Reading
for Florida fiction lovers

from the University Press of Florida

Anthologies		True Life Tales
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings		Marjory Stoneman Douglas
A Classic Novel		UPF HOME

 

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Anthologies

100% Pure Florida Fiction (2000) Edited by Susan Hubbard and Robley Wilson "Brighter than a digital print-out, 100% Pure Florida Fiction provides a full-featured map of Florida’s imaginative landscape at the stark turning of the millennial moment--with visions and aftershocks that linger in the mind long after reading."--Joe David Bellamy, former publisher and editor, Fiction International 232pp. 6 X 9. 0-8130-1752-1 Cloth, $49.95s 0-8130-1753-X Paper, $16.95

Florida Stories Edited by Kevin McCarthy (1989) Illustrations by Jeanne Van Riper "A potpourri of short stories that serves up more style and substance, more suspense and sensuality, than most of the titles on the current best-seller list."—Tampa Tribune Stories by Stephen Crane, Harry Crews, Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, Sarah Orne Jewett, Ring Lardner, John D. MacDonald, Theodore Pratt, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Gore Vidal, Philip Wylie, and more. 326 pp. Illustrations. ISBN 0-8130-0910-3 Paper, $17.95

More Florida Stories Edited by Kevin McCarthy (1996) Illustrations by Larry Leshan "I have read all of these stories and there is not a bad one in the bunch. . . . I will keep this collection by my bedside and read from it, more or less, each night. It is that good." —Harry Crews Stories by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Stetson Kennedy, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and more. 222 pp. Illustrations. ISBN 0-8130-1468-9 Cloth, $29.95 ISBN 0-8130-1485-9 Paper, $17.95

Florida Frenzy by Harry Crews (1992) "13 essays and articles and 3 short stories that will hit you right between the eyes."—Chicago Tribune In this collection of fiction and essays, Crews focuses on the people and places of Florida—full of natural wonders and other, grimier delights that make perfect grist for his forceful style, Southern Gothic sensibilities, and rowdy sense of humor. From poaching gators, to the Gatornationals, to cockfighting—a must-have collection for Harry Crews fans new and old. 138 pp. ISBN 0-8130-0726-7 Paper, $16.95

True Life Stories

Sunshine States Wild Times and Extraordinary Lives in the Land of Gators, Guns, and Grapefruit by Patrick Carr (1999) "As a chronicler of American travels, Carr falls somewhere between Charles Dickens and Crocodile Dundee."—Los Angeles Times "A thorough reporter, a careful listener, and a perceptive observer. . . . A book that is as reasonable as it is winning." —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post In seven pieces that describe their stories, dreams, and nightmares, journalist Patrick Carr writes about the fascinating Floridians whose lives are the reality of the Sunshine State. They include alligator hunters near Lakeland, water warriors in Tampa, narcotics cops and political refugees in Miami, a Seminole chief in the Glades, and a cracker sage at Fisheating Creek.   237 pp. 0-8130-1734-3 Paper, $14.95

The Creek by J. T. Glisson (1993) Foreword by Rip Torn Illustrations by J.T. Glisson "The tales are wonderful: an attempted murder, an affair of honor, the ongoing conflict between the poacher-fishermen and the game wardens. All the while, J.T.’s schemes for making money—among them raising pigs and alligators—match anything Tom Sawyer might have dreamed up."—Darden Asbury Pyron, Miami Herald J.T. Glisson’s memoir of growing up at Cross Creek from the 20s to the 50s includes portraits of Charley the fisherman who did his banking in a Prince Albert tobacco can nailed to a tree; J.T.’s father Tom, whose wisdom, boundless optimism, and colorful cracker speech figure prominently in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Cross Creek; N.C. Wyeth, illustrator of The Yearling, who visited Cross Creek and chatted while Jake watched him sketch; and "Miz" Rawlings herself, who drove recklessly, smoked in public, had black spells, and whose Pulitzer Prize did little to change her status as "that writer from up north." 283 pp. 19 drawings, map. ISBN 0-8130-1184-1 Cloth, $29.95 ISBN 0-8130-1185-X Paper, $16.95

A Classic Novel

Surrounded on Three Sides by John Keasler (1999) "A jaunty, outstandingly human, and highly successful satire on the habits and ways of professional promoters, on ‘progress’ in Florida."—Chicago Tribune Keasler's 1958 novel is remarkable both for its humor and for its early portrayal of the dilemma of Florida growth. Novelist and journalist John Keasler wrote nearly 7,000 humor columns during his 30-year career at the old Miami News. 224 pp. ISBN 0-8130-1710-6 Paper, $14.95

 

... and from the first ladies of Florida fiction Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was born in Washington, D.C. in August of 1896. She started writing when she was only six years old and graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a major in English. She went on to work as a reporter at a newspaper and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for "The Yearling." Here are some of our books about this leading lady of fiction...

edited by Rodger L. Tarr:

Poems by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1997) "A fascinating tapestry woven from the lives of women who had won the right to vote a mere six years earlier. In Songs of a Housewife, we hear the voice of an emerging feminist, a voice that stubbornly and--given the political climate of the 1920s--courageously insists that women be respected. Fans of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings will be surprised and ultimately delighted by this long overdue collection."--Connie May Fowler, author of Sugar Cage and Before Women Had Wings 288pp. ISBN 0-8130-1491-3 Cloth, $24.95

Short Stories by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1994) "You are just a born storyteller and all of us readers are very lucky.—Margaret Mitchell, letter to Rawlings, 1940 "In Rawlings's novels, letters, autobiographical sketches and the 23 short pieces here collected for the first time, the message is that human character, happiness, and survival are as directly tied to the landscape outside one's window as they are to one's genes and upbringing."—Margaria Fichtner, Miami Herald 386pp. Photographs, notes, index. ISBN 0-8130-1252-X Cloth, $49.95s ISBN 0-8130-1253-8 Paper, $24.95 Other Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings offerings...

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born in Minneapolis in 1890. She graduated in 1912 from Wellesley College and later joined her father's newspaper business in Miami. In the 1940's she started turning her attention to the Everglades and formed Friends of the Everglades when she was in her 70's. Even into her 80's and 90's (when she was legally blind) she fought to protect what many considered just Florida swamp, becoming known as the grandmother of the Everglades. She died in 1998, after having received such awards as Ms. magazine's Woman of the Year (1988), and the Presidential Medal of Honor (1993). Here are some of our books about this leading lady of the Everglades...

 

"A River in Flood" and Other Florida Stories by Marjory Stoneman Douglas Edited by Kevin M. McCarthy (1998) Illustrations by Larry Leshan The timeless themes of her stories in this new collection resonate with interest for readers today. Whether the subject is hurricanes, cockfighting, real estate deals, struggling immigrants, or corruption in the Everglades, Douglas wrote about it with distinction--and usually first. Originally published in the Saturday Evening Post during the 1920s and 1930s, the golden age of the short story, these nine works have never before been collected or available in one place. A Florida Sand Dollar Book 176 pp. 6 X 9. 9 illustrations. ISBN 0-8130-1622-3 Cloth, $39.95s ISBN 0-8130-1623-1 Paper, $17.95

Nine Florida Stories by Marjory Stoneman Douglas Edited by Kevin M. McCarthy (1990) A Florida Sand Dollar Book The nine stories in this first collection, satisfyingly diverse in plot and theme, take place in a scattering of South Florida settings--Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, the Tamiami Trail, the Keys, Hillsboro Inlet, the Everglades. In among the drama of hurricanes and plane crashes, of kidnappers, escaped convicts, and smugglers, Douglas plants flags that mark the stories as her own: plume hunters who threaten Florida's ibises, irrational schemes to drain the Everglades, what happens when human beings collide with nature in the form of water, weather, or wildlife. 198pp. ISBN 0-8130-0988-X Cloth $22.95s ISBN 0-8130-0994-4 Paper, $17.95

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