Archibald Rutledge Collection Comes to Brunk Auctions
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA – Brunk Auctions is delighted to present in our May 20 American & Southern auction a 62-volume group of titles, 54 of which are by Archibald Rutledge (1883-1973). He was the first poet laureate from South Carolina and held the designation from 1934 to 1973.
This is our Lot 142.
The collection comes to auction from a private Charleston, South Carolina, collector. A prolific author, Rutledge wrote about 60 books and many additional poems, largely about his hunting and life experiences in South Carolina. A library of such size rarely comes to market all at once, and the group is additionally significant for including nearly all his titles. Many are rare, hard-to-find volumes that have broad appeal to collectors of poetry, memoir, fiction and non-fiction alike.
Many volumes in the group are signed and/or inscribed by the author. These are New Poems, 1915; South of Richmond, 1923; The Flower of Hope, 1930; Veiled Eros, 1933; Wild Life of the South, 1935; Brimming Chalice, 1936; The Sonnets, 1938; Rain on the Marsh, 1940; Home by the River, The Story of Hampton Plantation, 1941; Love’s Meaning, 1943; Hunter’s Choice, 1946, limited edition #248 of 475, in a slipcover; The Angel Standing, 1947 The Heart’s Citadel & other poems, 1953; Brimming Tide and other poems, 1954; Bright Angel and other poems, 1955; From the Hills to the Sea, 1958; Deep River, The Complete Poems of Archibald Rutledge, 1960 The Ballad of the Howling Hound and other poems, 1965; Willie Was a Lady, 1966, and with letter from Rutledge to recipient laid in, Poems in Honor of South Carolina Tricentennial, 1970; A Wildwood Tale, Drama of the Open, n.d.; and The Heart’s Quest, n.d.
Additional titles by Rutledge feature presentation inscriptions: The Banners of the Coast, 1908. Collected Poems, 1925; Christ is God, 1941; Life’s Extras, 1946; Beauty in the Heart, 1953; The World Around Hampton, 1960; How Wild Was My Village, 1969; and Voices of the Long Ago, Bible Stories Retold, 1973.
Three posthumous compilations of Rutledge’s poetry are included in the lot: Hunting & Home in the Southern Heartland, 1992; Tales of Whitetails, Archibald Rutledge’s Great Deer-Hunting Stories,1992; and America’s Greatest Game Bird, Archibald Rutledge’s Turkey-Hunting Tales, 1994
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Dorothy Stone Harmon’s Archibald Rutledge: The Man and His Books, 2003 and Idelia Bodie’s A Hunt for Life’s Extras, The Story of Archibald Rutledge, 1980, are indispensable inclusions in the group.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
