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Meet Stuart Bennett, Author of The Charleston Gambit!
April 2, 2022 @ 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
For all you history aficionados, this one’s for you! Meet the author and grab a copy of this brilliant book by Stuart Bennett, The Charleston Gambit.The Charleston Gambit: In the spring of 1780 Polly Cooper, a young patriot, decides to smuggle rifles to her brothers defending Charleston against the British siege. As she approaches the city, she’s captured by 25-year-old Irish Colonel Lord Rawdon. So begins an improbable romance as Charleston falls and Rawdon spends the next year trying to subdue the South Carolina backcountry. Polly struggles with divided loyalties as Rawdon wins a succession of battles—only to discover that victory, in love and war, eludes him.
The cover of The Charleston Gambit, shown above, incorporates portraits of the two central characters. The young woman is from a 1778 print, “The Studious Beauty,” reproduced courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
The portrait of Lord Rawdon, probably painted in the later 1780s, is from a print in the author’s collection.
Stuart Bennett is an author and antiquarian bookseller in Charleston. He grew up in Southern California and is married to the Charleston artist Jennie Summerall.He became a Christie’s auctioneer in London in 1976 and started his ongoing rare book business in 1980. After leaving England in 1989, he briefly practiced law in California. He then returned to writing and antiquarian bookselling, and watched his son grow up to become a competitive cyclist and coach.
The Charleston Gambit is the newest of Stuart’s four novels. He has also published widely on historical subjects on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2008 he became president of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America and currently serves on the governing committee of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.
NOTE: This event takes place on Saturday afternoon during Flowertown Festival; if you’d like to purchase the book in advance and have it personalized and pick up later, no worries – we can do that!