Clemson University Digital Press

A Walking Tour of Residential Seneca
by Donald D.Clayton

"In 1870, Seneca was a wilderness area on the Blue Ridge Railroad Line. When the Richmond Air Line Railroad also crossed at this spot, men saw the opportunity to develop a town at their intersection. They purchased the necessary land and marked the lots. The first auction was held in August 1873. The town that developed was called Seneca City, named for a tribe of Indians that lived nearby."

--Donald D. Clayton, from the Introduction

 

Tales of Clemson, 1936-1940
by Arthur V. Williams, M.D.

"The tales that Dr. Williams has included in this wonderful collection of Clemson stories bring back many fond memories for me. Every page is like an old friend greeting me at a class reunion. But there is more to this book than memories. It is also a remarkable record of what life was like at Clemson 60-plus years ago. In this day and age of 'reality TV,' here we have a delightful volume of 'reality text.' And as one of the 'survivors' (to borrow a current TV term), I can tell you it is almost as much fun reading this text as it was living it!"

--Walter T. Cox '39, President Emeritus,
Clemson University

Integration with Dignity
ed. Skip Eisiminger

"It is often said that history is the lengthening shadow of one man. In Clemson University's case this man was Harvey Gantt. The desegregation of Clemson University by Gantt on January 28, 1963, was characterized by 'Integration with Dignity' and is regarded by many as a signature event in American social history."

--Dr. H. Lewis Suggs, from Integration with Dignity

 

Women & Clemson University
by Dr. Jerome V. Reel, Jr.

"The admission of women into the Clemson family is one of this University's great success stories. Clemson women have made Clemson strong. Without all that our women faculty, staff, students and graduates have accomplished and contributed, we can only speculate what Clemson would be today. Certainly every major transition has made Clemson a better, stronger institution, moving it from an all-male, all-white military school to a civilian, coeducational, desegregated research university that we can proudly say is among the nation's most outstanding public universities."

--James F. Barker, FAIA, President of Clemson University


 

Growing Up Cartoonist in the Baby-Boom South:
A Memoir and Cartoon Retrospective
by Kate Salley Palmer

"Kate Palmer's political cartoons are great--that is, if they are about someone else. At any rate, they justify a look into her life. Where did this free and caring and funny spirit come from? What was her family like? Were they also contrarians?...Kate Palmer is...what we in the South call 'a character.'...She calls herself a satirist, which she defines as a 'professional smartass.' Most of her subject characters would agree with that definition."

--Richard W. Riley, former governor of South Carolina, from the Foreword
 

Felix Academicus:
Tales of a Happy Academic
by Skip Eisiminger

This book is a potpourri of thirty-two essays and poems written by Skip Eisiminger between the turn of the twenty-first century and mid-2006. As the enclosed works show, Eisiminger is an academic who still looks forward to Monday mornings, even after thirty-six years of teaching in Clemson University's Department of English. The collection opens with a secular-humanist essay that was written for a contest sponsored by a religious foundation. After it was completed, however, the author learned that the final judge was a fundamentalist Christian. Needless to say, it did not win, place, or show. The book closes with some speculations on immortality, one aspect of which depends heavily on this essay! In between is a wildflower garden of sacred and profane efflorescences.
 

Legacy of a Southern Lady:
Anna Calhoun Clemson, 1817-1875
by Ann Ratliff Russell

Anna Calhoun Clemson was John C. Calhoun's favorite child. After reading Ann Russell's biography based on Anna's letters, one finds it easy to understand why. The product of a famous family and an exceptional woman, Anna was also, as Russell ably demonstrates, very much "a southern lady." Her story--her "life's journey," as Calhoun told his daughter her life would be--gives us a glimpse of an important southern family, of southern womanhood, of heartbreak and difficulty, of a nation torn apart by sectional conflict. Like Mary Chesnut's famous diary, Anna's letters, the crux of Russell's study, provide us with a rich, detailed picture of southern life, both personal and public.

--Dr. C. Alan Grubb
     

Robert Penn Warren: Genius Loves Company
ed. Mark Royden Winchell

At least since the dawn of the Romantic era, it has been assumed that the poet lives a lonely life, isolated in his garret. Nevertheless, writers are not always hermits and misanthropes. As human beings, they crave the company of other human beings; as artists they need the stimulation of other artists....Even a selective account [such as this] of Warren's most important literary associations during such a long and active life could fill a good size book.

--Mark Royden Winchell
Thomas Green Clemson

Thomas Green Clemson
edited by Alma Bennett

Thomas Green Clemson (1807–1888) was no ordinary man. He was, in fact, as unique as he was highly educated, skilled, pragmatic, visionary, and complex. To introduce us to this man, fifteen scholars and specialists of history, science, agriculture, engineering, music, art, diplomacy, law, and communications come together to address Clemson’s multifaceted life, the century and issues that helped shape him, and his ongoing influence today. The biography includes color plates of works from Clemson’s art collection. In addition to many other illustrations, which include his own paintings and musical compositions, the book features historic maps, documents, and genealogy charts of the Clemsons and Calhouns dating from the 1600s to the 1970s.