The History of The Poetry Society of South Carolina

The 1920s

In January of 1921 a group of forward-looking individuals (among them John Bennett, DuBose Heyward, and Josephine Pinckney) founded The Poetry Society of South Carolina, the first state poetry society to be chartered in the United States. The first meetings were held at South Carolina Society Hall, 72 Meeting Street, Charleston, with over 135 members present. Their purpose was made clear in the first Year Book (October 1921) and contained this description of the literary climate of the time:

“Practically untouched by art and within the memory of living men, the South has passed through three great phases replete with poetic material. Unfortunately, there is little or no opportunity of publication for poetry dealing with Southern themes, especially from the pen of a beginner. Therefore The Poetry Society of South Carolina has for its prime object the assistance of any poet, however obscure, who shows genuine promise, and the winning for his work of such recognition as it deserves. In the furtherance of these ends the Society will offer prizes for poems submitted and will publish a Year Book containing the best and most representative of the verse submitted.”

In March of 1922 a Study Group (forerunner of the present-day Writers’ Group) was organized for

“the writing, study and practical criticism of verse. Criticisms of original creative work by members of the group were given by DuBose Heyward, Hervey Allen, and John Bennett. The group further enjoyed the peculiar advantage of discussions of craftsmanship by Amy Lowell and Charles Wharton Stork, editor of Contemporary Verse.”

So the decade of the 1920s began for The Poetry Society of South Carolina, and other states followed. First Texas, then Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia. The South was making its literary voice heard.

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The 1930s

In the Thirties, The Poetry Society suffered membership loss from the effects of the Great Depression, and with it loss of operating income. However, the decade turned out to be one of the best for luring famous poets (who were also sufferering from the Depression) to Charleston to read for the group. Speakers such as Gertrude Stein, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg, Thornton Wilder and other leading figures of the day. Three study groups were diligently reading and creating verse.

For a few years during its second decade, The Society was awarding nearly $500 in annual prizes, some of which were being won by such Southern poets as Donald Davidson, John Crowe Ransome, Allen Tate, and Robert Penn Warren. As a cost-cutting measure, publishing of the Yearbook was suspended from 1934 until after World War II. From the inception until 1933, the PSSC produced Yearbooks that published not only prize-winning poems but essays and news about the hopes and the achieveements of Southern writers and artists. These Yearbooks were often beautifully illustrated by such local artists as John Bennett, Alfred Hutty, Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, and Elizabeth O'Neill Verner.

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The 1940s

Most of The Society's activities were suspended in May, 1942 "because of the pressure of world events." The Writers' Group, under the continued guidance of Isabelle Mazyck, continued to function as before, and the annual meeting known as the Forum was held every year. During the years from 1942 to 1946, the Forum was the only official meeting of the PSS for those 4 years and the Forum Prize was the only contest held for that time.

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It was not until the 1946-1947 calendar year that normal readings were reinstated and normal contests were once again offered. In January 1947, Carl Sandburg returned to read and the Yearbook resumed publication. With the War over, The Society looked forward to a heightened interest in Poetry as an art and craft.

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The 1950s

​For The Poetry Society it was in the Fifties that "modern" poetry made its cautious appearance, with Randall Jarrell, John Crowe Ransome, and others. Behind this movement was John Robert Doyle, Jr., a Citadel professor, who was the program chair. It was also during this time that Citadel professors largely ran the Poetry Society and were instrumental in reviving it after the hiatus years of World War II. The PSSC rebounded strongly in this decade, with strong membership numbers and a revived presence in news coverage of its events. The Yearbooks reinstituted the practice of earlier decades of including news about the activities of members, what honors they had won, and what work they had published.

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There were three Writers' Groups at this time; a senior group, a junior group, and a group in Columbia. Competition rules had become more precise: "a competitor, having won a prize in a given competition, shall be ineligible as a competitor for the same prize the following year."  

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The 1960s

This was a decade of retraction in The Society, with lower membership numbers and waning attendance at readings. Until this time, The Society had never had a female president. That was remedied in Katherine Drayton Mayrant Simons was elected for the 1963-1964 calendar year. She was one of the group's best poets and a major prize winner. Citadel professor John R. Doyle continued to book the poets, using his extensive contacts in the poetry community. Readers on this decade include W.H. Auden, Archibald Rutledge, and Allen Tate. After the death of Robert Frost, who had read for the PSSC three times, his daughter Lesley gave a talk about her father.

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The 1950s and 60s were the Civil Rights decades, and Charleston was experiencing public pressure to desegregate. Unfortunately, it was early in the 1960s that the PSSC instituted membership rules whose purpose seems to have been solely to prevent membership by any African American (although nowhere was this stated as such). While its Whites-only status was de regueur for its founding in 1920s Charleston, by this time most schools and organizations were changing with the times. The PSSC's decision at this time to resist integration rather than embrace it remains a shameful blot in the history of the organization.

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The 1970s

Scattered throughout the Seventies were lectures on Washington Irving, Emily Dickenson, and William Gilmore Simms, as well as an analysis of founder John Bennett's part in the Charleston literary renaissance. Not forgetting the younger generation, six students from the College of Charleston, Baptist College, and The Citadel were invited to give a reading. For a touch of theater, one program was devoted to Gilbert and Sullivan.

In 1972, one of our charter members (and later the second female president of the PSSC), Helen von Kolnitz Hyer, was accorded special recognition as Poet Laureate of South Carolina. Other members continued to publish, including John Doyle with his trilogy of South African Literature and Elizabeth Verner Hamilton with her children's book Tall Houses.

In 1979 the members were privileged to attend a reading by Donald Hall, a future winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and this occasion may be regarded as the start of a greater focus and interest in contemporary poetry. 

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The 1980s

​In February of 1981 the PSSC celebrated its 60th anniversary with a gala held in South Carolina Society Hall, and in March the Society, together with the College of Charleston and the Library Associates, sponsored a reading by the poet and editor John Ciardi.​

To Be Continued...