Buxton Books is honored to be the booksellers for Charleston Library Society & Middleton Place Foundation. Join them in celebrating the publication of renowned author Virginia Beach’s newest book, American Landmark: Charles Duell and the Rebirth of Middleton Place.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
“Home of a Declaration signer and a First Continental Congress president, Middleton Place also was the residence for hundreds of enslaved men, women and children. As the new man in charge, Duell’s challenge was to preserve the history contained in the houses and lands of his forebears, while also making them sustainable, relevant and accessible for future generations of all Americans. Affirming Ralph Waldo Emerson’s thesis that ‘there is properly no history, only biography,’ American Landmark weaves together myriad biographical stories, introducing the reader to an array of protagonists — both White and Black — who shaped this iconic place and were shaped by it.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Virginia Beach writes for numerous publications on the subjects of plantation history and land conservation. She has also served on the staffs of The Nature Conservancy, the Lowcountry Land Trust and the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, as well as on the national editorial board of Saving Land. A native of Richmond, she earned a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in East Africa.Virginia’s first book, Medway, a history of a Cooper River rice plantation, was published by Wyrick & Company with photographs by Tom Blagden. Her next book, Rice & Ducks: The Surprising Convergence that Saved the Carolina Lowcountry, was published jointly by Ducks Unlimited and Evening Post Books. It chronicles the land conservation movement of Lowcountry South Carolina and won the 2015 Independent Publisher’s gold medal for best southeastern nonfiction.Virginia and her husband, Dana Beach – who founded the Coastal Conservation League in 1989 – are avid birders and nature enthusiasts, having lived in Charleston for nearly four decades and raised their two children there. In 2019, they collaborated to write a history of the Conservation League entitled, A Wholly Admirable Thing: Defending Nature and Community on the South Carolina Coast.
This is a FREE in-person event. RSVP is required, and you can save your seat by clicking here.
Purchase your copy of American Landmark: Charles Duell and the Rebirth of Middleton Place!