“P” is for Pinckney, Josephine Lyons Scott (1895-1957)

“P” is for Pinckney, Josephine Lyons Scott (1895-1957). Poet, novelist, civic leader. A native Charlestonian, Pinckney played a key role in the literary revival that swept through the South after World War. She was one of the founders of the Poetry Society of South Carolina and was involved with a number of local cultural institutions such as the Carolina Art Association, the Dock Street Theatre, and the Charleston Museum. Pinckney also worked behind the scenes of the historic preservation movement in Charleston. In the 1930s she emerged as a poet of national reputation when her work appeared in influential journals. In the late 1930s she began writing fiction and her first novel, Hilton Head, appeared in 1941. In 1945 Josephine Lyons Scott Pinckney published Three O’Clock Dinner which made her one of America’s best-known women fiction writers.