“Never meet your heroes,” cautionary advice often offered to curb disappointment in case those on the pedestal are less than imagined once experienced in person. But when veteran travel writer Lynn Seldon met revered novelist Pat Conroy, the exchange was an instant connection. Not only was their banter bright and charming, but their meeting marked the beginning of a friendship that lasted the rest of Conroy’s life. As fate would have it, their relationship would also uniquely qualify Seldon to pen a travel book centered on Conroy’s life in the Lowcountry.
Seldon’s latest work “Pat Conroy’s Lowcountry, a History & Guide” comes out Tuesday, Sept. 29, with a full reception scheduled Thursday, Oct. 1, at the Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen
Street, Beaufort, SC. The event runs 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with refreshments prepared from “The Pat Conroy Cookbook.” Festivities are open to the public and free to attend, though space is limited. Contact the center at 843-379-7025 to reserve a spot.
In fall 2009, Conroy was in Charleston signing copies of his then new novel “South of Broad.” Seldon with his wife Cele, who is his writing and photography partner on many travel writing projects, were also visiting The Holy City. Seldon had recently wondered aloud to a mutual friend connected to Conroy, “if a Virginia Military Institute graduate (Seldon), had ever asked a Citadel graduate (Conroy) to lunch?” His friend took the lighthearted musing and ran with it. Not long after the book signing, both men met for a meal then walked to Conroy’s hotel where they enjoyed coffee and a couple more hours of conversation in the lobby.
“I learned how to be a writer that day,” recalled Seldon. “It’s how he asks questions and draws stories out of you. Pat was a great listener who always landed on the important questions that would get at the most meaningful details.”
To be clear, Seldon is no hack. In fact, he’s been writing for decades. After graduating in 1983 with an economics degree from VMI, he served in the U.S. Army’s Finance Corps, where, when he wasn’t poring over spreadsheets, he traveled widely and contributed to military publications “Stars and Stripes,” “Off Duty,” and “Army Times.” Since then, Seldon has published more than 1,000 articles in over 500 newspapers and magazines, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, and AAA.
The couple boasts their own travel writing enterprise, Seldon Ink, through which they have partnered with Reedy Press in publishing a series of hyper-local travel guides like “100 Things To Do in Savannah Before You Die.” Lynn Seldon has also penned two novels. Published in 2014, “Virginia’s Ring,” for which Conroy wrote the cover blurb and provided editing advice, centers on the experiences of two VMI graduates. “Carolina’s Ring,” published in 2023, similarly reads as a military-focused coming of age story and is the second work in Seldon’s Ring trilogy. The Seldons have lived in Beaufort, since 2018 and now reside down the street from Cassandra King, Conroy’s widow and third wife.
It follows, then, that Seldon would be first pick for writing a biographically-inspired travel guide about Conroy. This idea first surfaced seven years earlier when Conroy’s family approached Lynn and Cele about writing a book featuring Conroy and his travels in Rome, Paris, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Such an endeavor would certainly entail weeks, if not years, of research and travel. But the pair was just beginning a winning streak with their “100 This To Do Before You Die” series. Such a grand, multi-continent undertaking would have to wait until more time was on their side. And then Seldon received an inquiry out of the blue.
“About two years ago I got a phone call from Pat Conroy Literary Center,” said Seldon. “It was about a publisher calling them to ask about recommending a writer who could craft a Lowcountry-focused travel book about Pat Conroy. The publishing people were interested in Lowcountry travel. After that call, things moved very quickly, and two weeks later I had a contract.”
Arcadia Publishing/The History Press, published a 2024 regional bestseller with “Stephen King’s Maine, a History & Guide” and were hoping for similar success with Seldon writing about his friend and mentor. Research and writing for the book entailed 18-months of diligence in which Seldon sequestered himself at a friend’s Edisto Beach house on four separate stretches and dedicated a week within the Pat Conroy Archive at the University of South Carolina. In the archive he explored faded photographs and verified tricky details. What emerged from this multi-month marathon is a work destined to delight Pat Conroy fans and further inspire history buffs with meandering feet.
The book honors dates and chronology, but what makes this 175-page read especially accessible is its organization around key places where Conroy lived or spent significant time. After a heart-felt foreword from Cassandra King, the book proceeds to a chapter about Beaufort, then St. Helena Island, Fripp, Daufuskie, Charleston, and concludes with some of Conroy’s antics in a few Lowcountry spots that don’t neatly fit into earlier chapters. It also contains many color and black and white images that help convey Conroy’s love of the Lowcountry. Each chapter then closes with names and addresses of local restaurants, parks, places to shop, museums, and points of interest. These anchor the book as an authoritative travel tome and ends with a bibliography nearly six pages long, underscoring the guide’s extensive research.
Seldon hasn’t relinquished the idea of exploring more places Conroy frequented. Rome especially appeals to him and Cele. In the meantime Seldon hopes “Pat Conroy’s Lowcountry” not only satisfies longtime readers of the bestselling writer, but also introduces new fans to Conroy’s books and the places he often referenced or directly wrote about.
“I want people to open a door to Pat Conroy’s books in the Lowcountry,” emphasized Seldon. “And that’s both reopening doors and reading Pat Conroy for the fiftieth time or reading Pat Conroy for the first time. Basically, I want to continue his legacy.”
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Friend of Pat Conroy pens new Lowcountry travel guide | Exclusive
