“P” is for Poetry Society of South Carolina

“P” is for Poetry Society of South Carolina. Those involved with the Poetry Society’s creation in 1920 espoused the idea of a local organization, with its aim to encourage all southern poets. Critics and poets turned to the group as the leader of the literary arts revival in the South. Writers affiliated with it won two Pulitzer Prizes (Julia Peterkin for fiction and Robert Lathan for editorial writing) and became the ranking poets of their day, moving on to prose and drama. The impact of the society was greater than literary, however. As an umbrella organization it fostered and stimulated the growth and development of many other agencies such as the Preservation Society of Charleston. The Poetry Society of South Carolina declined in national prominence by the end of the 1920s, and over the following years its fortunes waxed and waned.