This post is Kristine Spaulding Marshall's first for Connections.
Kristi joined the BDC staff about a year ago. She is usually the first
person one sees upon arrival in the Research Room and is the main
Research Room helper to customers. Among her other responsibilities is
keeping the Research Room display case stocked with BDC materials on a
theme.
For March that theme was "Women's History" and Kristi decided to highlight works by female authors from our holdings. She divided her selections into three categories: Fiction; African-American authors; and Nonfiction and Remembrances. -- Grace Cordial
Fiction:
The Distance Between
Us by Valerie Sayers
Valerie
Sayers was born and raised in Beaufort, SC.
She uses Beaufort as a setting in her six novels, however the fictional
town is called “Due East”. This book was
chosen to highlight one of our local fiction authors.
Bed & Breakfast by
Lois Battle
Beaufort
resident Lois Battle was a New York Times best-selling author and known as the
“Queen of Grand Entrances” by her friends.
Bed & Breakfast is set in
Beaufort and is a holiday tale of Josie Taternall and her bed and
breakfast. The BDC has several Lois
Battle scrapbooks as well as a manuscript of Bed & Breakfast. Battle’s
other novels, including Storyville
and War Brides may be checked out at
your local Beaufort County Library.
Truer Words by Kim
Poovey
As a
docent at the Verdier House, Poovey dressed and acted like a Victorian
lady. This inspired her to create her
alter ego, Southern Victorian lady Emma Victoria Brown. She
brought Emma to life in her novel Truer
Words in 2012. Poovey is a Beaufort resident and school psychologist in her daily life.
Always in August
and Everybody Adored Cara by Ann Head
Ann
Head, formally known as Anne Wales Christensen Head Morse, came from known
Beaufort family known for breaking tradition.
Ann’s grandmother came to Beaufort during the Civil War to teach the
recently freed slaves on the Sea Islands.
Head published dozens of short stories, wrote four internationally
published novels and was also Pat Conroy’s first creative writing teacher.
Always
in August was Ann Head’s second published novel. It was set in the Lowcountry, on the Coosaw
Sound and captures the excitement and drama of the Old South, but in a
modern-day (1960’s) setting. The
violence and passion that plays out in the novel always occurred in the hot,
humid month of August, a month that is also known for hurricanes—which bring
about erupted emotions, tragedy and misfortune in their wake.
Everybody
Adored Cara was Ann Head’s first mystery which follows the investigation of
the murder of Cara Sumner, who was strangled to death with her own blue chiffon
scarf.
Learn more about Ann Head on
March 27 in the Beaufort Branch Meeting Room as her daughter, Nancy Thode,
reflects on her mother’s life as “Beaufort’s forgotten author and mentor to Pat
Conroy”. Sign up to attend at http://bit.ly/2Ddyda6. Registration will close when the room's capacity is reached. This program is co-sponsored by the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the Beaufort District Collection, and the Beaufort County Library.
African-American
highlights:
Mama’s
Pearls by Patricia Bee is a book of poetry that captures the essence of
Gullah culture. The author is a native
of Beaufort and wrote this book of poetry to serve as a manual for living and
to honor her ancestors. Almost each poem
is accompanied by historical photos of African American adults and children as
well as a bible verse. Patricia Bee will
be one of the featured authors at the Beaufort History Museum Annual Tea on May7, 2019. Reservations open April 1, 2019.
Nonfiction and
Remembrances:
Remembering the Way it Was at Beaufort, Sheldon and the Sea Islands
by Fran Heyward Marscher is a collection of oral histories from residents of
old Beaufort County—residents who remember Beaufort as a quiet, sparsely
populated area. Marscher interviewed
both men and women, (blacks and whites) who recollected on their memories of
living in Beaufort through hard times as well as prosperous and joyous times
and who were born between 1909 and 1936.
Marscher also wrote Remembering
the Way it Was at Hilton Head, Bluffton and Daufuskie , 2 volumes, in the same format.
Reminiscences of a Country Doctor’s Wife
by Mildredth Wolfe Black was a longtime resident of Beaufort. She and her husband, Dr. Westcoat Adalbert
Black came to Beaufort in the early 1930s.
Mrs. Black uses fictionalized names to describe the early years of her
and her young husband’s lives in “Ribault”.
The Other Mother by Teresa
Bruce is a story of a transformative friendship between Teresa Bruce and Byrne
Miller, a former burlesque dancer and pioneer in the dance world. The two met after then TV reporter Teresa
Bruce interviewed the 82 year old Byrne Miller.
Through the years Bruce began to look at Miller essentially as another
mother. She wrote this book to tell the
story of Byrne and Duncan Miller’s unconventional marriage to and share Byrne’s
wisdom.
Daufuskie Island was written
by Jenny Hersch and sixth-generation Daufuskie native Sallie Ann Robinson as a
part of the Images of America series.
This book is full of photographs and stories of those who helped shape
the Daufuskie Island community.
Stirrin’ the Pots on Daufuskie by Billie
Burn is a compilation of original and favorite recipes and stories from those
who lived or once lived on Daufuskie. The
recipes are accompanied by photographs and stories of those residents and their
families. Burn moved to Daufuskie Island
in 1959 and was a postmaster and school bus driver from 1963 until the early
1980s. She is also the author of An Island Named Daufuskie which she
wrote to leave “a permanent record of the history, stories, and accounts that I
have collected—mainly from Daufuskie people”.
Of course, there are many, many more female authors present in our holdings so if you don't see your favorite book by a female author listed here, search the SCLENDS catalog.
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