Once deemed "the most powerful man in the south," Charleston newspaper editor Frank Dawson met his violent death on March 12, 1889, at the hands of his neighbor, a disreputable doctor who was attempting to seduce the Dawson family governess. More shocking than Dawson's demise was the quick acquittal of his killer on the grounds of self-defense. Drawn from events surrounding this infamous episode, the third novel from the Lillian Smith Award-winning William Baldwin pulls back the veil of a genteel society in a fabled southern city and exposes a dark visage of anger and secret pain that no amount of imposed manners could restrain - and only love might eventually heal. With a southern storyteller's passion for intricate emotional and physical details, Baldwin, through the fictional guise of Capt. David Lawton, chronicles editor Dawson's fated end. Having survived three years of bloody Civil War combat and the decade of violent Reconstruction that followed, the liberal-minded Lawton is now a famed but embattled newspaperman whose national importance is on the wane. Still, he remains a celebrated member of Charleston's refined elite, while in private life moving amid a pantheon of proud and beautiful women - Rebecca, his brilliant wife; Abbie, his sensual sister-in-law; Mary, the all-knowing prostitute; and Helene, the discontented Swiss governess - each contributing to an unfolding drama of history-haunted turmoil. Though Lawton loathes the South's cult of personal violence, by the customs of his era and place, he is duty-bound to protect his household, and though he loves his wife, he, like the doctor he despises, is attracted to the other women around him and entangled in his own sexual intrigues. Unable to act otherwise, Lawton meets his rival in a brutal physical contest, and in the aftermath, Rebecca, Abbie, Mary, and Helene must make peace with their own turbulent pasts. War, earthquake, political guile, adultery, illegitimacy, lust, and murder - all the devices of gothic romance - play a role in this tale closely based on the lives of Charlestonians who lived these events over a century ago. A Gentleman in Charleston and the Manner of His Death interrogates the social codes that govern behavior and relations among the men and women of different races and many classes and confronts us with the folly of the human condition. Will witnessing the killing of David Lawton instruct us as to how to escape our own fated ends? Slipped quietly beneath the storylines of Baldwin's quick-paced novel is perhaps an answer.
From lowcountry writer William Baldwin comes a new edition of his 1993 Lillian Smith Award-winning novel, The Hard to Catch Mercy. Including a new introduction by the author, this Southern Revivals edition makes available once more a story that touches on the issues of religion, race, and coming-of-age in the post-Civil War South, when the lines between these issues were not always clear. Set in fictional Cedar Point, a small southern community in the early 1900s, The Hard to Catch Mercy is told through the eyes of a young boy, Willie T., who is forced to confront the changing world around him. Including a cast of incredibly outlandish characters, Baldwin's novel is a wild, darkly comic tale rich with trick mules, Christian voodoo, fire, brimstone, first love, death, and the end of the world as Willie T. knows it.
Born in 1928 in the small coastal town of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, Genevieve "Sister" Peterkin grew up with World War II bombing practice in her front yard, deep-sea fishing expeditions, and youthful rambles through the lowcountry. She shared her bedroom with a famous ghost and an impatient older sister. But most of all she listened. She absorbed the tales of her talented mother and her beloved friend, listened to the stories of the region's older residents, some of them former slaves, who were her friends, neighbors, and teachers. In this new edition she once again shares with readers her insider's knowledge of the lowcountry plantations, gardens, and beaches that today draw so many visitors. Beneath the humor, hauntings, and treasures of local history, she tells another, deeper story—one that deals with the struggle for racial equality in the South, with the sometimes painful adventures of marriage and parenthood, and with inner struggles for faith and acceptance. This edition includes a new foreword by coastal writer and researcher Lee G. Brockington and a new afterword by coauthor and lowcountry novelist William P. Baldwin.
From Lowcountry writer, novelist and Lillian Smith Award for Fiction winner William Baldwin comes Inland Passages: Making a Lowcountry Life, which features the coastal regions of Cape Romain and Charleston. This book is a compilation of over 25 oral histories, essays and observations from the past twenty years by William Baldwin. Though the people and topics covered in the work focus mainly around the Cape Romain and Charleston regions along the South Carolina coast, their themes are universal. With an approach that is introspective and true to the people being interviewed, Baldwin offers up traditional history in an untraditional way, leaving the reader with a sense of place that is often missing from regional writings.
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A book of poetry and photography depicting both famous and ordinary scenes of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Each poem is a lyrical celebration of the ordinary, like the photographs that inspired them.
This striking photography collection from Vennie Deas Moore is a journey into the lives of individuals and families who call the South Carolina Coast home. With contributions from author and Lowcountry resident William Baldwin, Deas Moore explores the joys and hardships of the people who continue to reside in this portion of the Lowcountry. From the deck of a shrimp boat in the early dawn and the laborious work of harvesting oysters, to family gatherings and walks along windswept beaches, Deas Moore has compiled a photographic tour of the people, life and heritage that makes the South Carolina Coast a matchless mosaic.
Take a journey into Chef Charlotte Jenkins' creative kitchen, and also into her life. Charlotte and her husband Frank grew up Gullah at a time when the Old Ways were giving way to the New Ways, part of the generation that bridged those two worlds. Charlotte learned to cook the way her mama, her grandmamma and all the mamas that have come before her - by working alongside one another. She also trained at Johnson & Wales Culinary Institute in Charleston, where she adapted the traditional recipes to be more healthful. In1997, she and her husband Frank opened Gullah Cuisine in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and were widely acknowledged as offering the best of authentic Gullah cooking. This book brings Charlotte's wonderful recipes to you - and more than that. It's a tale of connection, sharing a world the Gullah built. Narrative is by critically-acclaimed author William P. Baldwin, photographs by Pulitzer Prize-nominee Mic Smith, and art by beloved Gullah painter Jonathan Green.
Emily Whaley, who for the past sixty years has tended to her garden, making it so beautiful that it has become the most visited private garden in the country, presents a selection of amusing stories and practical advice to provide fellow gardeners with great hints for their own gardens.
Colorful photographs of interiors and exteriors of notable and ordinary buildings, as well as gardens, gates, and streetscapes provide an intimate view of Charleston.
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