SC Humanities and the University of South Carolina Press partnered together to produce three collectible hardback editions of little-known short stories by beloved South Carolina author Archibald Rutledge. Claws, The Doom of Ravenswood, and The Egret’s Plumes also feature handsome charcoal etchings by Southern artist Stephen Chesley and have introductions by award-winning outdoors writer and noted Rutledge scholar Jim Casada.
(1883–1973) was South Carolina’s most prolific writer and the state’s first poet laureate. His nature writings garnered him the prestigious John Burroughs Medal.
The short stories “Claws,” “The Doom of Ravenswood,” and “The Egret’s Plumes” were written for publication in an early twentieth-century boy’s magazine and were first collected in the privately-printed Eddy Press edition of Old Plantation Days (c. 1912). Limited to just a few hundred copies, the Eddy Press edition is highly prized by Rutledge collectors and includes five stories— “Claws,” “The Doom of Ravenswood,” “The Egret’s Plumes,” “The Heart of Regal,” and “The Ocean’s Menace”—not found in the more widely available 1921 Stokes edition of Old Plantation Days.
The beautiful republished hardback versions of Claws, The Doom of Ravenswood, and The Egret’s Plumes are available for $25 each and can be securely purchased online through the link below. For collectors, there is also a lettered edition (limited to 20 copies and including an artist’s print) and a numbered edition (limited to 100 copies). Inquiries about the lettered and numbered editions can be made by calling SC Humanities office at 803-771-2477.
Purchase a copy of Claws or The Doom of Ravenswood
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c) 3 organization is governed by a volunteer 23-member Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and/or supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually.
