Forrest Carter

Asa Earl Carter was an American speechwriter and author. He worked as a speechwriter for segregationist Governor George Wallace of Alabama, and was founder of the North Alabama Citizens Council (NACC) and a pro-segregation monthly titled The Southerner. Under an assumed identity as 'Forrest Carter,' he published two Westerns and a purported memoir, The Education of Little Tree, in which he portrays himself as having been orphaned into the care of Cherokee grandparents. In 1976, following the success of his western The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales Forrest Carter was revealed to be segregationist Asa Earl Carter by the New York Times. His background once again became national news in 1991 after Little Tree topped the Times paperback best-seller lists (both non-fiction, and later, fiction) and won the American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) award.