Walter Edgar's Journal

This week we will be talking with South Carolina watercolor artist Mary Whyte. 
A traditionalist preferring a representational style, and the author of seven published books, Mary has earned awards for her large-scale watercolors. Today we’ll look back on Mary’s career and talk with her about her new book, An Artist's Life: Unlocking Creative Expression.

We had so much fun last time out, exploring topics featured in “South Carolina from A to Z,” that we decided to do it again!
South Carolina from A to Z is our sister podcast – also broadcast each weekday on South Carolina Public Radio – that brings you “bite-sized," one-minute topics from the South Carolina Encyclopedia.
This episode we have selected five new topics to explore

This week our we are bringing you another episode in our occasional series which explores “South Carolina from A to Z” in depth.
South Carolina from A to Z is our sister podcast – also broadcast each weekday on South Carolina Public Radio – that brings you “bite-sized," one-minute topics from the South Carolina Encyclopedia.
This episode we have selected five of those topics to explore.

This week we’ll be talking about the life and career of the man that many call the Father of American opera: Carlisle Floyd. Our guests are Floyd's neice, Jane Matheny, and his biographer, Thomas Holliday. A native of Latta, South Carolina, Carlisle Floyd became a professor of composition at Florida State University in 1947. His magnum opus, Susannah, was first performed in 1955 and became the most performed American opera, second to Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
Floyd was both composer and librettist of his operas, which typically portrayed themes common to rural America, especially the post-Civil War South. 2026 in the centennial of Carlisle Floyd’s birth and today we’ll talk with our guests about his long life and his career.

This week we’ll be talking with Charleston author Victoria Benton Frank about her new novel, The Violet Hour. Victoria was born in New York City, raised in Montclair, New Jersey, but considers herself to have dual residency in the Lowcountry. She is a graduate of the College of Charleston and the French Culinary Institute. Her mother was the late Dorothea Benton Frank, a best-selling novelist and native of Sullivan’s Island.
With the release of The Violet Hour (2026, Simon & Schuster), her second novel, she continues to hone her craft, this time with a story of grief and healing.