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.
LIFE'S
EXTRAS
by Archibald Rutledge
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 WITH DUSTJACKET,
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
Overview of Archibald Rutledge's life and works.
Includes a descriptive bibliography of his works,
Also includes copies and excerpts from his secretary, Dorothy Gaston. Her
private collection consisted of notes, invitations, memorabilia and photographs
from many years of working with Mr. Rutledge.
Hardcover. 196 pages.
Published in 2003
ISBN: 0-9745300-0-X $
25.00
y
OUT OF PRINT (only 1 available):
Deep River (Autographed)
by Archibald Rutledge
$100.00
Hardcover with dustjacket
Revised Edition 1966
R L Bryan
Used condition
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