The Speaker at the Center program of the South Carolina Center for the Book, in conjunction with the University of South Carolina Press, will present a series of talks on new regional history books beginning at noon on Thursday, August 19, with Allen Stokes, director of the South Caroliniana Library. 
Stokes will discuss Twilight on the South Carolina Rice Fields: Letters of the Heyward Family 1862--1871, which he has co-edited with Margaret Belser Hollis. As the July 18 review in the Charleston Post and Courier notes, "These letters provide a remarkable perspective on the terminal death throes of the Confederacy and along with it those of the rice industry and the institution of slavery, which was essential for its support."The Speaker at the Center series will highlight one new South Carolina book each month through the end of the year:
Thursday, September 16: Anne Sinkler Whaley LeClercq, director of the Daniel Library at the Citadel, will discuss her third book, Elizabeth Sinkler Coxe's Tales from the Grand Tour, 1890--1910, a chronicle of the international adventures of a Charleston widow turned patron of historical discovery.
Thursday, October 21: Tommy Charles, recently retired from the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, will present Discovering South Carolina's Rock Art, a memoir of his years locating and documenting prehistoric rock carvings and painting in the Upstate.
Thursday, November 18: Edmund R. Taylor and Alexander Moore will discuss the Selected Letters of Anna Heyward Taylor: South Carolina Artist and World Traveler, a new illustrated travelogue which celebrates the creative spirit of a Columbia native who became one of the central figures of the Charleston Renaissance in the 1930s. A corresponding exhibit of Taylor's watercolors and woodblock prints will open at the Columbia Museum of Art in October.
Thursday, December 9: Accomplished outdoor writer Jim Casada will share seasonal tales from Carolina Christmas: Archibald Rutledge's Enduring Holiday Stories. This new collection of stories, poems, and recipes celebrates the Southern holiday traditions of yesteryear through dozens of stories, poems, and recipes from Rutledge, South Carolina's first poet laureate and one of the most widely published outdoor and nature writers of the last century.
Books will be available for purchase and autographing. All programs will take place from noon to 1:00 p.m. in room 309 of the Administration Building at the South Carolina State Library (1430 Senate St., Columbia). This program is free and open to the public. Bag lunches are encouraged.
The South Carolina Center for the Book is the South Carolina Affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book and is a cooperative project of the South Carolina State Library, the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science, and The Humanities CouncilSC.
