02 February 2011

My Kind of Town - Charleston, South Carolina


Broad St., Charleston, S.C.

When the Smithsonian Magazine asked authors to write essays about their hometowns, they wisely picked writer Josephine Humphreys to write about Charleston. A few years ago I went to Ashley Hall School to hear her read her essay out loud. I think you will enjoy it as well:

My Kind of Town: Charleston, South Carolina
Novelist Josephine Humphreys says the city is more than just her hometown, it's her life.

Josephine Humphreys is the author of four novels: Dreams of Sleep (winner of the 1985 PEN/Hemingway Award), Rich in Love, The Fireman’s Fair and Nowhere Else on Earth, an historical novel based on the true story of the Lumbee Indian outlaw Henry Lowrie. A former Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the Lyndhurst Prize, she lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she was born.

5 comments:

  1. Charleston's old ladies ruled the town, and if you misbehaved within the hawkish eyesight of one...

    This is true all through the South, it was hard for a group of boys to have any fun at all without one of those ladies burning up the phone lines back to our parents and grandparents.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I grew up in Baltimore where the ladies seemed to always be facing the other way. It was easy to get into trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The old "it take a Village to raise a child" really works.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I find this fellow and his companion intriguing landmarks along Broad St. They seem a quiet witness to how much the city has changed over the years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Doug - I agree. I like them too :)

    ReplyDelete

Leave me a comment. They make me strong.