people...Hard blows of sound beat upon the walls and rafters with inexorable regularity. All in a moment the constant beat took hold. There was a swift crescendo. Muscles were tensing, eyes brightening. Carmer also wrote about the myths, legends, and local superstitions of what he called "Conjure Country" (which was his nickname for southeast Alabama). He credited folklorist Ruby Pickens Tartt with providing some of the folklore and songs for this book, and he based the character Mary Louise on her. First published in 1934, Stars Fell on Alabama hit the bestseller lists and established Carmer's reputation. Literary critic R. L. Duffus of The New York Times praised the book and said Carmer had a gift for "extracting from what he sees, hears and feels an essence which is fundamentally poetic." The book has been subsequently republished a number of times, most recently in 2000 with a new introduction by Howell Raines. The title of the book referred to a spectacular occurrence of the Leonid meteor shower that was observed in Alabama on November 12–13, 1833. As reported by the Florence Gazette: "[There were] thousands of luminous bodies shooting across the firmament in every direction. There was little wind and not a trace of clouds, and the meteors succeeded each other in quick succession." Sections of Carmer's book were adapted by Brad Vice in his short story "The Bear Bryant Funeral Train." His failure to acknowledge his debt to Carmer led the organizers of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction to revoke the prize he was given in 2004. Other writings and projects After the success of Stars Fell on Alabama, Carmer returned to the upstate New York region he had grown up in. He documented the myths and stories of the region, including the Cardiff Giant hoax, and wrote a new book, Listen for a Lonesome Drum. He followed this up with a sequel in 1949, Dark Trees to the Wind. In 1939 Carmer wrote a well-received volume in the Rivers of America Series, The Hudson River. In 1942 he became the Editor for the Rivers of America Series, edited The Songs of the Rivers of America (1942) and wrote The Susquehanna (1955). In all, Carmer wrote 37 books. He was considered one of America's most popular writers during the 1940s and 1950s. Bibliography College English Composition; A Handbook of Writing and Speech, Including Both the General Principles