As part of its nine-month series, ``American Writers: A Journey
Through History,`` C-SPAN will air, beginning June 11, a week of
programs on Mary Boykin Chesnut of Camden, whose Civil War
journals are considered by historians to give great insight into
the political and cultural climate of the era. The programs will
include footage of sites with which Mrs. Chesnut (1823-1886) is
associated, both in Camden and Charleston.
Mark Farkas, executive producer of the series, and Eric Hansen,
production manager, flew from Washington, D.C., to South Carolina
this week and were in Camden all day Tuesday. They began the day
with pre-production work at Mulberry Plantation, where the
newlywed Mrs. Chesnut and her husband, Gen. James Chesnut, lived
with his parents for a time. The white columned, red brick house,
the second on the property, was built by Gen. Chesnut`s father,
Col. James Chesnut, in 1820.
Mulberry Plantation was named a national historic landmark
(NHL) March 26, primarily because it was a residence of Mrs.
Chesnut. It possesses national significance under NHL criterion in
the historic context of literature because of its association with
Mrs. Chesnut`s writings, explained Dr. Mark Barnes of the National
Park Service, who made the presentation that day.
The ``American Writers`` show will be filmed and broadcast live
from Mulberry from 9 to 11:30 a.m. June 11 and rebroadcast at 8
p.m. June 15. During the intervening week, additional material
relating to Mrs. Chesnut and panel discussions of the Civil War
era will be broadcast.
Later on Tuesday, the two-man team videotaped exterior shots of
Sarsfield on Chesnut Street, Kamschatka on Kirkwood Lane and
Bloomsbury on Lyttleton Street. Kamschatka is the home Mary and
James Chesnut Jr. built before the war, and they built Sarsfield
after the war with bricks from out-buildings at Mulberry. Though
historians say they never lived there, they spent time at
Bloomsbury, which James Chesnut Sr. built for his daughter, Sally.
``The goal of the program is to take a look at American history
through these specific writers,`` said Farkas of the ``American
Writers`` series. He said the series is more a history series than
a literary one.
Mrs. Chesnut is one of 45 writers selected from a draft list of
350 for inclusion in the 38-week series (a few writers are grouped
together). Criteria for selection focused on writers whose works
-- fiction, non-fiction, document or book -- reflected, influenced
or chronicled the course of the nation`s history.
``By taking a look at her (Mary Boykin Chesnut), they`re really
getting to know her, but they`re getting to know about what`s
going on in the country, specifically in the South,`` said Farkas.
The program will focus on ``A Diary From Dixie,`` compiled and
published from Mrs. Chesnut`s writings after her death. Since that
publication in 1905, several other editions have been published,
most notably ``Mary Chesnut`s Civil War,`` for which editor C.
Vann Woodward of Yale University earned a 1982 Pulitzer Prize.
The ``American Writers`` series began in March in Plymouth,
Mass., with a look at William Bradford and the Mayflower Compact
and it will end in December with the study of writers David
Halberstam, Neil Sheehan and the Vietnam War writers.
In the C-SPAN series, Mrs. Chesnut is also in the company of
such esteemed writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck
and William Faulkner.
Divided into eight time periods, the series will begin its
``Slavery and the Civil War`` era on Memorial Day with Frederick
Douglas and the abolitionist writers and June 4 with Harriet
Beecher Stowe, author of ``Uncle Tom`s Cabin.`` The Civil War era
will end June 18 with Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address.
Since they were covering those writers, C-SPAN also wanted to
explore the Southern point of view. ``We think it`s very important
to take a look at the other side of the coin,`` said Farkas.
Because Mrs. Chesnut`s husband, a United States senator before
secession, was an aide to Confederate President Jefferson Davis,
and she traveled with her husband during the war, she had an
insider`s view of the political scene.
Ironically, though she supported the Confederacy, she was
personally opposed to slavery, as well as to the subservient
status of women at the time.
``She was almost a 20th century woman,`` said Sharon Kurschner.
Mrs. Kurschner and her husband, Bob, are the owners of Sarsfield.
The Kurschners were residents of California when they purchased
the home some 13 years ago, but their last residence, before
moving full-time to Sarsfield about a year ago, was in Washington
state .
Though the living room and dining room are handsomely furnished
with antiques, part of the house is still under renovation, and
the library is currently being replastered. It is the room where
Mrs. Kurschner believes Mrs. Chesnut did much of the refining and
polishing of her Civil War journals. (Journals is the term
descendants of the Chesnut family prefer to diary because of the
fact that she did polish her work after the war.)
Mrs. Kurschner believes the library is probably the room where
Mrs. Chesnut, who suffered from angina, died. Her opinion is
shared by actress Chris Weatherhead of Folly Beach, who toured in
a one-woman play, ``A World Kicked to Pieces: Mary Boykin Chesnut
on Love and War`` for some three years, The play premiered at the
Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County and played 14 sold-out
performances at the Picolo Spoleto Festival during that time.
Ms. Weatherhead, who has done considerable research on Mrs.
Chesnut and her writings, was also in Camden Tuesday. She will
portray Mrs. Chesnut in the C-SPAN production, and will be
interviewed during the live show. Of the woman she has portrayed
so many times, she says, ``She was ahead of her time.``
Also coming to Camden to be interviewed on the June 11 show
will be Dr. Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, author of ``Mary Boykin Chesnut:
A Biography,`` which Camden resident Martha Williams Daniels, a
descendant of the Chesnut family, considers the best of the
biographies.
Touring the Camden homes with Farkas and Hansen, Ms.
Weatherhead was dressed in one of her authentically researched
Mary Chesnut costumes. Hansen filmed her riding in a carriage,
driven by Joy Gensler of the Camden Carriage Co., coming up the
driveway that curves around the series of impressive landscaped
terraces leading to the front of Kamschatka.
A quick sandwich lunch on the shady, breezy wisteria-draped
porch at Kamschatka with owner Dee White and her daughter, Sally
Truss, was the only break the crew took during the day. Mrs. White
and her husband, Bill, purchased Kamschatka around 1998, but
didn`t move here from their Texas home until the past couple of
years. Like Sarsfield, Kamschatka is both impressive and quite
livable, but the Whites, too, are still in the process of
redecorating the stately house.
Bloomsbury, an architectural and interior design showplace, has
been the permanent residence of Joan and George Corbin for 16
years and was featured in the January-February edition of South
Carolina Homes and Gardens.
And what did the C-SPAN producer think of the houses?
``Oh, they`re gorgeous, and you definitely feel like you`re
taking a step back in time,`` said Farkas.
A native of Virginia and a graduate of the College of William
and Mary, Farkas has been with C-SPAN for more than 18 years. He
was also executive producer of C-SPAN`s Peabody Award-winning
series, ``American Presidents: Life Portraits.``
In addition to the pre-tapped shots in Camden, Farkas and
Hansen taped footage with Ms. Weatherhead in Charleston Monday.
They filmed sites there associated with Mrs. Chesnut, such as
Madame Talvand`s School, which she attended; the Edmonston-Alston
House; and the Mills House.
The Charleston footage will be used as a self-contained
additional program during the week, although some clips might be
used in the live show, as well, said Farkas.
Although the live show hasn`t been scripted yet, it will
probably include some of the footage taken at the three Camden
houses during the two-and-a-half-hour show, said Farkas. During
the live show, viewers may call in or e-mail with questions and
comments.
The on-air host will be Susan Swain, vice president and
co-chief operating officer of C-SPAN. The longtime moderator for
``Washington Journal,`` C-SPAN`s morning program, she is also a
collaborator on special programming, including the ``American
Writers`` series.
South Carolina`s First Lady Rachel Hodges, who promotes the
value of reading to young people, will be featured during the
week, reading from ``A Diary From Dixie.`` That segment will be
aired with the evening rebroadcast of the live show on June 15.
In addition to the film crew, C-SPAN`s community relations team
and Charter Communications, which carries C-SPAN in this area,
have been working with Buddy Clark, executive director of the
Kershaw County Chamber of Commerce, on several community events,
said Meghan Stalebrink, C-SPAN community relations representative.
The C-SPAN schoolbus, which travels around the nation
throughout the year, will arrive in Camden late June 7. During the
weekend, the crew plans to do some activities with students at the
Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County. On June 10, Ms. Weatherhead,
as Mrs. Chesnut, will present an award given by Charter
Communications, to the winner of a youth art competition at the
Fine Arts Center, said Ms. Stalebrink.
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