Jim Casada – författare

Carolina Christmas collects for the first time holiday stories of Archibald Rutledge (1883-1973), one of the most prolific outdoor and nature writers of the twentieth century and the first poet laureate of South Carolina. Some of Rutledge''s finest writing revolves around his vivid memories of hunt, hearth, and holidays. These memories are celebrated in this keepsake collection of enduring stories and poems, further augmented with traditional recipes and food lore associated with the season.

Archibald Rutledge spent decades teaching at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. All the while he supplemented his income through his writings in order to support a growing family and restoration efforts at Hampton Plantation, his ancestral home in coastal South Carolina—now a state historic site. Each Christmas, Rutledge returned to his cherished Hampton Plantation for hunting, celebrations of the season, and renewal of his decidedly Southern soul. This annual migration home meant the opportunity to enjoy hunting and communion with nature—so vitally important to him—and to renew acquaintances with those living on neighboring plantations and with the African American community he immortalized in his book God''s Children.

Rutledge wrote dozens of stories and poems revolving around the Hampton Hunt, fellowship with family and friends, the serenity of the winter woods, and his appetite for seasonal Southern foodways. Edited by Jim Casada, this collection highlights the very best of Rutledge''s holiday tales in a vibrant tapestry through which Christmas runs as a bright, sparkling thread. In these tales of Christmas past—each representative of the author''s sterling literary reputation and continuing popularity—Rutledge guides us once more into a world of traditions now largely lost. But to tread those forgotten trails once more, to sample and savor the foods he loved, and to experience vicariously the sport he so enjoyed is to experience the wonder of yesteryear.

An expanded edition of Rutledge''s stories on game-bird hunting and devoted canine companions

Archibald Rutledge has long been recognized as one of the finest sporting scribes this country has ever produced. A prolific writer who specialized in stories on nature and hunting, over the course of a long and prolific career Rutledge produced more than fifty books of poetry and prose, held the position of South Carolina''s poet laureate for thirty-three years, and garnered numerous honorary degrees and prizes for his writings. In this revised and expanded edition of Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways, noted outdoor writer Jim Casada draws together Rutledge''s stories on the southern heartland, deer hunting, turkey hunting, and Carolina Christmas hunts and traditions.

This collection, first published in 1998, turns to Rutledge''s writings on two subjects near and dear to his heart that he understood with an intimacy growing out of a lifetime of experience—upland bird hunting and hunting dogs. Its contents range from delightful tales of quail and grouse hunts to pieces on special dogs and some of their traits. Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways also includes a long fictional piece, "The Odyssey of Bolio," which shows that Rutledge''s literary mastery extended beyond simple tales for outdoorsmen.

A beloved storyteller''s finest tales of outdoor adventure and the sporting experience

Archibald Rutledge ranks as one of America''s best-loved and most prolific outdoor writers. He had a rare knack for capturing the joys of a life lived close to the land, the beauty of the outdoors, the thrill of hunting, and the camaraderie at the heart of the sport. Award-winning outdoor writer Jim Casada has chosen thirty-five stories that represent Rutledge at his best. This collection invites present-day outdoor enthusiasts to partake of the pleasure that the masterful storyteller shared with legions of admiring readers during his lifetime.

Immersive stories of thrilling pursuit of the wisest game animal

No American outdoor writer has more convincingly captured the myriad, and often elusive, meanings of the hunt than Archibald Rutledge. The renowned outdoor writer and poet laureate, who grew up at Hampton Plantation in South Carolina, had a mystical attachment to deer. His stories immortalize the world of the hunter and the hunted.

Editor Jim Casada brings together thirty-five of Rutledge''s finest deer stories in this stirring collection. With an unrivaled knack for capturing the thrill of the chase, Rutledge immerses the reader in the deep swamps, pine ridges, and palmetto thickets of the southern landscape. Tales of Whitetails is the only book ever published devoted exclusively to Rutledge''s deer tales.