New book about Ann Head makes for a great read about the author, Beaufort, Pat Conroy, and more.
By Lynn Seldon
I first learned about the Beaufort writer Ann Head from Pat Conroy when I met him just after the release of South of Broad. Fittingly, it was over lunch at Charleston’s iconic restaurant, Slightly North of Broad.
The prolific Beaufort author Anne Wales Christensen Head Morse (known professionally as “Ann Head”) was truly a writer well ahead of her time (which was the mid-1900s). She tackled heady themes that included the emotional complexities of womanhood, divorce, adultery, teen pregnancy, abortion, and more. Her riveting novel, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, sold more than a million copies and was adapted into a feature film starring Desi Arnez Jr. And, she certainly made for a great role model to Conroy, a budding writer.
I later learned more about Pat’s relationship with Head as teacher and mentor while reading The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life (Doubleday, 2004). In the chapter called “My First Novelist” he wrote, “I was lucky she found me as a boy, and whenever I publish a new book, I take a rose to her headstone in St. Helena Cemetery in Beaufort and place it before her without a word…” Several recipes follow Pat’s love letter to Head, including one for ratatouille, which Pat loved to make in the summertime with fresh, peeled Beaufort tomatoes (“…which I consider to be the finest on earth.”).
Pat called Head his mentor and, after her untimely death in 1968 at the age of 52 (he attended her funeral), Pat would become a mentor to dozens of other writers in the following decades, including me. Several of these mentoring relationships are described in essays in Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy (University of Georgia Press, 2018).
Ahead of Her Time: The Trailblazing Life and Literary Legacy of Ann Head (Evening Post Books, 2025) is a great read in every way. It’s well-constructed and -written by Anne’s daughter, Nancy Thode.
The book is comprised of two “halves,” each about 180 pages long. The first half is an informative biography of the writer, including a lot about her life and times in
Ann Head
Beaufort and beyond, varied people (including several familiar names), her writing, and her relationship with Pat Conroy in a chapter called “Head of the Class.”
There’s much to be learned about Head, Beaufort, and more in all of these chapters, and I thought Thode’s writing provided a deep dive into this iconic writer. For instance, I also learned in Ahead of Her Time that Head had her own mentor in the renowned American writer and journalist Samuel Hopkins Adams. And, this tidbit: Head’s first husband was Howard Head, the inventor who revolutionized skiing and tennis (I played high school and college tennis using groundbreaking aluminum Head tennis rackets).
The Appendix comprises the second half of the book and it’s just as interesting. It starts with more than 20 pages of 1960s “correspondence” between Conroy and Head, whom he called “Mrs. M.” (short for Mrs. Morse, her married name when Pat met her). This section also includes photocopies of several of Pat’s letters on letterhead from The Citadel,
These letters make for great reading, including hints at the writer Pat was to become, but also great writing tips to Pat from Head, like, “Hope you keep on with your writing. It’s the only way to learn to write and the creative muscles get as flabby from disuse as any others.” There’s also a story that he wrote in Anne’s class that he later sent to Nancy, with Pat noting, “Why she thought I had a smidgen of talent remains a mystery.” And, in the Epilogue, Thode reveals that—after Head died—Pat Conroy saw an ad for her stove, saying, “So, I bought Anne Head’s stove. It’s my memento.”
Nancy Thode
Following the correspondence, there’s a 35-page section called, “Selected Stories of Ann Head.” She published more than 50 short stories, novelettes, and more, including pieces for the likes of Cosmopolitan, McCall’s, and The Writer (I loved “Where Do you Get Your Ideas”).
I’m not the only one that really likes this book. Gushing jacket blurbs come from local luminaries like Cassandra King Conroy, historian Lawrence S. Rowland, and Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director, Jonathan Haupt (he calls it “phenomenal” and I agree).
Nancy Head Thode is a Beaufort native who divides her time between Fripp Island and Stamford, Connecticut. In 2020, she established the Ann Head Literary Award for Short Story Fiction at Beaufort High School, where her mother taught and mentored Pat Conroy (who also served as teacher and mentor there). This is her first book.
Ahead of Her Time: The Trailblazing Life and Literary Legacy of Ann Head, Nancy Thode, Evening Post Books, 2025
Join Nancy Thode at 5pm, May 17, 2025, at the Beaufort County Black Chamber, 711 Bladen Street, to celebrate the release of the book. Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and student Millie Bennett, past president of DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization), and one of the subjects of the documentary Banned Together, as they engage in a conversation about Beaufort’s mid-century literary scene and more. The 2025 winner of the Ann Head Prize for Short Story Fiction will be announced at the event. A signing and reception will follow.
Beaufort-based writer Lynn Seldon (seldonink.com) is currently working on a book for Arcadia Publishing called Pat Conroy’s South Carolina Lowcountry.
