Eugene Walter
1989
Click here to hear Eugene Walter's
presentation on the Front Porch.
Click here to hear Eugene Walter's presentation on
Cholesterol
The above links were recorded in 1989 at the Architreats Celebration. A new book on Eugene Walter and background on
him is included on this page.
The book is "Milking the Moon," by Eugene Walter,
and what it actually
is, we suppose, is an "oral autobiography," since it is the result of
many hours of tape recorded conversations that Eugene Walter had with
Katherine Clark, whom many of you may remember as the author of
"Motherwit: An Alabama Midwife's Story," some years ago. Now, if
you've
never heard of Eugene Walter, you are not alone. Most people haven't.
We'd never heard of him until 1985, when the University of Alabama Press
reprinted his out of print book "The Untidy Pilgrim," and Cheryl read
it
and fell in love with it, and her enthusiasm for the book turned it into
a very nice seller for us. But the fact is that despite the modest
success of that book when it was first published in the 1950's, and a
few other minor successes, Eugene Walter, by the time we met him in the
mid-1980's, was mostly forgotten. So forgotten, in fact, that the
publishers of this new book are promoting Eugene as "the most well-known
man you've never heard of." Not a great way to promote a book, we say,
even if it is true.
The bare facts are these. Eugene was born in Mobile in 1921. After his
family died, when he was about 14, he was farmed out to a Mr. Gayfer
(yes, of the department store chain), a very eccentric man who lived in
a huge house on the Dog River, or did until he died the summer Eugene
graduated from high school. Eugene was left with nothing, so he went
away to join the Civilian Conservation Corps, then the Army, where he
spent three years in Alaska as a cryptographer during World War Two,
then, a civilian again, on to New York's Greenwich Village for a few
years, then to Paris for the 1950's, and to Rome for the 1960's, then
back home to Mobile, where he died in 1998. He wrote a few books along
the way, and had a few other jobs, but mostly Eugene just went where his
latest whim took him, and let whatever would happen, happen.
Along the way, he bumped into, entertained and was entertained by the
likes of Robert Penn Warren, Isak Dinesen, William Faulkner, Martha
Graham, Judy Garland, Leontyne Price, Federico Fellini, Michaelangelo
Antonioni, Franco Zeffirelli, Alice B. Toklas, Katherine Anne Porter,
Madame Alexander the doll maker, Billie Burke, Costa-Gravas, Wally Cox,
and by our count about 165 other people you may, or may not, have heard
of, including George Plimpton, whom Eugene helped to start the "Paris
Review" way back in 1950's Paris, and Princess Marguerite Caetani. Ever
heard of her?
But you know what? As entertaining as the stories of all these people
are (and there's one about a young Judy Garland and Joan Crawford that
is to die for), the very best part of the book to us is the first part,
about Eugene's childhood in Mobile. It's the most beautiful and
evocative writing about a place and time that we've ever read, and is
well worth the whole price of the book. His fifteen page description of
one day in the life of a 1920's Mobile household is a classic. You can
feel, smell, hear, touch and taste Mobile, and a whole way of life that
has forever vanished from the south. Reading this first section of the
book is the most purely pleasurable reading experience we've had in a
long, long time.
This is the sort of quirky, offbeat book that hardly ever seems to come
along anymore, especially not from a major publisher (Crown Books, a
division of Random House). It is a completely unexpected surprise and
delight, and a perfect way to cleanse your literary palate after all
that summer drivel you've been reading, but without giving up a healthy
dose of celebrity gossip. Our very, very highest recommendation. ($25
hardcover)
_________________________
Thomas Upchurch
Capitol Book & News Company
1140 E. Fairview Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36106
334-265-1473 Voice
http://www.capitolbook.com