Florida

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Florida Writers:  A Literary Font
By Lynn Lemmon

The "Sunshine State" accurately claims the oldest literary history of any state in the Union.  With Ponce de León's exploration of the Florida coast in 1513 and search for the Fountain of Youth, visitors began writing about this lush subtropical land of palms, alligators, and freshwater streams and lakes.  Almost 500 years later, hundreds of writers have called Florida home.

Ironically, however, the majority of Florida's lasting works of literature have been written in the 20th century.  Despite its attractions of year-round sunshine and coastal living, Florida was little more than a wilderness until 1900.  Just as the wilderness has evolved into a hubbub of tourism amid sprawling cities and rich culture, so has Florida writing evolved from the pristine point of view.  This is exemplified by a shift from early journal writings into more of a "Paradise Lost" motif, as evidenced in the true crime of Thomas French.

A chronological view of Florida's literary history would sacrifice some of the essential commonalities of its writers.  Rather, Florida's authors are better categorized in terms of their sojourns in the state.  There are those who were born and raised in Florida, those who emigrated to Florida, those who visited Florida on a regular basis, and those who spent only a brief period of time in Florida.  These categories can be further subdivided into authors who used Florida as a fertile setting for their craft and those who lived in the state but did not stage their settings in their native land.

Florida Natives

Native Floridians are, by far, the smallest of these groups.  Chief among them are Zora Neale Hurston, an African American who based her Their Eyes Were Watching God on her hometown of Eatonville, and James Weldon Johnson, an African American from Jacksonville who is best known for the lyrics to the official song of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Florida Emigrants

Many of Florida's notable writers came from other parts of the nation and world to spend significant portions of their lives here.  Ernest Hemingway, author of such widely-read novels as A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, lived for most of the 1930s in Key West.  James Michener, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of semi-documentary novels such as Hawaii, Mexico, and Colorado, was associated with Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.  Harry Crews, born and raised in Georgia, achieved emotional distance from his Georgia subject matter by moving to Gainesville, where he has written several well-known novels, including All I Need of Hell and A Feast of Snakes.  John D. MacDonald emigrated to Sarasota with plans to write about other locales.  Taken by the wealth of untapped material, MacDonald subsequently developed a series of celebrated mystery novels about Florida detective Travis McGee, an Atlantic coast boat-dweller.  Likewise, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings planned to use Cross Creek as a getaway for writing about other locales but enraptured by the country lifestyle of the area, wrote The Yearling, for which she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.  Elie Wiesel, a European Jew who resettled in St. Petersburg, earned a Nobel Peace Prize for Night, which details his narrow escape from a Nazi death camp, where he lost both his father and his faith.

Florida Visitors

Other writers spent only short periods of time in Florida, yet contributed significantly to its literary history.  The earliest of these was activist Harriet Beecher Stowe, who lived in Mandarin while writing Palmetto Leaves.  Stephen Crane, also an early Florida visitor, arrived under unfortunate circumstances.  Shipwrecked off the coast of Daytona Beach, Crane based his famous short story, "The Open Boat," on the experience.  Some notable writers were drawn for a time to Florida's writers' colonies.  Among them were Robert Frost, Tennessee Williams, John Hershey, and Richard Wilbur.  Florida also lays claim to those writers who came here briefly to write about specific aspects of the state.  Two such writers are Ring Lardner, whose short story, "The Golden Honeymoon," detailed his short stay, and Rachel A. Carson, who researched her The Edge of the Sea in the Florida Keys.

As Florida has grown to become one of the most populous states in the Union, so has her number of writers.  Today, active writers' colonies can be found in many areas of the state, including the University of Florida, the Florida Keys, and Sarasota. 

The variety of genres is steadily increasing.  Dave Barry, syndicated columnist, is best known for his wry humor, while William Bertram is an authority on travel.  Edna Buchanan continues to woo readers with her mysteries, as do Piers Anthony and Ben Bova with their science fiction.  Robin Cook's and Robert Ludlum's thrillers appear regularly on bestseller lists, and Elizabeth Bishop and Wallace Stevens have written much of their poetry from their Florida residences.  Patrick Smith's historical fiction about Florida's migrants and Native Americans is ever increasing in popularity.  The list goes on. 

With roughly 900 people moving to Florida each day, more of the state's future writers will be native Floridians.  Meanwhile, the Sunshine State has fulfilled its mythical promise of the Fountain of Youth by offering a form of immortality through the legacy of its literature.

Lynn Lemmon teaches at Palm Harbor University High School in Florida.