Archibald Hamilton Rutledge (1883–1973) was an American poet and educator, the first South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 poet laureate from 1934 to 1973. He wrote over 50 books and many poems, usually about his hunting and life experiences in South Carolina.

Biography

Rutledge was born on October 23, 1883 in McClellanville, South Carolina

McClellanville, South Carolina

McClellanville is a small fishing town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 459 at the 2000 census. It is situated on the Atlantic coast, on land surrounded by Francis Marion National Forest and has traditionally derived its livelihood from the sea and coastal...

. As a boy, Rutledge hunted on the plantation with his father and brothers. His ancestors included a Governor of South Carolina, a chief justice of the US Supreme Court, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He attended the Porter Military Academy, now the exclusive Porter-Gaud School

Porter-Gaud School

Porter-Gaud School is an independent coeducational college preparatory day school in Charleston, South Carolina. Porter-Gaud has an enrollment of some 870 students in grades 1–12 and located on the banks of the Ashley River...

, in Charleston, South Carolina. He then attended Union College

Union College

Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...

 where he was graduated in 1904 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and membership in The Kappa Alpha Society

Kappa Alpha Society

The Kappa Alpha Society , founded in 1825, was the progenitor of the modern fraternity system in North America. It was the first of the fraternities which would eventually become known as the Union Triad...

. Later in life, he taught English at Mercersburg Academy

Mercersburg Academy

Mercersburg Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school for grades 9-12 located in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, United States. The school's mission is:...

 in Pennsylvania. He was married and raised three sons. In the family tradition, he took them hunting back home in South Carolina and in the woods of the Appalachian hills, and his writings reflect this personal devotion to the hunting ethos.

His short stories appeared in Outdoor Life

Outdoor Life

Outdoor Life is an outdoors magazine about hunting, fishing, survival and camping. It is a sister magazine of Field & Stream. Together with Sports Afield, they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publishing. Outdoor Life launched in Denver, Colorado in January 1898. Founder and...

and Field and Stream, and he wrote more than 50 books, including An American Hunter (1937), Old Plantation Days (1907) and Wild Life of the South (1935).

He was named the first Poet Laureate of South Carolina in 1934. His poems often described his hunting and life experiences growing up on Hampton Plantation and the trips home to South Carolina in summer and for holidays.

Rutledge's prose places the reader in and part of the hunt. In "Quail of the Kalmias," he writes: "When Bell drew her point in the brown stubble, I thought it would be sport to walk right in, compelling myself to take the birds at a quartering shot as they passed me to escape into their mountain haunts. What they did always seemed to me about as adroit a maneuver as this crafty little aristocrat ever executes. They arose in two small groups, one led by the old cock and the other by the old hen. There was a difference in intelligence, though not in the size of the birds. Separated by only a few yards, the two groups came hurtling by on either side of me, in strong, low level flight."

Selected works

• The Heart's Quest
• Under the Pines
• The Banners of the Coast
• Spirit of Mercesburg
• Old Plantation Days
• Plantation Game Trails
• South of Richmond
• Days off Dixie
• Heart of the South
• A Monarch of the Sky
• Children of Swamp and Wood
• Life's Extras
• Bolio and Other Dogs
• The Flower of Hope
• Peace in the Heart
• Veiled Eros
• When Boys go off to School
• Wild Life of the South
• Brimming Chalice
• An American Hunter
• My colonel and His Lady
• It Will be Daybreak Soon
• The Sonnets of Archibald Rutledge
• Rain on the Marsh
• Christ is God
• Home by the River
• Love's meeting
• Hunter's Choice
• The Beauty of Night
• God's Children
• The Angel Standing
• The Everylasting Light and other Poems
• A Wild Tale
• A Beauty in the Heart
• The Heart's Citidel and other Poems
• Brimming Tide and other Poems
• Those Were The Days