The late, eminent scholar Clement Eaton once observed that the nineteenth- century romantic spirit, which "subtly permeated the society of the Old South," was borne out most vividly in the region's "arts and social manners." Having had its genesis in European literature and fine art, romanticism found its way into the cultural output of the young Republic, both North and South. The same ideals that imbued the canvases of the Hudson River School also colored the art of painters who found their inspiration and audience below the Mason-Dixon Line. In this study of thirty-two artists represented in the Johnson Collection, noted art historian Estill Curtis Pennington delineates the historical, social, and cultural forces that profoundly influenced their aesthetic sensibilities. Author of the award-winning books Lessons in Likeness and Kentucky: The Master Painters, Pennington examines the core concepts of the romantic movement as it unfolded in the American South: the heroic individual, an idealized chivalric code of personal honor, the sublime quality of nature, and the inevitability of change in an imperfect world. Many of the artists under consideration in this lavishly illustrated volume created works of art that have achieved iconic status in the annals of painting in the South, including William Dickinson Washington, William Thompson Russell Smith, Gustave Henry Mosler, Thomas Addison Richards, Joseph Rusling Meeker, Robert Walter Weir, and Thomas Sully. Spanning the years 1810–1896, Romantic Spirits includes insightful illustrated biographies of the featured artists, as well as extensive bibliographic resources. This inaugural publication underscores the Johnson Collection's commitment to advance interest in the dynamic role that the art of the South plays in the larger context of American art and to contribute to the canon of art historical literature.

Romantic Spirits: Nineteenth Century Paintings of the South from the Johnson Collection

Arts & Photography

Pennington

History & Criticism

Hub City Press

Against the backdrop of Spartanburg's century-old classical music tradition, Music Makers tells the story of the city's other exports─ from blues and jazz musicians of the '30s, the country stars launched by WSPA Radio, to Southern Rock's own Marshall Tucker Band and beyond. Among the Spartanburg-bred musicians included in the book are the Dixie Hummingbirds, Daryle Ryce, and Joe Bennett and the Sparkletones. The book also contains an in-depth interview with the late singer/songwriter Walter Hyatt.

Hub City Music Makers

COOPER, Peter

Music

New Southern Harmonies : Four Emerging Fiction Writers

Literature & Fiction

Lane, John

Short Stories & Anthologies

Photography/non-fiction A portrait of the vanishing peach farming industry in the Southeastern United States. The story of one peach farming family's struggles to stay afloat. With preface by novelist Dori Sanders.

Family Trees: The Peach Culture of the Piedmont

History

Four commentators from the Carolinas' popular public radio program, Radio Free Bubba, are included in this collection of social commentary that is passionate, humorous and offbeat. No subject is off-limits to these kinder and gentler Bubbas, who address everything from pizza delivery and permanent waves to tabloids and war toys. Bubbas writing about the protecting the planet? About foster parenthood, feeding the hungry and feminism? About love, tolerance and sharing what you find at the dumpster? Only in The Best of Radio Free Bubba!

The Best of Radio Free Bubba

Humor & Entertainment

Barnhouse, Meg

Jobe, Pat

Taylor, Kim

Phillips, Gary

Humor

Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve is a seven-acre sanctuary of old-growth forest, luxurious green shrubs and brilliant wildflowers near the heart of Spartanburg. The garden is the dream of one man, Harold Hatcher, who grew up in poverty in Kentucky tobacco country but struggled against the odds to turn his life into one of promise and fulfillment.Hembrees book tells the story of Hatchers early years as an energetic civil rights pioneer and social activist in Indiana. It follows him through his move to South Carolina in 1969, where he began work in his backyard on what would become one of the Southeasts most impressive--through understated--public gardens. While thousands visit the Hatcher trails and quiet places each year, few know the story of the unique and complex man who brought them to life.

The Seasons of Harold Hatcher

Mike Hembree

Biographies & Memoirs

Racine's took him to the Library of Congress and the National Archives and to the homes and offices of many citizens of Spartanburg. Inside the pages of this book are the images of world-renowned photographers Dorothea Lange and Jack Delano and local professionals Alfred T. Willis, Harry White and others. There is a gallery of Spartanburg's mighty men and influential women, her colorful characters and earnest faces, her children at play and citizens at work. There are construction projects and demolitions, local triumphs and tragedies, boom years and hard times. Seeing Spartanburg traces Spartanburg's history from its beginnings during the Colonial period, through the boom years of the early twentieth century and the hard days of war and depression, to the dynamic growth of the present era. Filled with images that are often poignant, sometimes surprising, and always rewarding, Seeing Spartanburg is a visual record of the life of one Southern city.

Seeing Spartanburg

Racine, Philip

Americas

In this deeply personal journey, author David Taylor takes an illustrated voyage down the Lawsons Fork, an urban stream that crosses the city of Spartanburg, South Carolina. His mythic float takes him back in time, to an era when the river provided hunting grounds for pre-historic civilizations, trails for European settlers, and power for early forms of industry. It brings him face to face with the modern role that rivers like the Lawsons have served--that of drainage ditches for burgeoning Sunbelt populations. 
Along the way, Taylor provides an interpretive map of the natural history of Lawsons Fork and presents an ode to the many heroic people who have labored to protect its waters. He dutifully answers many of Spartanburgs questions about the stream: How clean is it? What plants and animals are still found there? What parts are navigable? And who was Lawson anyway? 
Co-author Gary Henderson offers numerous in-depth profiles of the people who live,work and play along the Lawsons. They offer up their memories of the creek and their hopes for its continued recovery. 
The narrative is accompanied by dozens of illustrations by nature artist Helen Correll and by the work of a wide group of Spartanburg photographers. They provide an interior glimpse of a natural resource few have seen, except from bridge crossings. Integrated throughout the book is the creative work of local poets, including a group of young students from a school in the watershed. 
Together these writers, photographers and artists present a complex and intriguing portrait of an urban stream and the community that it traverses. "The Lawsons Fork: Headwaters to Confluence," is a journey readers wont soon forget.

The Lawson's Fork: Headwaters to Confluence

David, Taylor

Photography & Video

New places and new voices make up Hub City Anthology 2, a collection of creative nonfiction set in and around the city of Spartanburg, S.C. From a window seat on a city bus to the hard pews of a country church, from a loading dock to a horse farm, these writers explore their relationships to the community that either gave birth to or nourished their art.Writing with humor, passion, and self-revelation, fourteen new Hub City writers take readers on a rambling tour of their hometown: a college campus at 3 a.m., a mill village in the grip of economic change, a junior high school confronting integration, a mortuary, an old-time barbershop, a retirement home, and a depot diner. Emerging from their essays is a greater story about the complexities of community life.

Hub City Anthology: Spartanburg Wrtiers and Artists

Teter, Betsy Wakefield

Essays & Correspondence

Set amid the perils of illegal border crossings, The Iguana Tree is the suspenseful saga of Lilia and Hector, who separately make their way from Mexico into the United States, seeking work in the Carolinas and a home for their infant daughter. Michel Stone s harrowing novel meticulously examines the obstacles each faces in pursuing a new life: manipulation, rape, and murder in the perilous commerce of border crossings; betrayal by family and friends; exploitation by corrupt officials and rapacious landowners on the U.S. side; and, finally, the inexorable workings of the U.S. justice system. Hector and Lilia meet Americans willing to help them with legal assistance and offers of responsible employment, but their illegal entry seems certain to prove their undoing. The consequences of their decisions are devastating. In the end, The Iguana Tree is a universal story of loss, grief, and human dignity.

The Iguana Tree

Stone, Michel

Contemporary

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

Books by Hub City Press