Tuesday, March 25, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with Penelope Coker Hall and Eliza Wilson Ingle, Authors of A Curious Heart: The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, on Tuesday, March 25, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
About the Book and Authors
Written by Elizabeth Boatwright Coker’s daughter, Penelope Coker Hall, and granddaughter, Eliza Wilson Ingle, A Curious Heart chronicles the life and work of the award-winning author.
In this poignant literary biography, Hall and Ingle give readers a front row seat to the remarkable life and career of award-winning author Elizabeth Boatwright Coker (1909-1993). Drawing liberally from Elizabeth’s own letters, journal entries, book passages and interviews, A Curious Heart reveals for the first time the inner life of this complex, Southern woman who dreamed of becoming a published writer.
Born in Darlington, South Carolina in an era when women could not vote and the legacy of the Civil War suffused nearly everything, Elizabeth was blessed with movie star beauty, a keen intellect and sense of humor, and extraordinary determination. At an early age, she was mentored by inspired teachers and some of the great writers of the 20th century. She would go on to challenge the status quo, in her life and her books.
Elizabeth’s journey juggling the demands of corporate wife and mother with that of working writer is a story of trial and triumph, heartbreak and joy. Her life spanned nearly the entire century, the second half of which yielded nine historical novels. With sensitivity and insight, the authors chronicle the passion, the powers of observation, the gift of storytelling, and the fierce independence that propelled their mother and grandmother to The New York Times bestseller list and the South Carolina Hall of Fame.
Born in Hartsville, South Carolina, Penelope Coker Hall matriculated to Sarah Lawrence College and eventually settled in New York, becoming a writer and host for Metromedia’s Channel Five TV show “The New Yorkers.” Later at NBC, Hall worked as a co-producer of several TV specials, including “Vanishing 400” and “Debutante.” During this time, she met and married film producer William Wilson and in 1968 their daughter, Eliza, was born. In 1972, Hall left the performing arts and embarked on a new marriage with widower Mortimer Hall of Millbrook, N.Y. Ensconced in Millbrook for 50 years, Hall served as editor of Dutchess Magazine while raising daughter Eliza as well as Morti’s five young children, along with a bevy of horses and dogs. Hall is author of several children’s books and the novel Riding High (under the pseudonym of Emily Brooks), written with former E.P. Dutton editor Ann LaFarge. Today, she divides her time between Charleston, S.C. and Millbrook.
Eliza Wilson Ingle is a New York native with Southern roots. She earned her BA in Dance from Middlebury College, and after a brief stint in New York City, moved to Charleston S.C. where she became a Professor of Dance at the College of Charleston. In addition to teaching, Ingle has been a performer and choreographer with Anonymity Dance Company. A dance reviewer for The Post and Courier covering Spoleto Festival USA, as well as a contributor to Charleston Magazine and Charleston City Paper, and creator and co-host of “Just Imagine” – a radio program covering local cultural events and people – she stays tapped into the arts and believes, as her grandmother did, in the power of story.
