Raised in the heart of Gullah country, author Roger Pinckney provides an inside look at the history, practices and people of Gullah country, off the coast of South Carolina. On the plantations of the American South, slaves passed their African roots to their descendants in a rich and lasting oral tradition, a tradition that survives today. Prominent among Gullah culture was the belief in herbalism, spiritualism, and black magic. Meet Dr. Bug, Dr. Fly, Dr. Crow and the infamous Dr. Buzzard, professional root doctors who can administer a root to bring money, find love, or cure ailments.

Blue Roots: African-American Folk Magic of the Gullah People

History

Pinckney, Roger

Americas

Sandlapper Pub Co

This rollicking chronicle of life on Daufuskie Island, one of the sea islands of coastal South Carolina, portrays a distinct culture shaped by the physical geography of place, the historic environment of the antebellum South, and the encroachment of modern golf resorts. The unique landscape of sandy beaches, marshes, and woods of pine and oak is inhabited by the fiercely independent locals who've lived on the island for generations. This book captures an island in transition as the native islanders watch the expanding battle between environmentalists and developers eager to claim the lush land for exclusive resorts. Tender, bawdy, sacred, and profane, this poignant rendering of this unique island includes tales of voodooists, smugglers, poets, shrimpers, and Fortune 500 executives.

Right Side of the River, The

Literature & Fiction

Gibbs-Smith

The high-spirited, often humorous adventures of a boy growing up in World War II-era rural South Carolina are at the heart of this remarkable novel. Little Mac McCloud, son of the sheriff of a remote coastal county, recounts the youthful encounters that shape his world and the stratification that forces blacks and whites to live separate yet interdependent lives. Little Mac's world revolves around Little Glory, the family plantation that never recovered from the Civil War, and the nearby rivers, marshes, and waterways that provide his highway to an assortment of bewitching adventures and escapades. An array of fascinating characters whose dialogue is deeply influenced by the black Gullah culture of the Carolinas are introduced. They share modest lives and uncommon bonds amidst the great physical beauty of the Lowcountry.

Little Glory

United States

In this collection of essays, master storyteller Roger Pinckney paints a vivid portrait of his lowcountry South Carolina birthplace and his present home on Daufuskie Island. In a distinctive literary voice with keen sensitivity to current environmental and social issues, Pinckney chronicles a rural community life that is threatened by modern-day intrusions and resort developments. The stories are filled with the sweet smells of the sea and the salt marsh, and with the sights of sunset skies and wide open spaces. Peopled with hunters and fishermen, family and friends, and fellow islanders with their own stories to tell, this book is a poignant rendering of the emotional, social, and physical geography of a very special place and the struggle to preserve it.

Signs and Wonders

Pickney, Roger

Yancey Yarboro is home from the war and growing tomatoes on his father's ground. Susan Drake, married, beautiful and neglected, lives in a beach house not far away. They have never met, at least not yet. When real estate developers come looking for land to expand a golf course, Yancey wonders if he is about to lose everything. But Yancey has four hundred pounds of marijuana salvaged from a dope run gone awry. And he has Gator Brown, near-sighted hoodoo doctor, whose spiritual machinations sometimes fly wide of the mark. It's the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The jasmine is blooming and the moon and the magic are working overtime.

Reefer Moon

Evening Post Books

An inside look at the history, practices, and people of Gullah country, off the coast of South Carolina: their spells and hexes, haunts and hags, the dreaded spirit called the Plateye, and the tales of the "root doctors" themselves. 24 photos.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Llewellyn Publications

Grayson Devoe is plagued by ghosts. He's a treasure diver from Folly Beach, South Carolina, a honky-tonk town that lives up to its name. The wreck of a Spanish ship lies somewhere just beyond the breakers, and Grayson aims to find it. But his business partner has other ideas and sends Carmela Morales, a beautiful young cutthroat, to make sure Grayson follows orders. But once a body washes ashore, ghosts are the least of Grayson's worries. Then there is the Black Madonna, Tanisha Roundtree, Grayson's cook, who is ready to bear "The Chosen One." She prays for Grayson in church, consorts with the voodoo man, and ultimately holds his life in her hands. Blow the Man Down sings like a power line in a gale, in a perfect storm of drugs, deception, delusion and danger, love, lust, loss, and redemption. But meanwhile, cocaine is coming ashore and the bullets are about to fly.

Blow the Man Down

They call him Rut. William Rutledge Elliott IV is Washed in the Blood, an almost born-again Baptist laying low on a remote island, skippering a seepy old freight barge and growing high quality marijuana for a discerning clientele. While his chosen occupations are perilous, his life is peaceful and predictable until he discovers a strange track in an abandoned ricefield, the track of an animal officially extinct for over a century. Ridiculed and rebuffed by Natural Resource wardens and biologists, Rut seeks the truth. But instead of setting him free, as the Good Book says, the truth sends him to jail. But there are compensations, good whiskey, good smoke and an unlikely romance with the lovely Charlotte Callahan, one of the state's first female game wardens. Washed in the Blood is a wild and muddy romp through the South Carolina Lowcountry, a compelling tale and an unforgettable read.

Washed in the Blood

It's the last of the free and wild days and Yancey, Grayson and Little Rip lay claim to a scrubby little island along a deserted stretch of beach. They hunt and fish and roam the woods but the world comes hammering at their cabin door. Prince Faisal, heir to the Saudi throne, is looking for a secure anchorage for his sea-going yacht and the boys' fish camp is square in the way of a fat real estate deal. The boys will not back down, and after parties unknown torch their camp, they plot an unlikely but deadly revenge, the assassination of a Saudi royal. The Mullet Manifesto is a cry for the wild places, on the earth and in the heart. It is dirge for a time forever lost, a time we need now more than ever.

The Mullet Manifesto

Humor & Satire

River's Edge Media, LLC

In this stunning collection of essays, many of them gleaned from back issues of some of the world's most notable magazines, others seen here for the first time, Pinckney sometimes seems like some wild-eyed Old Testament prophet crying in the wilderness, at other times, a man crying for it, grieving the loss of the wild places, on the earth and in the heart.

Crying in the Wilderness

Biographies & Memoirs

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pinckney, Roger. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pinckney, Roger

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pinckney, Roger. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Blue Roots: African-American Folk Magic of the Gullah People

Right Side of the River, The

Little Glory

Signs and Wonders

Reefer Moon

Blue Roots: African-American Folk Magic of the Gullah People

Blow the Man Down

Washed in the Blood

The Mullet Manifesto

Crying in the Wilderness