Wacky Plenitude

“You’d think that a lifetime spent in one town would lead eventually to understanding or at least to boredom (if those two things are not the same). That has not happened. I can still be surprised, for instance, by coincidences, by abrupt outcroppings of irony or by the way history bubbles up in one form or another,” writes the wonderfully gifted novelist, Josephine Humphreys, of her native Charleston.

And one of the places that continually surprises, and inspires her, is Read Brothers store. That ancient King Street commissary of fabrics, old toys, dusty books and who-knows-what. A place packed with “wacky plenitude,” as Humphreys says.

Read Bros. is a perfect microcosm, or metaphor, for literary Charleston. A town stocked with a wacky plenitude of what-nots and wild tales, with “characters” and Confederate reenactors, with romance and beauty and hundreds of years of hopes and heart ache. All of which makes Charleston a literary haven — or at least it does for me.

Welcome to my bloggish ode to all that inspires literary artists and word fiends in Charleston. Check in here at Word on the Street and we’ll go reading and exploring, meet local up-and-coming writers and New York Times best-selling authors. We’ll find words on the street and poetry in the pluff…no, sorry, ain’t going to dip into cliche on my first post. Got to save something for later…

So stay tuned.