Plantations of the Low Country [Hardcover]

Agnes Baldwin (Author), N. Jane Iseley (Author), William P. Baldwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1985 | ISBN-10: 0933101082 | ISBN-13: 978-0933101081 | Edition: Revised

ARCHITECTURE has been defined as "the gift of one generation to the next." In the South Carolina Low Country the gift is a particularly precious one-a rich treasure of buildings that not only charm us with their graceful beauty, but offer us a glimpse into a vanished world of prosperous plantations and provincial aristocracy.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

N. Jane Iseley has 29 photography books to her credit, including Charleston, Charleston Entertains, Plantations of the Low Country: South Carolina 1697-1865, The Charleston Interior, Savannah Tour of Homes and Gardens, and Savannah Secret and Public Gardens. She is the president of Legacy Publications. Her home is on a family farm in Burlington, North Carolina.

William P. Baldwin, a lifelong resident of the South Carolina Lowcountry, is probably best known for wr9iting the best-selling Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden and Sister Peterkin’s Heaven Is a Beautiful Place. These two much-loved memoirs followed his South Carolina-set epic novel The Hard to Catch Mercy, which won the Lillian Smith Award and wide critical acclaim.

Agnes LeLand Baldwin is a native of South Carolina. Her lifelong interest in SC history lead to extensive research on the early grants to SC Low Country tidelands. Specializing in 17th century records, Mrs. Baldwin was a principal researcher for the South Carolina Tri Centennial celebration in 1970.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 151 pages
• Publisher: Legacy Pubns; Revised edition (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933101082
• ISBN-13: 978-0933101081
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,855,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive. Substantial. Beautiful., September 22, 2011

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Jon L. Albee "Faulkner Wannabe" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Plantations of the Low Country: South Carolina, 1697-1865 (Hardcover)

Don't let the 1985 publication date put you off this book. It's a gem and, the best part, all 87 sites surveyed in the book are still standing!

Those 87 sites include plantation houses, gardens, and churches in the low country of South Carolina, built between 1697 and 1865. The piedmont and upcountry are not part of the survey.

The entries are arranged in chapters of geographic sub-region and sorted chronologically within. Each entry includes a finely crafted companion essay by author William Baldwin. These essays are substantial enough to be useful to architectural and local historians, as they are tightly researched and edited. They include discussion of architecture, architectural details, and provenance of each site. The text is very well done.

Now the photography! For 1985 film technology, this is about as good as it gets, and that's pretty darn good. The cover shot of Drayton Hall (make sure your used copy comes with the dust jacket intact!) will make you catch your breath. The shots with each entry include a mixture of exterior, interior, aerial, garden and detail shots that bring you right to the discussed location, as if you're standing there. A few other notes about the photographs: Some are full-page spreads, but most are smaller half-page shots inserted into the text. A few of the entries do not include photographs, but only a few.

More than a coffee-table book, I recommend this book for architectural historians, enthusiastic amateurs (such as me!), tourists and low-country lovers alike. It's a fine book.