"R" is for Rutledge, Archibald (1883-1973)

"R" is for Rutledge, Archibald (1883-1973). Poet, writer. Rutledge grew up on Hampton plantation in Georgetown County. Graduating from Porter Military Academy in Charleston, he continued his education at Union College. For nearly thirty-two years Rutledge headed the English department at Mercersburg Academy, a college preparatory school in Pennsylvania. He began publishing poetry in 1907, but did not earn recognition until 1918, when his memoir of youth, Tom and I on the Old Plantation, was published. While teaching, he published many books, poems, and articles in national magazines—including the Saturday Evening Post. In 1937, he retired from Mercersburg Academy and returned to Hampton, which he had inherited from this father. In 1934, the General Assembly named Archibald Rutledge the state’s first poet laureate, an honor he held for the remainder of his life.