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.

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