Mr Skylark

Based on years of research and thousands of notes left by John Bennett, Mr. Skylark is an unusually intimate biography of a pivotal figure in the Charleston Renaissance, the brief period between the two World Wars that first witnessed many of the cultural and artistic changes soon to sweep the South. The book not only examines Bennett's life but also reveals the rich tapestry of the literary and social history of Charleston. An outsider who became an insider by marrying into the local aristocracy, Bennett was perfectly placed to observe social and artistic change and to prompt it. He published the first scholarly treatise on Gullah, the language of the coastal Southern blacks, and collected African American spirituals and tales. But after breaking several racial taboos of the time, he was publicly condemned, and it was only through mentoring such writers as Hervey Allen and DuBose Heyward that he was eventually welcomed back into the heart of the city. Today, the Charleston aesthetic, which mourned the loss of beauty in a modernizing South, is often overlooked in the study of Southern literature, but Bennett, through his extensive private correspondence and notes, offers insight into the forces that shaped this cultural movement. Restored to us in all his complexity and humor, Bennett is important for his own accomplishments, but also for providing a lens through which to view southern literary history and the complexities of a changing South.

Imagine waking up to find a pink door in your room youd never seen before. Would you go through it? Would you go get your parents? Or would you rub your eyes, sure your imagination was playing a trick on you? That is what eight-year-old Meladie faced. When she wakes up one midnight, she discovers a mysterious pink door in her room that hadnt been there before. Author Tom Grifas childrens book, Like the Melody thats Sweetly Played in Tune, shares Meladies adventures after she goes through the door to a new outside world. Follow Meladie on a magical and mystical series of events that lead to her destiny. During her adventures she meets some interesting characters, including Puck the owl, who watches over her. Kate, a shrew mouse, leads Meladie through the maze of life. Although written primarily for children, it includes many allusions and references to great literature, which makes the book interesting for adults as well. Like the Melody thats Sweetly Played in Tune shares how one young girl was able to find her destiny through her imagination and sense of adventure. It encourages readers to use their imaginations as well.

"The essays tell how these and other individuals faced the tensions and contradictions of their time and place. While some traced their lineage back to the city's first families, others were relative newcomers. Some broke new ground racially and sexually as well as artistically; others perpetuated the myths of the Old South. Some were censured at home but praised in New York, London, and Paris. The essays also underscore the significance and growth of such cultural institutions as the Poetry Society of South Carolina, the Charleston Museum, and the Gibbes Art Gallery."--BOOK JACKET.

Dr. Wayne Williams, a Botanist and conservationist, travelled the world over a forty-year period, mostly in third world countries in Latin America, eastern Europe and central Asia, where he worked for sixteen years in international development. Dealing with the omnipresence of five bloody wars on numerous assignments as an environmental and agricultural scientist, this present volume Kissing the Hand of the Dead creates an indefatigable confidence that solutions to war and violence are possible. The answer is within a massive appreciation and defense of Nature and those around us. This action lies within the paradigm to remember and honor our ancestors, learning from their historical experience. His descriptions of the joy, humor and pathos of cultural behavior are intriguing and mysterious, leading to a new means of ending war and finding new paths to peace and security.