“The Southern Literary Tradition is a celebration of southern writers. We are categorized by southern states, where the people, culture and landscape provide the imaginative base for the author’s work . Our video clips and narrative on this site invite visitors to explore and sample writing emanating from the south. Enjoy and visit us on Amazon for our Summer Place Collection or be sure to connect with me directly if you are interested in membership, our antiquarian services, curation, collection valuation, prints and rare books and in-public or BookZooms online events.” (info@atlanta-antiquarian.com)
Our History
After more than twenty years, my husband, Paul drpaulevans.com , and I decided to sell our home in Charleston, South Carolina and our commercial property, the historic Nicholas Trott house, where we operated The Southern Literary Tradition bookshop and the Gunpowder Tea Room and Garden.
It seemed unimaginable, The Southern Literary Tradition had been a successful and ongoing staple in the Charleston tourism, arts and literary scene for nearly 2 decades. And, it had undergone many transformations.
When we first opened in 1992 the bookshop at 84 Church Street was our weekend retreat from our careers in Atlanta.
Dating from the early 1700’s the building’s three stories were stacked like enormous children’s blocks one on another with high ceilings and fireplaces on the second and third floors. Built-in bookcases, chandeliers, John Ragsdale crafted swags, and a lovely freestanding, black enamel claw and ball tub, were finishing touches we made to the property when we purchased it.
When we started planning our inventory we were amazed at the personal collection we had amassed over the years. We had sections for Southern Literature, local history, biographies and diaries of women and contemporary first editions. And there were sections of rare books we purchased from antiquarian dealers when we lived in Atlanta, New York City and Washington, DC and from our scouting trips of second hand bookstores in various places where we had traveled. We also had collections from our established relationships with the network of southern university presses that specialize in publishing books about southern culture and history unavailable from commercial publishers.
On opening day, outside our doorway a solitary plaque announced, “The Southern Literary Tradition”, it was the only signpost distinguishing us in the genteel shabbiness of the other historic homes. Understandably, we were often mistaken by those who looked inside, as a personal library or literary museum.
In the windows facing the sidewalk I rotated pictures weekly of William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, Langston Hughes, as well as more contemporary writers such as Pat Conroy, James Dickey, Harper Lee, Shelby Foote, and Nikki Giovanni, next to first editions of their works. Inside books were shelved according to the southern state that the writers were most associated with either by their birth or their writing, or both. There too, I placed small black and white photos that added an aura of personal interest and human presence.
I never advertised, yet in only a few months word got around and suddenly the shop was being visited by local tour guides, pointed out by passing carriage drivers, listed in local and regional magazines and I was regularly being asked to write book reviews.
I was very appreciative of the unexpected welcoming of John Henry Bennett Jr, the grandson of John Bennett, founder of the Poetry Society of South Carolina, to join their Board; and, delighted for John to ask me to be involved in helping with the Sundown Poetry Reading during the Spoleto Festival.
To our amazement, The Southern Literary Tradition soon was to become an interior Charleston landmark attracting tours, serious collectors, people looking for books to give as special presents, and was even used on the location set for the film, “Scarlett”, the sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s’ “Gone with the Wind.”
The designers and scene producers transformed the bookshop to a ladies millinery. In the movie we watched Timothy Dalton and Annabeth Gish leave the shop and ride away in a horse-drawn carriage down Church Street.
Situated at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, Charleston, was the natural place for a settlement when colonists first arrived in 1670. Among them were educated people–physicians, lawyers, and ministers–who brought with them treasured books and an appreciation for learning and culture that has continued to this day. As one would expect in such a historic venue, Charleston has many collectors of rare books and artifacts.
In the summer of 1995 we purchased 73 Church Street, The Thomas Dale House. There we sponsored literary events and readings in the garden to promote the study, collecting, and appreciation of southern literature. Originally owned and occupied by Miles Brewton the house was built in 1716. In 1733 it was conveyed to Brewton’s daughter, Mary, as a wedding gift to her and her new husband, Dr. Thomas Dale. In addition to being a physician, Dale was a noted literary figure in Charleston who wrote the prologue to the first performance at the Dock Street Theater.
Sadly, Dr. Dale was killed early in life in Indian warfare and Mary Dale died of Yellow Fever passing the house to Frances Brewton Pinckney and her husband Charles Pinckney. Charles was elected president of the Provincial Congress and was said to hold provincial congress meetings in the house. Frances’ and Charles’ eldest son, was also named Charles and the house passed to him when they died. Their son, Charles, became a noted South Carolina political figure. He was author of the Pinckney Draft of the U.S. Constitution, minister to Spain, and Senator and Governor of South Carolina.
Soon we found ourselves constantly engaged in literary, social and cultural activities on the peninsula. Christie’s, of New York City, had put together a lovely arts and history connoisseurship program celebrating Charleston. And, with the Poetry Society we helped coordinate a full slate of readings in the garden of the Dock Street Theater during the annual Spoleto Festival.
Our inspiration for the first “Poetry Walk on the Peninsula” came from a visit to Ireland Paul and I had over a decade earlier, during the annual Bloomsday, on June 16, when Dubliners recreate the day of the events in James Joyce’s Ulysses. In Dublin, the town is devoted to Joyce for the day: bars tapping free Guinness, restaurants dishing out a fare of organ meats for Leopold Bloom; and, visitors strolling among students and poets on the streets donned in Joycean capes, eye-patches and glasses, pledging to recite a bit of the world’s greatest novel for spare change. We wanted to replicate the experience.
The idea spawned the Poetry Walk, a walking tour, punctuated by stops on the peninsula for readings on the literary trail of Charleston writers at places associated with their work. Much of the Poetry was read in costume such as Poe’s Annabel Lee (which was said to have been written while Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie gazing across the harbor to the city of Charleston). At the end of the program walkers and readers were escorted to Trotts Cottage for libations, more recitations, and hours of conversation.
Paul and I had been fascinated with the historic property on 83 Cumberland Street and well knew the story of Stede Bonnet, the gentleman pirate, who was sentenced to death by Judge Trott and hanged in Charles Town down by the battery.
Located next to the old powder magazine and owned by Judge Nicholas Trott the cottage was one of the first brick structures in Charles Town, if not the first. Judge Nicholas Trott, was appointed by the Lords Proprietors as Attorney General for the southern portion of the province of Carolina in 1698.
When we bought “Trotts Cottage” at 83 Cumberland Street, it became the permanent location for the Southern Literary Tradition. In the bookshop the collection of more than 5000 volumes of southern literature was one of the most comprehensive of its kind.
Paul and I had the pleasure of attending the performance of The Reckon Crew’s Folk Opera “As I Lay Dying” at the Conference on Southern Literature in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We were delighted to track them down in Nashville and commission them to be a part of our Southern Literary Festival in Charleston during Spoleto. The event was quickly sold out and we were told by our College of Charleston friends that there appeared to be new found interest in Faulkner on campus following the musical.
Since the beginning our dear friend, Seabrook Wilkinson, had become an essential and critical part of our literary activities in Charleston.
Well cast as moderator of our Literary Festival the scholar and poet, having an accent thought typical of the English upper classes, entertained audiences with a wit, satire, and charm not often seen in a modern, spuriously “gentrified” Charleston.
Confident and self assured in his own arts and Charleston’s manifestations of cultural achievement he was not one to accept and justify condemnation of the genteel society.
Also known as an excellent visual artist, the endearing scion surprised us with his personally designed and hand-painted and hand-delivered Christmas cards a valued series for family and friends on the peninsula.
Below: Brochure for Trott’s Cottage: Tours, Books, Teas & Gifts.
Dick Estell, American radio personality, was the host and producer of The Radio Reader, a serial public radio program where Dick read aloud from over 600 contemporary novels. The program was carried on public broadcasting stations in the United States. It was a pleasure to host Dick at the Southern Literary Tradition.
Excerpt from Emilie C. Harting’s Los Angeles Times article:
Above: “Travis”, our British Labrador Retriever, (named after John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee- who lives on a 52-foot houseboat) was the most important part of The Southern Literary Tradition in Charleston on Church Street and at Trotts Cottage.
At Trotts Cottage we enjoyed receiving visitors and corresponding with novelists and poets from all over the world. It was constantly entertaining, providing incessant, fascinating situations and encounters.
And, I especially appreciated involvement in the Charleston community not only in the support of literary arts but also in building a caring and healthy place to live and work with events such as the Komen Race for the Cure.
There were temporary respites from my bookshop responsibilities. But, after nearly 20 years of bookshop proprietorship Paul and I felt we wanted to spend more time together traveling and doing the other things we longed to do but had neglected. We didn’t want to feel tethered. Without regret and mindful of the extraordinary experience we had created and greatly enjoyed, in 2010 we closed the shop.
We already had our home in the North Carolina mountains where I put The Southern Literary Tradition inventory online with the majority of our collection. The transition was astonishingly easy and to my happy surprise I was soon found in that vast cyberspace market by friends, authors, artists, and even tourists who had visited the bookshop and tea room years ago in Charleston.
Today, The Southern Literary Tradition Bookshop has fostered interest in the book arts for over thirty years (physical and virtual) in a most important sense through the development of an extensive collection devoted to southern literature. From our early beginnings in Charleston we have established a member network of readers, authors, book and print collectors, book dealers, librarians, educators, and students—that allow us to continue our mission through online lectures and discussions on our BookZooms free video conferencing readings, lecture and discussion platform (see BookZooms tab).
Just like before, The Southern Literary Tradition is a celebration of southern writers categorized by southern state. On this website we highlight only a few of the talented writers of our online collections in the North Carolina Mountains and our prints and antiquarian books in midtown Atlanta at Atlanta Antiquarian. Click on the Atlanta Antiquarian tab and join us for online conversations and discussions and be sure to connect with me directly if you are interested in membership, joining our e-mail list, our antiquarian services, curation, collection valuation, prints, rare books and literary events.
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