Archibald Rutledge was born on October 23, 1883 in
McClellanville, South Carolina to Henry Middleton Rutledge and Margaret Hamilton
Seabrook Rutledge. In 1907, he received a M.A. from Union College. From
1904 to 1937, he was a Professor of English at Mercersburg Academy in the
mountains of Southern Pennsylvania. He returned to his old rice
plantation home at Hampton in 1937.
He began writing in
his late teens until he was well past eighty. He wrote
hundreds of stories and articles for magazines, as well as
books of poetry and collected writings. Most of his
writings are about the Low Country of South Carolina. He
wrote about wrens, mockingbirds, rattlesnakes,
alligators, turkey, deer and ducks. He
also wrote about the land and people who lived during his
lifetime. His writing is nostalgic with a profound love of
the land and its wildlife.
He was named Poet Laureate of
South Carolina beginning in 1934 by legislative action. Rutledge was
also South Carolina's elector to the Hall of Fame. Before he died,
he recorded seventy-five of his poems for the Library of Congress.
In addition, over sixty of his poems have been set to music. During
his lifetime, Mr. Rutledge received seventeen honorary degrees. He
was also the recipient of more than thirty medals, including the
John Burroughs Medal for nature writing.
In 1971 – Archibald
Rutledge and his family gave Hampton Plantation to the South Carolina State Park
Service. It became a State Historic Site and was opened to the public
He died on September 15, 1973,weeks before
his ninetieth birthday in the same room he was born in.
A
wonderful little book of meditations which illustrates
Rutledge's love of nature, his deep faith and his spiritual
vision. This is a sweet little book of reveries on the
blessings that lie in the little unnecessary things of life.
Creation supplies us with just two kinds of things:
necessities and extras. This book is one of the extras for
which the reader will resolve to be a better person. Great
for gift giving and personal inspiration, this book was once
given by Henry Ford to all twenty-five thousand of his
employees.
Includes line drawings by Rutledge. 45 pages. 1988.
Hardcover,
ISBN 13: 978-0-87844-080-1;
ISBN 10: 0-87844-080-1,
$19.95
HOME
BY THE RIVER
by Archibald Rutledge
The
story of Rutledge's return after 44 years to Hampton
Plantation, his boyhood home. Built in 1730, the stately
mansion and its extensive grounds and woodlands are now one
of South Carolina's state parks. The restoration of this
house and reminiscences about Rutledge's early years there
captures the unique spirit of Hampton.
Hampton Plantation whose two-thousand
acres spread along the southern bank of the great Santee River in coastal South
Carolina had been in the Rutledge family since 1686. From this house, the
British Colonel Banastre Tarleton stole the parish Bible and prayer book.
It served as the headquarters of General Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox of the
Revolution. Once, when surprised by "No-Quarter" Tarleton, he broke the
arm off the ebony Chippendale chair in which he was dozing.
Here lived Edward Rutledge, the Signer,
and John Rutledge, the able Governor of South Carolina. In 1791, when
George Washington made his triumphal tour of the South he stayed at Hampton.
This is the book that earned Rutledge a
Nobel Prize nomination and has been in print continuously since 1941.
196 pages. 1983.
Hardcover
0-87844-003-8 $39.95
Softcover
0-87844-199-9 $19.95
From the book:
"At the age of fifty-six, after an absence of
forty-four years, I returned to the country where I was born...Hampton
Plantation, in the coastal country of South Carolina, forty miles northeast of
Charleston, is the ancient home of my ancestors and because, since my return, so
many adventures have befallen me, I believe it worth while to record them.
There is a theory that those who gamble can't win, but the fact of the matter is
that those who do not gamble can't win....
Nowhere else in the world has
nature been kinder to her children than in those regions where the great
plantations were formed out of the Eden-like wilderness of the Low Country.
And that charm is an eternal one: though the civilization that it cradled and
nourished has passed away, the charm survives. The home remains lovely
after the guests are gone."
ARCHIBALD
RUTLEDGE, The Man and His Books
Edited by Dorothy Stone Harmon
Includes a bibliography and selected
original correspondence.
196 pages. 2003.
$25.00
New lower price
Carolina Christmas
Edited by Jim Casada
978-1=57003-954-6
$29.95
Out of Print SPECIAL (Used) Editions:
My
Colonel and His Lady
by Archibald Rutledge
Hardcover with no dustjacket This
book has writing inside. Inscribe as a gift with the owner's name. Shows age.
Bound tight. 1937 by Bobbs Merrill. $49.95
God's
Children
by Archibald Rutledge
Hardcover with no dustjacket This
book has no marks inside. Bound tight. 1947 by Bobbs Merrill. $59.95
Home
by the River AUTOGRAPHED
by Archibald Rutledge
Hardcover with 2 different dustjackets...not
the original issue jackets. This book has no marks inside other than
the author's signature. Bound tight. 1941 by Bobbs Merrill. $100.00
Willie Was a Lady
by Archibald Rutledge
Marked inside (name marked out). No
other marks.
Hardcover with no dustjacket. 124
pages.1966 Wing Publications. $39.95
From the Hills to the Sea: Fact and Legend of the Carolinas
by Archibald Rutledge
This book has writing insde. As well as an inscription (gift)
LIFE'S
EXTRAS
HOME
BY THE RIVER
ARCHIBALD
RUTLEDGE, The Man and His Books
My
Colonel and His Lady
God's
Children
Home
by the River AUTOGRAPHED
