Pat Conroy Literary Center – Beaufort, SC

Beginning in April 2019, the Pat Conroy Literary Center Book Club will read and discuss all twelve of Pat Conroy’s published memoirs and novels in order of publication. Each monthly session will be led by a guest discussion leader and held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. These events are free, but advance registration is required and seating is limited. Participants are asked to read the books before the meetings and to come prepared for discussion.

The inaugural Pat Conroy Book Club meeting will be led by novelist John Warley, a Citadel ’67 classmate of Pat Conroy’s, as we discuss Conroy’s first book, The Boo, self-published in 1969.

Please register here: www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/2564858

Website: Facebook Event Page

About THE BOO
In 1961, Lt. Colonel Nugent Courvoisie accepted the job as assistant commandant of cadets at The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina. During the next seven years, THE BOO, as the cadets called him, was in charge of meting out punishment to those young men accused of breaking Citadel law. THE BOO was a harsh guardian of justice, but he was also an extremely compassionate and sensitive individual who cared deeply about the young men placed under his jurisdiction. If he was often stern and uncompromising, he was also concerned and understanding. He possessed a special ability in dealing with the problem cadet; the boy who found The Citadel too difficult or too confining; the boy from the broken home, or the boy forced to go to a military college by parents who had failed him. He empathized with cadets who were stifled by the system and, in his own way, tried to guide them through the obstacles that inevitably littered the path to graduation. THE BOO was many things to many people. During the years as assistant commandant, he was part analyst, part confessor, part detective, part father, part son of a bitch, and all soldier.

This is the story of THE BOO and the story of The Citadel from 1961-1968. It is the story of young men and the man they turned to for laughter, for help, and for inspiration.

About John Warley

John Warley, a native South Carolinian, is a graduate of The Citadel and the University of Virginia School of Law. Now a full-time writer, he divides his time between Beaufort, South Carolina, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Warley is the author of the novels Bethesda’s Child, The Moralist, The Moralist II, A Southern Girl, and The Home Guard. He is also the author of the nonfiction book Stand Forever, Yielding Never: The Citadel in the 21st Century and “The Citadel at War,” a narrative history of the college etched into the granite walls of The Citadel War Memorial, which opened to the public in October 2017.

This program and others like this would not be possible without your financial help for which, as always, Pat Conroy Literary Center gratefully thanks you.