Ben Robertson
Clemson native Ben Robertson's memoir Red Hills and Cotton continues to sell steadily well after the author's death in 1943. Robertson, whose Upcountry roots were two centuries deep, graduated from Clemson College in 1923 and later from the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. He worked for the Charleston News and Courier and the Anderson Independent as well as papers in Hawaii, Australia, and New York. He was London bureau chief for the New York Herald Tribune at the time of his death.
Robertson described war from his perspective in the acclaimed I Saw England, a first-hand account of the Battle of Britain. Soon after that book was published in 1941, Robertson came home for a respite. In less than six weeks there, he finished the manuscript of Red Hills and Cotton, an eloquent, tender, often funny tribute to his kinfolk and to the Carolina hills and valleys that he loved.
Robertson described war from his perspective in the acclaimed I Saw England, a first-hand account of the Battle of Britain. Soon after that book was published in 1941, Robertson came home for a respite. In less than six weeks there, he finished the manuscript of Red Hills and Cotton, an eloquent, tender, often funny tribute to his kinfolk and to the Carolina hills and valleys that he loved.