Costco to Host Book Signing for Local Charleston Author

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Oct. 6, 2014 - PRLog -- When Charleston’s founders moved their settlement across the Ashley River to the peninsula in 1680, they hoped for protection from pirate and Native American attacks, as well as increased trade and healthier living conditions. Their first three wishes came true, but not the final one. Life in colonial Charles Towne was dangerous—epidemic diseases, primitive medical practices and a harsh environment led to the early demise of rich and poor alike. The graveyards of churches and public burial grounds quickly filled.

Today, Charleston’s historic cemeteries are almost as common a sight downtown as the churches that define the city. These tree-shrouded glades invite tourists and residents to explore the resting places of Charleston’s most illustrious and interesting personalities.

Charleston’s Historic Cemeteries offers a guided pictorial tour of the elaborate gravestones and elegant inscriptions dedicated to the famous and infamous, including William Rhett and his adversary, the pirate Stede Bonnet. With dozens of illustrated stories about the transformation of funerals, tombstones and mourning customs in America during the past 300 years, the book details how Charleston became the home of a historically unique, city-wide gallery of mortuary sculpture.

Highlights of Charleston’s Historic Cemeteries include:

Includes information on how most of Charleston’s houses, churches and grave markers were made of wood prior to mid-1700s, when city ordinances requiring stone or brick constructions were enacted in response to the large fires that regularly devastated the town.
Showcases the many intricate headstones found in Charleston cemeteries, many of the elaborate headstones were carved in New England and sent to Charleston on 18^th century sailing ships.
Reveals stories of past funeral practices and customs in Charleston, including how funeral ceremonies in colonial Charleston often started or ended in downtown taverns.

Join the Author for a Book Signing!

Where:  Costco

3050 Ashley Town Center, Charleston SC 29414

When: Friday, October 17^th, 2013; 1:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online (http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9781467110235/Charleston...).

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/.

Charleston’s Historic Cemeteries

by Frank Karpiel with a Foreword by Harlan Greene

Images of America Series

128 pages/ softcover

Available: July 22,  2013