Forrest Carter, (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was the pseudonym of Asa Earl Carter, an American novelist.

Forrest Carter wrote his first novel, Gone to Texas, in 1973. It was filmed as The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1976. The film was a success and Carter wrote a sequel to his novel.

In 1976, Carter published his most famous book, The Education of Little Tree, a story about a half-Cherokee boy Gundi Usdi (Little Tree) who was orphaned at an early age and sent off to live with his Cherokee grandparents. The state eventually takes him and places him in a boarding school where a minister attempts to assilimate him into white society. Little Tree is rescued by his grandfather. Carter claimed that he was Little Tree and the events of the book were autobiographical. The Education of Little Tree was critically acclaimed and won the 1991 American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) award.

Carter completed one more novel, Watch for Me on the Mountain, a fictional biography of Geronimo. He was working on The Wanderings of Little Tree, a sequel to The Education of Little Tree and a screenplay version of the book when he died in 1979 from injuries he received in a fistfight.

After Carter's death, reports about his early life prior to becoming a novelist began to appear. It was learned that Forrest Carter was actually Asa Earl Carter. Carter had been born in Anniston, Alabama in 1925, the eldest of four children. He was not orphaned as a child; he was raised by his parents, Ralph and Hermione Carter, both of whom lived into Carter's adulthood.

Carter served in the Navy during World War II and attended the University of Colorado. Carter married India Thelma Walker and the couple had four children. Carter settled in Birmingham, Alabama.

It was also found that Carter had belonged to various white supremist organizations including the Ku Klux Klan. Carter was one of the founders of the North Alabama White Citizens Council. He was also a speechwriter for George Wallace and is credited for helping create Wallace's slogan "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever".

In 1970, Carter challenged Wallace in an unsuccessful attempt for nomination as Governor. After losing, Carter relocated to Texas and then Florida where he adopted the name Bedford Forrest Carter, in honor of Civil War general and Ku Klux Klan founder Bedford Forrest, and began his career as a novelist. Carter spent the remainder of his life successfully concealing his background.

When news of Carter's background was revealed, the publisher of The Education of Little Tree reclassified the book as fiction.

Bibliography

• Gone to Texas (1973)
• The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales (1976)
• The Education of Little Tree (1976)
• Watch for Me on the Mountain (1978)

External Links

• Forrest Carter and Little Tree (http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/carter.html)