A Talent for Living: Josephine Pinckney and the Charleston Literary Tradition

Josephine Pinckney (1895—1957) was an award-winning, best-selling author whose work critics frequently compared to that of Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, and Isak Dinesen. Her flair for storytelling and trenchant social commentary found expression in poetry, five novels — Three O'Clock Dinner was the most successful — stories, essays, and reviews. Pinckney belonged to a distinguished South Carolina family and often used Charleston as her setting, writing in the tradition of Ellen Glasgow by bl...