Persimmon Bread

Before Hurricane Hugo roared into Charleston on September 21, 1989, a native persimmon tree said to be the oldest in the country (indeed, in the world, since native persimmons grow only in the New World) gracefully shadowed the lawn of Peter Hanahan’s old house in Ansonborough, a few blocks north of my home and bookstore. It was over 80 feet tall before the storm ripped it in half. Experts had guessed it to be between 400 and 700 years old.

Reaching out over the corner lot, the tree