© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

“C” is for Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller [1823-1886]

South Carolina from A to Z logo

  “C” is for Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller [1823-1886]. Diarist. Mary Chesnut began keeping a diary in February 1861 and later revised it for publication in the 1880s. Her husband’s prominent role in the new Confederacy carried her to the centers of action and allowed her to witness and record her impressions of those dramatic times. All the while she made her own perceptive observations of people and events, and the frustrations of a spirited woman in a world of men. No other southern writer of her era possessed the combination of literary cultivation, psychological perception, opportunity to observe closely the upper echelons of the Confederacy, and a willingness to write candidly about people, events, and issues—including slavery. The resulting publication, much revised and more appropriately labeled a memoir, secured Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut’s place in southern literary history.

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.