On September 4, 1925, in the southern town of Anniston, Alabama, Asa Earl Carter made his entrance into the world as the firstborn of four siblings in the nearby community of Oxford.

Throughout World War II, Carter served valiantly in the United States Navy. After his military service, he revisited academic life at the University of Colorado. Here, in 1944, he was part of a naval training school, while also delving into the realms of radio broadcasting and crafting politically charged writings. By the late 1950s, Carter's journey took him to Birmingham, Alabama, where he became a fervent political activist. He lent his voice to a radio show hosted by the American States Rights Association and played a pivotal role in the Alabama Council movement. Further fueling his controversial political career, he established the North Alabama White Citizens Council in Birmingham. Notably, Carter penned speeches for Lurleen Wallace during her successful gubernatorial campaign in 1966 and was attributed as one of two authors behind the infamous phrase "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" delivered by Governor George Wallace. Although media often linked Carter with George Wallace, claiming he was Wallace's speechwriter in the 1960s, Wallace himself denied any such collaboration or connection. Carter's own political aspirations faltered when he ran against Wallace in the 1970 Democratic primary for governor and lost.

In the wake of his political defeat, Carter abandoned Alabama, turning his back on politics altogether. He reinvented himself under the guise of Bedford Forrest Carter, a new identity inspired by Nathan Bedford Forrest, an audacious yet unlettered Confederate general. Embracing his Cherokee roots, he also adopted the name Gundi Usdi, translating to Little Tree. So profound was his transformation that the connection between Carter the politician and Carter the novelist only surfaced after his death. By 1972, he had found a new home in Sweetwater, Texas, where the City-County Library became his sanctuary as he embarked on his literary journey with his debut novel, Gone to Texas (1973). The book's cinematic adaptation, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), starring Clint Eastwood, achieved great acclaim. Following this, Carter continued his literary pursuits in Florida, penning three more novels: The Vengeance Trial of Josey Wales (1976), a continuation of his first story; The Education of Little Tree (1976, reissued in 1986); and Watch for Me on the Mountain (1978), a poignant narrative about Geronimo.

Asa Carter's life and his book, The Education of Little Tree, are shrouded in controversy. Although the book claims to be autobiographical, skeptics abound, questioning its authenticity. Carter's alleged role as a speechwriter for the segregationist George Wallace and his affiliations with the Ku Klux Klan fuel ongoing debates surrounding his work and racial depictions.

Carter was a storyteller with a gift for vivid imagery and brisk plots, weaving tales with sentence fragments that mirrored the tumultuous times and rich civil war lore. Drawing inspiration from his Cherokee ancestry, he spent his twilight years promoting his novels, aspiring to bring the last three to the silver screen, even crafting a screenplay for one. He was also working on The Wanderings of Little Tree, an unfinished sequel to his third book, when his life abruptly ended. On June 7, 1979, in Abilene, Texas, Carter died in a tragic incident, choking on food and blood clots from a recent fistfight. His final resting place is near his childhood home of Anniston, Alabama.