Carolina Christmas: Archibald Rutledge's Enduring Holiday Stories

by Rutledge, Archibald

• ISBN13: 9781570039546
• ISBN10: 1570039542
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Pr

Summary

Carolina Christmas collects for the first time holiday stories of Archibald Rutledge (1883-1973), one of the most prolific outdoor and nature writers of the twentieth century and the first poet laureate of South Carolina. Some of Rutledge's finest writing revolves around his vivid memories of hunt, hearth, and holidays. These memories are celebrated in this keepsake collection of enduring stories and poems, further augmented with traditional recipes and food lore associated with the season. Archibald Rutledge spent decades teaching at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. All the while he supplemented his income through his writings in order to support a growing family and restoration efforts at Hampton Plantation, his ancestral home in coastal South Carolina--now a state historic site. Each Christmas, Rutledge returned to his cherished Hampton Plantation for hunting, celebrations of the season, and renewal of his decidedly Southern soul. This annual migration home meant the opportunity to enjoy hunting and communion with nature--so vitally important to him--and to renew acquaintances with those living on neighboring plantations and with the African American community he immortalized in his book God's Children. Rutledge wrote dozens of stories and poems revolving around the Hampton Hunt, fellowship with family and friends, the serenity of the winter woods, and his appetite for seasonal Southern foodways. Edited by Jim Casada, this collection highlights the very best of Rutledge's holiday tales in a vibrant tapestry through which Christmas runs as a bright, sparkling thread. In these tales of Christmas past--each representative of the author's sterling literary reputation and continuing popularity--Rutledge guides us once more into a world of traditions now largely lost. But to tread those forgotten trails once more, to sample and savor the foods he loved, and to experience vicariously the sport he so enjoyed is to experience the wonder of yesteryear.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
A Note on Selection	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
Christmas in Dixie	p. 1
Christmas with My Colonel	p. 7
Christmas Eve on the Plantation	p. 12
Christmas Eve on Wicklow	p. 15
A Plantation Christmas	p. 23
Christmas in the Castle	p. 31
Prince Alston: God's Special Child	p. 37
A Wildwood Christmas	p. 46
December Doings	p. 61
Plantation Christmas	p. 64
A Natural Christmas	p. 71
My Christmas Birds and Trees	p. 75
Birds of the Southern Winter	p. 78
My Winter Woods	p. 86
Woodcock in the Snow	p. 92
A Winter Home for Wildfowl	p. 93
The Hampton Hunt: Whitetail Tales	p. 99
A Hunt with the Oakland Pack	p. 103
Steve's Masterpiece	p. 108
The Lady in Green	p. 114
That Christmas Eve Stag	p. 121
That Christmas Buck	p. 127
All of a Christmas Morning	p. 133
A Christmas Hunt	p. 139
Blue's Buck	p. 145
The Gray Stag of Bowman's Bank	p. 150
The Surprise of My Life	p. 155
The Case of the Elmwood Buck	p. 159
Hunter Come Home	p. 164
The Hampton Hunt: Other Game	p. 171
A Unique Quail Hunt	p. 173
Fireworks in the Peafield Corner	p. 175
Joel's Christmas Turkey	p. 180
Miss Seduction Struts Her Stuff	p. 186
My Hunterman	p. 190
Christmas Verse	p. 195
Christmas Eve on the Rapidan (1863)	p. 199
Christmas Song	p. 200
Feasting at Hampton: The Culinary Aspects of a Low Country Christmas	p. 203
Drinks and Cordials	p. 207
Starters	p. 209
Side Dishes	p. 211
Breads	p. 213
Main Dishes	p. 215
Desserts	p. 221
About the Editor	p. 227
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