Throughout the years, Florida has captivated the American imagination as a state of fantasy, flux, and paradox. Its allure as an exotic frontier, a cornucopia of resources, and a magical getaway has called out to explorers and runaways, robber barons and tin can tourists alike; and all captured by the many great writers who answered, and echoed, the southernmost siren’s song and made Florida their home. Beyond the swamps and storms, the history and hurricanes, it is in our stories that we find the essential truth: Florida is a myth, breathed to life by a thousand different authors, borne through time by a thousand different voices.
12000 BCE – 1821: First Contacts & Failed Conquests
Between 14000 and 27000 years ago, the first nomadic peoples came to a version of Florida double the size it is today—sea levels were lower, then—hunting mastodon and giant armadillo. When Ponce de Leon arrived in 1513, Florida was already home to many complex cultures, most notably the Timucua, Apalachee, and Calusa—of whom 90% would perish from European diseases and the brutality of slavery. The Spanish, French, and British all tried to tame wild Florida for use as a colony, but to no avail; as control shifted from Spain to Britain to Spain again, Florida would nevertheless remain largely wild and undeveloped… but growing rapidly, as American settlers began migrating from the north. In 1821, Spain ceded La Florida to the United States for the price of $5 million.
- Travel Far Back in Time
The Travels of William Bartram by William Bartram
For years, serious naturalists have treasured their copies of Francis Harper's naturalist's edition of The Travels of William Bartram as the definitive version of Bartram's pioneering survey. Complete with notes and commentary, an annotated index, maps, a bibliography, and a general index, this classic is now back in print for the first time in decades. Harper's knowledge of natural history transforms Bartram's accounts of the southern states from a curious record of personal observation from the past into a guidebook useful to modern biologists, historians, ornithologists, and ethnologists.In 1773 the naturalist and writer William Bartram set out from Philadelphia on a four-year journey ranging from the Carolinas to Florida and Mississippi. For Bartram it was the perfect opportunity to pursue his interest in observing and drawing plants and birds. Combining precise and detailed scientific observations with a profound appreciation of nature, he produced a written account of his journey that would later influence both scientists and poets, including Wordsworth and Coleridge.
Bartram was among the first to integrate scientific observations and personal commentary. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he condemned the idea that nature was simply a resource to be consumed. Instead, he championed the aesthetic and scientific values of an "infinite variety of animated scenes, inexpressibly beautiful and pleasing." From his field journals he prepared a report for his benefactor and a larger report for the public. The former was rediscovered much later and published in 1943; the latter was published in 1791 and became the basis for the modern Bartram's Travels.
Jack Tier, or, The Florida Reef by James Fennimore Cooper
The old sea-dog, Captain Spike of the brigantine Molly Swash, calls out the order to first mate Mulford: the ship casts off with the tide—and young Rose Budd is to be aboard!
For Rose and her kindly aunt, it is to be a voyage for rest, recuperation, and escape from a world beset with worries and the rampant "pulmonary" disease, tuberculosis. As they soon learn, however, the best-planned vacations can go in unexpected directions—toward romance, perhaps . . . and more alarmingly toward danger.
The great American critic Van Wyck Brooks lauded Jack Tier for its describing "one of those fine, free, leisurely voyages around the world—voyages that made men out of boys and abounded in shipwrecks and perilous adventures." Originally serialized as Rose Budd in the popular Graham's Magazine, the novel ranks among Cooper's finest tales of the sea.
Florida's Indians from Ancient Times to the Present by Jerald T. Milanich
Florida's Indians tells the story of the native societies that have lived in Florida for twelve millennia, from the early hunters at the end of the Ice Age to the modern Seminole, Miccosukee, and Creeks.
When the first Indians arrived in what is now Florida, they wrested their livelihood from a land far different from the modern countryside, one that was cooler, drier, and almost twice the size. Thousands of years later European explorers encountered literally hundreds of different Indian groups living in every part of the state. (Today every Florida county contains an Indian archaeological site.) The arrival of colonists brought the native peoples a new world and great changes took place--by the mid-1700s, through warfare, slave raids, and especially epidemics, the population was almost annihilated. Other Indians soon moved into the state, including Creeks from Georgia and Alabama, who were the ancestors of the modern Seminole and Miccosukee Indians.
Written for a general audience, this book is lavishly illustrated with full-color drawings and photographs. It skillfully integrates the latest archaeological and historical information about the Sunshine State's Native Americans, connecting the past and present with modern place-names, and it gives a proud voice to Florida’s rich Indian heritage.
Paradise Lost? : The Environmental History of Florida by Raymond Arsenault
This collection of essays surveys the environmental history of the Sunshine State, from Spanish exploration to the present, and provides an organized, detailed overview of the reciprocal relationship between humans and Florida's unique peninsular ecology. It is divided into four thematic sections: explorers and naturalists; science, technology, and public policy; despoliation; and conservationists and environmentalists. The contributors describe the evolving environmental policies and practices of the state and federal governments and the dynamic interaction between the Florida environment and many social and cultural groups including the Spanish, English, Americans, southerners, northerners, men, and women. They have applied historical methodology and also drawn on the methodologies of the fields of political science, cultural anthropology, and sociology.
Of obvious value to environmentalists and general readers interested in Florida's history, exploration, and development, the book will also serve as a solid introduction to the subject for undergraduates and graduate students.
Jack E. Davis is associate professor of history at University of Florida. Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and director of the University Honors College at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.
1821 – 1913: Riverboats, Railroads, and Roadside Attractions
Florida transformed rapidly under American control and officially became the 27th U.S. state in 1845. Three Seminole Wars spelled the end of indigenous resistance to settlers. Railroads brought development and large-scale agriculture to Florida, as cotton, cedar, pine resin, cattle, and citrus spurred rapid population and economic growth in the young, fledgling state. They also brought entrepreneurs like Henry Flagler and Henry Plant. Their lavish resorts for wealthy northern visitors helped define Florida as the “American Riviera” of tourist destinations, part exotic adventure, part tropical paradise. Behind them came “tin-can tourists,” working-class visitors driving from one roadside attraction to the next in the days before Disney. Florida was on the brink of a bright future—but the past still lingered. While Emancipation ended plantation slavery, racism and racial violence persisted throughout the Jim Crow era, marked by lynchings, riots, and even massacres. From this swirling swamp of culture and history, two of Florida’s most celebrated authors emerged: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chronicler of “cracker” lives in rural Cross Creek; and Zora Neale Hurston, “literary anthropologist” of the South and author of the powerful classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
- Explore Recent Centuries
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rowlings
No novel better epitomizes the love between a child and a pet than The Yearling. Young Jody adopts an orphaned fawn he calls Flag and makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend. There has been a film and even a musical based on this moving story, a fine work of great American literature.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person—no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.
A Journey into Florida Railroad History by Gregg M. Turner
Meticulously researched and richly illustrated—including many never-before-published images—A Journey into Florida Railroad History is a comprehensive, authoritative history of the subject. Written by one of the nation's foremost authorities on Florida railroads, it explores all the key players and companies, and every significant period of development. This engaging and lively story will be savored and enjoyed by generations to come.
As the rail barons who transformed Florida pushed their lines southward, they also created a string of resort hotels to attract wealthy northerners with an appetite for balmy climates and luxurious accommodations. Susan Braden tells the story of the magnificent pleasure palaces created by Plant and Flagler and the impact of their conspicuous scale and opulence on the Florida wilderness. Braden traces the enterprises that brought Plant and Flagler to Florida and then examines each of their hotels, describing the architecture, how they physically functioned, and what they offered their guests in the way of recreation and leisure. From the Spanish Renaissance of St. Augustine's Ponce de Leon, to Georgian Revival in Palm Beach's Royal Poinciana, to the Islamic Revival of the Tampa Bay Hotel and the Alpine ambience of the nearby Belleview, her individual profiles of each hotel show how the builders mixed recognizable style with physical and functional independence, and then capped both with an aura of blatant luxury on a scale previously unknown in Florida. The hotels' creators, by catering to the newly realized needs and demands of their affluent patrons, brought civilization to the frontier and established the legacy of tropical fantasy and escape that endures in Florida to this day. Braden's research draws upon architectural plans and archival resources, as well as memoirs and accounts written by Gilded Age visitors and employees, to re-create the experience of Florida's winter resorts. Floor plans and abundant illustrations--many never before published--make this book a richly visual documentation that will appeal to architectural historians, preservationists, and general readers curious about Florida's pioneering tradition of exotic escape and the resplendent structures in which it was born. Susan R. Braden is assistant professor of art history at Auburn University.
1914 – 2024: Hurricanes, Rumrunners, & the Happiest Place on Earth
Florida’s modern age began with a post-war land boom, cut short by devastating hurricanes—a recurring theme in the Florida legend. Florida figured prominently as a port-of-call for rumrunning criminals during Prohibition including Al Capone, whose exploits in Miami would later inspire the novels of Florida authors like Ernest Hemingway and Elmore Leonard. Further inland, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas’ seminal River of Grass introduced the word “conservation” to the Florida vocabulary in 1947 and helped establish Everglades National Park. And all the while, Florida tourism continued to evolve. As the Cuban Revolution raged just miles away, Florida saw the opening of Weeki Watchee Springs, Busch Gardens, and the Daytona International Speedway. As the Drug War ravaged American cities, Miami Vice lured more tourists and fortune-seekers to South Florida. As the Vietnam War raged, Disney World opened its doors. As thousands of Cuban refugees arrived on the 1980 Mariel boatlift, awed spectators watched the first space shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral.
What lies ahead for the Sunshine State? Development or disaster? Conservation or crisis? Cultural diversity or colonization? No one can say for sure. History gives us the facts, but Florida writers like these give us the imagination we need to see the real Florida, past, present, and future.
- Recent Reads
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.
Harshly realistic, yet with one of the most subtle and moving relationships in the Hemingway oeuvre, To Have and Have Not is literary high adventure at its finest.
The Everglades: River of Grass by Marjorie Stoneman-Douglas
Before 1947, when Marjory Stoneman Douglas named The Everglades a "river of grass," most people considered the area worthless. She brought the world's attention to the need to preserve The Everglades. In the Afterword, Michael Grunwald tells us what has happened to them since then. Grunwald points out that in 1947 the government was in the midst of establishing the Everglades National Park and turning loose the Army Corps of Engineers to control floods--both of which seemed like saviors for the Glades. But neither turned out to be the answer. Working from the research he did for his book, The Swamp, Grunwald offers an account of what went wrong and the many attempts to fix it, beginning with Save Our Everglades, which Douglas declared was "not nearly enough." Grunwald then lays out the intricacies (and inanities) of the more recent and ongoing CERP, the hugely expensive Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.
Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader by Harry Crews
Collected here is the best of Harry his astoundingly beautiful memoir A The Biography of a Place ; two if his most memorable novels, Car and The Gypsy's Curse ; and three masterly essays, "Climbing the Tower," "The Car," and "Fathers, Sons and Blood," as well as a new introduction to these works by Crews himself.
Just follow the Grand Master of mystery and suspense to Florida’s Gold Coast and you’ll quickly discover that it’s so. In this classic Elmore Leonard thriller, a beautiful mafia widow stands to lose everything her late mob boss husband left her if she succumbs to her desire for an attractive Detroit ex-con—so the two conspire to outwit the thugs the dead capo assigned to make sure she stays chaste. Superior crime fiction in the vein of John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert Parker—chock full of the eccentric characters, black humor, and razor-sharp dialogue for which the acclaimed creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (of TV’s Justified) is justifiably famous—Gold Coast is gold standard Leonard.
Marine biologist Chaz Perrone can't tell a sea horse from a sawhorse. And when he throws his beautiful wife, Joey, off a cruise liner, he really should know better. An expert swimmer, Joey makes her way to a floating bale of Jamaican pot-and then to an island inhabited by an ex-cop named Mick Stranahan, whose ex-wives include five waitresses and a TV producer. Now Joey wants to get revenge on Chaz and Mick's happy to help her.But in swampy South Florida, separating lies from truths and stupidity from brilliance isn't easy. Especially when you're after a guy like Chaz-who's bad at murder, great at fraud, and just terrible at getting caught...
Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams by Gary Mormino
From New Spain, to Old South, to New South, to Sunbelt, the story of how and why millions have come to Florida and created a megastate of constant social, cultural, and economic change.Florida is a story of astonishing growth, a state swelling from 500,000 residents at the outset of the 20th century to some 16 million at the end. As recently as mid-century, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, Florida was the smallest state in the South. At the dawn of the millennium, it is the fourth largest in the country, a megastate that was among those introducing new words into the American space coast, climate control, growth management, retirement community, theme park, edge cities, shopping mall, boomburbs, beach renourishment, Interstate, and Internet. Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams attempts to understand the firestorm of change that erupted into modern Florida by examining the great social, cultural, and economic forces driving its transformation.Gary Mormino ranges far and wide across the landscape and boundaries of a place that is at once America’s southernmost state and the northernmost outpost of the Caribbean. From the capital, Tallahassee--a day's walk from the Georgia border--to Miami--a city distant but tantalizingly close to Cuba and Haiti--Mormino traces the themes of Florida’s the echoes of old Dixie and a vanishing Florida; land booms and tourist empires; revolutions in agriculture, technology, and demographics; the seductions of the beach and the dynamics of a graying population; and the enduring but changing meanings of a dreamstate. Beneath the iconography of popular culture is revealed a complex and complicated social framework that reflects a dizzying passage from New Spain to Old South, New South to Sunbelt.
The Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet. — Marjorie Stoneman Douglas
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. — Walt Disney