his experiences in Alabama and elsewhere.  And his best known work appeared in the 1930s.  He was, for a while, quite well-known.

I would say this is one for Owen.  However, Owen is the person who found where this home is, so someone else will have to find this. I think it's going to be difficult, because there is scant information on this house on the net.  I tried locating it the old fashioned way (via a title search), but that was a bust.  (I'm wondering whether the author's wife's family had purchased the house and that's why I didn't find him -- either that or he acquired it before I started searching (somewhat doubtful) or I just plain missed it in the handwritten index (most likely explanation).)  I don't think I'm making this too easy by saying that very close readers of faculty lounge may recall that years and years ago I blogged some about this author.  And a few readers of this blog probably have seen this before in person.  Maybe more than a few.

Comments

[Mary Dudziak]

From the lawn (Zoyzia?) I'd say this is in the South, which is also likely from the bio info of course. Never say so many lawns like this until I moved to Georgia.

[twbb]

My guess is Carl Carmer.

[Al Brophy]

twbb -- this is absolutely outstanding. You are correct. Perhaps you remembered that I suggested a Carl Carmer tour of Tuscaloosa, to match the Jack London tour of the bay area that the Berkeley students put together a few years back? http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2008/02/stars-fell-on-a.html

Now a little background, I learned a few years back (shortly after I left Alabama, I think), that Carmer had lived in "The Highlands" neighborhood in Tuscaloosa. It's a grand neighborhood of houses from the 1920s (and a few more recent ones). They look like they're from the Jazz Age and shortly afterwards.

When I arrived here in Tuscaloosa last week I thought, one of the first stops on my agenda was the courthouse for a title search. Alas, I couldn't find Carmer in the grantee index (and didn't get around to looking in the grantor index -- I had limited time). That's when Owen came to the rescue; he found where Carmer had lived -- at 74 Highlands.

And Mary -- I don't know enough about lawns to be able to vouch for the kind of grass. I'm struggling to get weeds to grow at this point. But it is certainly very beautiful, as is pretty much all of the Highlands. That section of Tuscaloosa was hit hard by the tornado, which explains why there are very few trees there. But the houses still look fabulous. This was, I understand, a big community for physicians because it's within walking distance of the hospital. I can imagine it was a great place for Carmer to observe one important segment of Alabama culture. And Greene County, which he wrote a lot about, is not too far away. It never ceases to surprise me how much there is to see around these parts.

[twbb]

Kind of cheating I guess, but I like figuring these kinds of things out and just did some careful googling. I verified by searching on thefacultylounge for his name, which came up with the post you linked. My first candidate was Thomas Stribling, though, and probably spent too long trying to validate him but ultimately had to give up.

[Al Brophy]

Doesn't sound like cheating at all. These are tough. I'm always amazed that folks can figure them out. When I went looking for Carmer's house I couldn't find it! And I knew what I was looking for. I've scooped up a bunch of photos from this trip to Tuscaloosa and surrounding areas. Friday is going to be a big day for me because I'm headed to Dallas County to get some probate records. Going to try to make it to Wilcox County, too, if I have time. There's a probate case there that I've been interested for years. But first I've got some more teaching to do here....