Since its publication 30 years ago, John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has shaped Savannah and the perception of Georgia’s oldest city. In 2022 Dr. John and Virginia Duncan donated materials they owned related to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to the Georgia Historical Society. The collection is now available to researchers on the GHS website or in person at the GHS Research Center in Savannah.

While researching and writing his landmark book, Berendt often stayed with his Savannah friends Dr. John and Virginia Duncan at their townhouse on Taylor Street. This relationship led to one of the best-known single collections on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in the country.

Duncan, a lifelong antiquarian and collector, proactively collected a variety of materials related to the book. The materials provide a window into how the book was written, Berendt’s experiences as an author, and the life of the worldwide bestseller. Duncan gathered ephemera and photographs connected to Berendt and the characters he profiled in the book. Duncan also amassed a collection of foreign editions of the book as well as TV, newspaper, and magazine interviews with Berendt. With the movie adaptation, Duncan again collected everything he could about the film, including a signed screenplay.

“As Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has played such a critical role in worldwide perceptions of Savannah—and almost single-handedly drove tourism to the city—this is an incredibly important collection for us to preserve and make accessible to researchers,” said Nate Pedersen, GHS Manager of the Archival and Reference Team. “We are grateful to the Duncans for donating it here and are excited to welcome in researchers to review it.”

Some highlights from the collection, included here, are photographs of The Lady Chablis and Joe Odom, two characters in the book. These photographs are reminders that the people and events depicted in the book were real. The collection also includes ephemera connected to the book and movie, such as a letter from Emily Bannister, Danny Hansford’s mother, to Berendt, in which she reminds Berendt of the impact of his work. The collection materials all combine to build a comprehensive archive of the publishing phenomena that would define a city.

Explore the Dr. John Duncan Collection of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Books and Materials in the GHS collection.