The Tropic of Cracker

Download The Tropic of Cracker PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Florida History and Culture (P
ISBN 13 : 9780813033853
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (338 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Tropic of Cracker by : Al Burt

Download or read book The Tropic of Cracker written by Al Burt and published by Florida History and Culture (P. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For anyone who loves the old Florida and still has hope for the new "Should be required reading for everyone who calls Florida home."--Miami Herald "There is a richness and sadness in this book. . . . A museum of Florida's choicest people, places and monuments."--Palm Beach Post "Ever wonder what's the best way to eat a rattlesnake? Puzzled over the origin of the term 'Florida Cracker'? Have an interest in alligator wrestling or catfish? Al Burt has some answers for you."--Forum "Burt's writing shows a Florida that is vanishing before our eyes. [He] reveals the strange, quirky, charming face of the Sunshine State by writing about catfishermen on Lake Okeechobee, by relating the stories of Florida cowboys who drove free-range cattle across the state and by describing the hardships of a couple who abandoned south Florida for an organic farm in the Panhandle."--Weekly Planet "Burt grabs the spirit of the Florida that once was, tantalizes us, makes us nostalgic and weaves a bit of oral history as we travel with him. . . . It's as warm as a front-porch gathering on a July evening or a grandma's hug, as fresh as a fall breeze through the pinewoods or across an undeveloped coastal dune."--Gainesville Sun "Drawing upon his long career as a roving Florida journalist, Burt uses a series of vivid biographical profiles to explore the full range of 'crackerdom,' from the good old boys and 'pork chopper' politicians of the Panhandle to the native Conchs of Key West. Perhaps most impressive, he brings these endangered subcultures to life without resorting to sensationalist caricature or lapsing into nostalgic revery. Cracker Florida, which surely has suffered more than its share of condescension and misunderstanding, has finally found its laureate."--from the Foreword

Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers

Download Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1493030949
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (93 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers by : Roger L. Hammer

Download or read book Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers written by Roger L. Hammer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-04-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide features stunning color photographs of more than 600 common wildflowers of Florida. Detailed descriptions and full-color photos aid the reader in identifying plants in the field.

The Cracker General Awareness MCQ eBook for RRB JE, NTPC, SSC and other Exams 2019 (English Edition)

Download The Cracker General Awareness MCQ eBook for RRB JE, NTPC, SSC and other Exams 2019 (English Edition) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Adda247 Publications
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Cracker General Awareness MCQ eBook for RRB JE, NTPC, SSC and other Exams 2019 (English Edition) by : Adda247 Publications

Download or read book The Cracker General Awareness MCQ eBook for RRB JE, NTPC, SSC and other Exams 2019 (English Edition) written by Adda247 Publications and published by Adda247 Publications. This book was released on with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “The Cracker General Awareness ( History,Geography,Polity,Economics & Miscellaneous Multiple choice questions Book ” covers the new pattern multiple choice questions along with the previous years' questions that are expected to be repeated in the upcoming examinations 2019 like RRB JE, NTPC,RRC Group D SSC JE, SSC CGL and others. In this book, we provide you all with detailed explanations of each and every question of History, Geography, Polity , Economics & Miscellaneous. It will help the students analyze what is being asked in these examinations so that they prepare accordingly. Salient Features of "The Cracker General Awareness (History, Geography, Polity, Economics & Miscellaneous) Multiple Choice Questions Book": 3500+ Questions of History, Geography, Polity, Economics & Miscellaneous Previous Years' Questions Detail Explanation of History, Geography, Polity, Economics & Miscellaneous. Based on latest Pattern

Florida Lore

Download Florida Lore PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1439663521
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (396 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Florida Lore by : Caren Schnur Neile

Download or read book Florida Lore written by Caren Schnur Neile and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2010-12-03 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating collection of myths, legends and folktales celebrates the diversity of characters and cultures across the Sunshine State. Florida boasts mysterious tales that stretch back more than twelve thousand years. In Florida Lore, storyteller Caren Schnur Neile shares a treasure trove of colorful, curious tales that capture her home state’s history, mystery, and unique personality. Delve into the lives of the proud Wakulla Pocahontas and the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge. Meet local lawbreakers like John Ashley, as well as transplants like Ma Barker and Al Capone. Stalk stumpy gators or Hogzilla as they prowl Florida's swamps and suburbs. Discover the quintessential Cracker cowboy and the Barefoot Mailman, plus the origin of names like Boca Raton and Orlando.

Cracker

Download Cracker PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cracker by : Dana Ste.Claire

Download or read book Cracker written by Dana Ste.Claire and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What exactly is a "Cracker"? An entertaining, informative look at a slice of old Florida culture. For over 200 years scholars have attempted to define the Crackers, but their name is as elusive as their nature, their character as tough as Florida's hardscrabble countryside, and any real Cracker will tell you that's just the way they like it. Part history, part folklore, Cracker is a generously illustrated account of Cracker heritage, its rich history, and its disappearance as today's fast-paced society reaches even into the remote backwoods of the state.From the language they spoke to the houses they built, from clandestine moonshine stills and cowhunting to "grits and gravy," Dana Ste. Claire offers a colorful and revealing tour of Crackerdom.

Walking in the Land of Many Gods

Download Walking in the Land of Many Gods PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820345245
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (23 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Walking in the Land of Many Gods by : A. James Wohlpart

Download or read book Walking in the Land of Many Gods written by A. James Wohlpart and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How are we placed on Earth? What is our relationship to the world around us, and how does our thinking affect the way we relate to the world? We are entrapped, says A. James Wohlpart, by what Martin Heidegger calls "enframing," a worldview that considers all objects as mere resources for our use. Walking in the Land of Many Gods envisions a new way of thinking about the world, one grounded in a moral imagination reconnected to Earth. Insightful readings of three contemporary classics of nature writing--Janisse Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Terry Tempest Williams's Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, and Linda Hogan's Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World--are at the heart of Wohlpart's endeavor. Powerful and affecting works like these reveal a pathway to a deeper remembering, one that reconnects us with the primal forces of creation and acknowledges the sacredness of the world. We have forgotten that the world around us is rich and fertile and generative, says Wohlpart. His exploration of these literary works, based on deep anthropology and Native American philosophy, opens a pathway into a new way of thinking called sacred reason. Founded on interdependence and interrelationship, and on care and compassion, sacred reason reminds us that divinity exists around us at all times. We are invited to walk, once again, in a land filled with many gods."--

A Most Disorderly Court

Download A Most Disorderly Court PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813059259
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Most Disorderly Court by : Martin A. Dyckman

Download or read book A Most Disorderly Court written by Martin A. Dyckman and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2008-03-30 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1970s, justices on the Florida Supreme Court were popularly elected. But a number of scandals threatened to topple the court until public outrage led to profound reforms and fundamental changes in the way justices were seated. One justice abruptly retired after being filmed on a high-roller junket to Las Vegas. Two others tried to fix cases in lower courts on behalf of campaign supporters. A fourth destroyed evidence by shredding his copy of a document into "seventeen equal" strips of paper that he then flushed down a toilet. As the journalist who wrote most of the stories that exposed these events, Martin Dyckman played a key role in revealing the corruption, favoritism, and cronyism then rampant in the court. A Most Disorderly Court recounts this dark period in Florida politics, when stunning revelations regularly came to light. He also traces the reform efforts that ultimately led to a constitutional amendment providing for the appointment of all Florida's appellate judges, and emphasizes the absolute importance of confidential sources for journalists.

A Journey into Florida Railroad History

Download A Journey into Florida Railroad History PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813042925
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Journey into Florida Railroad History by : Gregg M. Turner

Download or read book A Journey into Florida Railroad History written by Gregg M. Turner and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2012-03-25 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is safe to say that without railroads, Florida wouldn't be what it is today. Railroads connected the state's important cities and towns, conquered the peninsula's vast and seemingly impenetrable interior, ushered in untold numbers of settlers and tourists, and conveyed to market--faster than any previous means of transportation--the myriad products of Florida's mines, forests, factories, farms, and groves. Gregg Turner traces the long, slow development of Florida railroads, from the first tentative lines in the 1830s, through the boom of the 1880s, to the maturity of the railroad system in the 1920s. At the end of that decade nearly 6,000 miles of labyrinthine track covered the state. Turner also examines the decline of the industry, as the automobile rose to prominence in American culture and lines were abandoned or sold for hiking trails and green spaces. 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.

Florida Heritage

Download Florida Heritage PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 138 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (126 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Florida Heritage by :

Download or read book Florida Heritage written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Gladesmen

Download Gladesmen PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813047056
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Gladesmen by : Glen Simmons

Download or read book Gladesmen written by Glen Simmons and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2010-09-05 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few people today can claim a living memory of Florida's frontier Everglades. Glen Simmons, who has hunted alligators, camped on hammock-covered islands, and poled his skiff through the mangrove swamps of the glades since the 1920s, is one who can. Together with Laura Ogden, he tells the story of backcountry life in the southern Everglades from his youth until the establishment of the Everglades National Park in 1947. During the economic bust of the late ‘20s, when many natives turned to the land to survive, Simmons began accompanying older local men into Everglades backcountry, the inhospitable prairie of soft muck and mosquitoes, of outlaws and moonshiners, that rings the southern part of the state. As Simmons recalls life in this community with humor and nostalgia, he also documents the forgotten lifestyles of south Florida gladesmen. By necessity, they understood the natural features of the Everglades ecosystem. They observed the seasonal fluctuations of wildlife, fire, and water levels. Their knowledge of the mostly unmapped labyrinth of grassy water enabled them to serve as guides for visiting naturalists and scientists. Simmons reconstructs this world, providing not only fascinating stories of individual personalities, places, and events, but an account that is accurate, both scientifically and historically, of one of the least known and longest surviving portions of the American frontier.

The Tropic Magazine

Download The Tropic Magazine PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 576 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (334 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Tropic Magazine by :

Download or read book The Tropic Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State

Download Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813072050
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State by : Robert D. Billinger

Download or read book Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State written by Robert D. Billinger and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "They were Uncle Sam's smiling workers and they looked like all-American boys. There were at least 10,000 of them, deployed in 25 Florida camps between 1942 and 1946. They were also members of the Wehrmacht, Hitler's armed forces."--Forum "Most Americans were unaware their government was housing Hitler's soldiers on its shores. . . . Billinger weaves interviews with former prisoners, American soldiers who worked in the camps, newspaper accounts, and government documents into a stunning historical narrative."--Kansas City Star "A tropical paradise that for some became a tropical hell."--Sarasota Herald-Tribune "First came crewmen of destroyed U-boats, then thousands of Afrika Korps veterans who swamped the system in 1943. Pro-Nazi, arrogant, and tough, they defied U.S. authorities, terrorized anti-Nazi inmates, and rioted."--Choice "Filled with colorful personal accounts, this historical book packs the punch of fiction."--St. Petersburg Times "Billinger's first-rate history of this little-known chapter in American history teaches us that, in spite of wartime propaganda, our enemies are human, too."--Atlantic City Press "Hard to put down."--Daytona Beach News-Journal In the first book-length treatment of the German prisoner of war experience in Florida during World War II, Robert D. Billinger, Jr., tells the story of the 10,000 men who were "guests" of Uncle Sam in a tropical paradise that for some became a tropical hell. Having been captured while serving on U-boats off the Carolinas, with the Afrika Korps in Tunisia, with the paratroops in Italy, or with labor battalions in France, the POWs were among the 378,000 Germans held as prisoners in 45 states. Except for the servicemen who guarded them, the civilian pulp-cutters, citrus growers, and sugarcane foremen who worked them, and the FBI and local police who tracked the escapees among them, most people were--and still are--unaware of the German POWs who inhabited the 27 camps that dotted the Sunshine State. Billinger describes the experiences of the Germans and their captors as both sides came to the realization that, while the Germans’ worst enemies were often their own comrades-in-arms, wartime enemies might also become life-long friends. Concentrating especially on the story of Camp Blanding in North Florida, Billinger based his research on both American and German archives. His account mixes rare photos with interviews with former prisoners; reports by the International Red Cross, the YMCA, and the U.S. military; and local newspaper articles. This book will be of great value to scholars and historians, as well as all readers with an interest in World War II. Those with an interest in Florida history will also find much to admire in this engaging account of a barely known wartime episode. A volume in The Florida History and Culture Series, edited by Raymond Arsenault and Gary R. Mormino.

The Ghost of Jim Crow

Download The Ghost of Jim Crow PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199720460
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Ghost of Jim Crow by : Anders Walker

Download or read book The Ghost of Jim Crow written by Anders Walker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-30 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King, Jr. asserted that "the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice." To date, our understanding of the Civil Rights era has been largely defined by high-profile public events such as the crisis at Little Rock high school, bus boycotts, and sit-ins-incidents that were met with massive resistance and brutality. The resistance of Southern moderates to racial integration was much less public and highly insidious, with far-reaching effects. The Ghost of Jim Crow draws long-overdue attention to the moderate tactics that stalled the progress of racial equality in the South. Anders Walker explores how three moderate Southern governors formulated masked resistance in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. J. P. Coleman in Mississippi, Luther Hodges in North Carolina, and LeRoy Collins in Florida each developed workable, lasting strategies to neutralize black political activists and control white extremists. Believing it possible to reinterpret Brown on their own terms, these governors drew on creative legal solutions that allowed them to perpetuate segregation without overtly defying the federal government. Hodges, Collins, and Coleman instituted seemingly neutral criteria--academic, economic, and moral--in place of racial classifications, thereby laying the foundations for a new way of rationalizing racial inequality. Rather than focus on legal repression, they endorsed cultural pluralism and uplift, claiming that black culture was unique and should be preserved, free from white interference. Meanwhile, they invalidated common law marriages and cut state benefits to unwed mothers, then judged black families for having low moral standards. They expanded the jurisdiction of state police and established agencies like the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission to control unrest. They hired black informants, bribed black leaders, and dramatically expanded the reach of the state into private life. Through these tactics, they hoped to avoid violent Civil Rights protests that would draw negative attention to their states and confirm national opinions of the South as backward. By crafting positive images of their states as tranquil and free of racial unrest, they hoped to attract investment and expand southern economic development. In reward for their work, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson appointed them to positions in the federal government, defying notions that Republicans were the only party to absorb southern segregationists and stall civil rights. An eye-opening approach to law and politics in the Civil Rights era, The Ghost of Jim Crow looks beyond extremism to highlight some of the subversive tactics that prolonged racial inequality.

Jacksonville

Download Jacksonville PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 081306516X
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Jacksonville by : James B. Crooks

Download or read book Jacksonville written by James B. Crooks and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1950s and '60s Jacksonville faced daunting problems. Critics described city government as boss-ridden, expensive, and corrupt. African Americans challenged racial segregation, and public high schools were disaccredited. The St. Johns River and its tributaries were heavily polluted. Downtown development had succumbed to suburban sprawl. Consolidation, endorsed by an almost two-to-one majority in 1967, became the catalyst for change. The city's decision to consolidate with surrounding Duval County began the transformation of this conservative, Deep South, backwater city into a prosperous, mainstream metropolis. James B. Crooks introduces readers to preconsolidation Jacksonville and then focuses on three major issues that confronted the expanded city: racial relations, environmental pollution, and the revitalization of downtown. He shows the successes and setbacks of four mayors—Hans G. Tanzler, Jake Godbold, Tommy Hazouri, and Ed Austin—in responding to these issues. He also compares Jacksonville's experience with that of another Florida metropolis, Tampa, which in 1967 decided against consolidation with surrounding Hillsborough County. Consolidation has not been a panacea for all the city's ills, Crooks concludes. Yet the city emerges in the 21st century with increased support for art and education, new economic initiatives, substantial achievements in downtown renewal, and laudable efforts to improve race relations and address environmental problems. Readers familiar with Jacksonville over the last 40 years will recognize events like the St. Johns River cleanup, the building of the Jacksonville Landing, the ending of odor pollution, and the arrival of the Jaguars NFL franchise. During the administration of Mayor Hazouri from 1987 to 1991, Crooks was Jacksonville historian-in-residence at City Hall. Combining observations from this period with extensive interviews and documents (including a cache of files from the mezzanine of the old City Hall parking garage that contained 44 cabinets of letters, memos, and reports), he has written an urban history that will fascinate scholars of politics and governmental reform as well as residents of the First Coast city. A volume in the Florida History and Culture Series, edited by Raymond Arsenault and Gary R. Mormino

State of Defiance

Download State of Defiance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813047625
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis State of Defiance by : Judith Poucher

Download or read book State of Defiance written by Judith Poucher and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Florida Historical Society Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Award Drawing on previously unpublished sources and newly unsealed records, Judith Poucher profiles five individuals who stood up to the Johns Committee. Virgil Hawkins and Ruth Perry were civil rights activists who, respectively, foiled the committee’s plans to stop integration at the University of Florida and refused to divulge Florida and Miami NAACP records. G. G. Mock, a bartender in Tampa, was arrested and shackled in the nude by police but would not reveal the name of her girlfriend, a teacher. University of Florida professor Sig Diettrich was threatened with twenty years in prison and being "outed," yet he still would not name names. Margaret Fisher, a college administrator, helped to bring the committee's investigation of the University of South Florida into the open, publicly condemning their bullying. By reexamining the daring stands taken by these ordinary citizens, Poucher illustrates not only the abuses propagated by the committee but also the collective power of individuals to effect change.

Backcountry Lawman

Download Backcountry Lawman PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813047110
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Backcountry Lawman by : Bob H. Lee

Download or read book Backcountry Lawman written by Bob H. Lee and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With thirty years of backcountry patrol experience in Florida, Bob Lee has lived through incidents of legend, including one of the biggest environmental busts in Florida history. His fascinating memoir reveals the danger and the humor in the unsung exploits of game wardens.

Come to My Sunland

Download Come to My Sunland PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813065976
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Come to My Sunland by : Julia Winifred Moseley

Download or read book Come to My Sunland written by Julia Winifred Moseley and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-10-14 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like so many midwesterners since, Julia Daniels and Charles Scott Moseley moved to Florida in the 1880s seeking a warmer climate. This collection of Julia’s letters--mainly to her husband, who made frequent business trips north, and to her close friend Eliza Slade--reveals the struggle of a cultured, urban woman adjusting to the hardship and isolation of life in pioneer Florida. And then coming to love it. Tramping through the unsullied land surrounding the Limona community near Tampa, where they settled, she gloried in her "neglected corner in the Garden of Eden," where she "could look up fifty feet and see air plants growing on the branches of great oaks and hundreds of ferns nodding . . . in the sunlight and gray moss moving through the trees like mist." "Think of me gazing up among crane’s nests with redbirds in my own oaks," she wrote. "Even in the nighttime, a mocking bird often sings to me of all the beautiful things I love." Julia (herself a published writer) selected these unedited letters and copied them for her family into a thick leather book. Like characters in a novel, the friends and relatives she describes crackle with personality: a flamboyant Russian proclaims his version of communism, a New England spinster counters with Utopian visions, and a university professor retreats from the ivory tower to agricultural experimentation. Readers observe Julia’s flair for making daily life cheerful and they meet the couple’s two adored sons and Scott’s children by an earlier marriage, as well as Cracker settlers, cattle runners, and assorted seekers of health or wealth. An artist, Julia created a distinctive home designed and decorated in the manner of the pre-Raphaelites. Her palmetto fiber wall covering was exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and survives today. The Florida house, named The Nest, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Accompanied by 71 photographs of Julia’s home and family, these letters transcend the life of one woman to capture the experience and spirit of 19th-century Florida.