Event Details

The Library Society is honored to welcome Penelope Coker Hall and Eliza Wilson Ingle for the Charleston launch of A Curious Heart, their literary memoir on the life of Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, an award-winning author who challenged the status quo of the female role in the early 20th century. With sensitivity and insight, the authors chronicle the passion, the powers of observation, the gift of storytelling, and the fierce independence that propelled their mother and grandmother to The New York Times bestseller list and the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Quoting liberally from Elizabeth’s letters, journal entries, book passages, and interviews, A Curious Heart reflects the inner life of this complex, small-town Southern woman, who dreamed of becoming a published writer.

About the Book

In this poignant literary memoir, Penelope Coker Hall and Eliza Wilson Ingle give readers a front row seat to the remarkable life and career of award-winning author Elizabeth Boatwright Coker (1909-1993). Born in Darlington, South Carolina, in an era when women couldn’t vote and the legacy of the Civil War suffused nearly everything, Elizabeth was blessed with movie star beauty, extraordinary determination, a keen intellect, and a sense of humor. At an early age, she was mentored by inspired teachers and some of the great writers of the 20th century. She would go on to challenge the status quo, in her life and her books. Elizabeth’s journey juggling the demands of corporate wife and mother with that of working writer is a story of trial and triumph, heartbreak and joy. Her life spanned nearly the entire century, the second half of which yielded nine historical novels. Listed in Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in the World, she was on the board of the South Carolina State Museum Foundation, the South Caroliniana Society, the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation, and many others. She received an honorary degree from Converse College in 1987 and was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Author’s Hall of Fame in 1991.