We follow Tobias and Emma as they eke out a hardscrabble existence and raise their son, Zech, to learn by trial and error the lessons nature teaches. The family lives first in a palmetto lean-to in the scrub until Tobias can finish their cypress-shingled cabin. They fight a hostile environment as well as natural predators, fending off bear attacks, panthers and wolves. Trapping small game, they survive on a diet of raccoon, squirrel and the occasional wild hog, supplemented by swamp cabbage and poke greens.
Emma wishes only for a Dutch oven, not ribbons or a new dress. Tobias is recruited to drive wild cattle to the Georgia border to feed Confederate troops. On the drive he learns to wield a rawhide whip, making it crack to guide the herd. The whip also serves as a tool for killing snakes, catching game, and for communication: one snap means dinner, two cracks mean danger.
As their savings grow, they plant citrus and accumulate large tracts of land. Historical events like the great freeze of and the deadly hurricane of form the backdrop as the MacIveys and their descendants struggle for survival.
They face drought, floods, plagues of mosquitoes and murdering cattle rustlers. Despite the harshness of nature, they are enchanted by its beauty — by red-orange sunsets illuminating the forests, and egrets and herons gliding above the flowing Pay-hay-okee, the River of Grass.
The early MacIveys are honorable, heroic and self-sacrificing. Although the closeness between friends and partners is idealized, perhaps such sentiment is justified where survival depends on strong partnerships. Innocence is lost, however, when the MacIvey heirs sever their connection with the land, fencing it off, clear cutting and paving.
In a recent interview, Smith talked about gathering material for the novel by listening to stories from fourth- and fifth-generation descendants of pioneers who settled here.
He also spent a year with the Seminoles and was taken with their belief in the sacredness of the land. His characters are symbolic of those pioneer settlers — strong men who fought the elements and strong women who were their partners, holding the family and homestead together. The importance of preserving the land is a central theme. When Smith wrote the book in , he was worried that Old Florida would disappear if the massive development continued.
He is cautiously optimistic about recent efforts of local and state governments to purchase lands for preservation. Click here to see what younger readers have to say about A Land Remembered. The book was great, I mean ……………………………………………….. I loved his book, one of my alltime favorites. It was delightful to see Florida when it was unspoiled and pristine.
I loved his book, and have read it several times. I wish I could have met him in person. I emailed you the link to that page.
This is an outstanding work of historical fiction, and those who have not yet discovered it have a treasure awaiting them! I think it would make an excellent motion picture or series, and that a lot of it could be filmed at Forever Florida.
William, Thank you for sharing your thoughts on A Land Remembered. Many people have agreed with you about A Land Remembered being made into a movie and I am sure it will happen one day. Forever Florida is one of the gems of Florida. This book is so much interesting and I really loved the journey of Tobias in particular, thanks for sharing. I was born and raised in Fort Myers. I know Punta Rassa very well.
Shoot, I know Florida very well. This book brought on emotions and connections of my love for Florida. I finally read this book at 37 years old. I am very proud of my heritage and this book reassured me of that. Thank you. I think I did it 3 yrs in a row. Many of my friends read it but many have tried to find it for their kindle. Will their ever be a kindle version? The book IS on Kindle, however since the switch to a new publisher, they have the wrong cover showing up when you search for it.
Here is the direct link. I am coordinator for two small libraries in gulf County — the florida panhandle. I sent you an email regarding your request.
The best thing to do is to give them a call at Do you have a map that would show approximate locations of these events and homesteads? If you get a copy of the physical book, there is a map in the front that shows their journeys through Florida.
What a wonderful story. I normally read three or more novels a week. I spent 5 days with this book and towards the end, I spent more time reflecting, instead of reading. I would have loved to have met Mr. This book will be on my mind forever. Thank you! I cannot wait to dig into this book with my students! Tiffany, I know your students will love it. As to the song, I am not aware of a song named Forever Florida. There is a song I used to play during my shows called Florida Home. The pond apple forest was my favorite scene.
Now I am seeing more about the pond apple forest online. I just purchased the graphic novel version, so I hope more Florida students will choose to read this essential history of Florida. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of new posts by email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Smith Frequently Asked Questions. Student Edition of A Land Remembered A Land Remembered is available in specially edited student volumes, available in both hardbound and softbound editions.
Petersburg, FL My family just loves this book. Forrest Lutz November 19, Reply. RickSmith January 20, Reply. RickSmith April 30, Reply. RickSmith October 15, Reply. Hi Chris, I emailed you the link to that page. Series: A Land Remembered.
A native of Mendenhall, Mississippi, Patrick D. Smith earned both a B. In Smith's lifetime work was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. We are the Kardashians we either love to love or hate, pathetic and unworthy of our status as caretakers. Florida is so profoundly different because of a great deal of unpredictability of its terrain. This is difficult to explain without traveling for any period of time on foot. While this book, admittedly, leaves out a great portion of Florida including the northwestern and only touches on some of the others, it has its limitations.
It is about a family which gets into the cattle business around Kissimmee by capturing wild cattle, fattening them and then driving them to Punta Rassa originally Punta Rasca on the southern west coast of FL near Fort Myers. However the book gets it absolutely right in suggesting that there was no more important place for the growth of Florida in the 19th century than this now forgotten little town. You can't understand any of this by zipping along on I or I-4 or I of the Florida Turnpike or even some of the old roads like , 27 or 41, although the latter two still give you a better idea if you are a passenger and watch the terrain carefully.
In some sense, Florida is the state where you can't get to anywhere else: it's this little spit of land that goes south from which you have to extricate yourself again pretty much along the same route.
Ask anyone from Ontario or Cleveland or East Moline who comes down to get away from the ice and snow. The book begins by asking the inevitable question: why Florida? The answer was, for many settlers, that there wasn't anyplace else to go. The family which the novel follows has failed at farming red clay in Georgia. For years they don't have it much better in Florida. Then they discover the cattle that have bred in the wild left by the Spanish so long ago that cattle easily outnumber the settlers for a long period of time.
Indeed, the story of this family is the consummate oversimplification: they struggle but give everyone a chance, including native Americans and a black ex-slave. While it makes for a great and touching story, one tends to doubt the integrity of it. Could it have happened? Of course! Was it likely to have happened? Highly doubtful. Historically, they treated the native Americans worse.
However as a device, even though the process may have been different, it works out rather well because it tells a story. Accurate history it is clearly not.
Some have criticized the character development in the book, but I don't agree: the people in the story seem to be sufficient for their situation, more or less realistic in their techniques of survival and living. I don't have the slightest difficulty in believing the characters. In the modern world one tends to forget that options were few and far between.
Assuredly opportunities for enjoyment and affection were equally rare and yet people persevered. As I look back on my ancestry, even in the first part of the twentieth century, life was amazingly difficult.
Some of my relatives were still living with large families on farms. Their written stories often make me shudder not only in their austerity but in their ability to endure. Perhaps we have the opportunities to make various decisions about our lives today. We simply forget that decisions were a luxury that many could not easily afford. The great story here is about the state of Florida.
In that way it's intensely interesting. On another level, you can't help seeing the great natural beauty of the land through the author's eyes.
That, to me, remains the protagonist of the book and for that I give it four stars. It's one of those books where it's probably necessary to have been All we have done is put up some concrete over things and try to make the natural things go away.
Author 6 books 1, followers. I'm giving this book 4 stars, but I'm being a bit generous. It was almost worthy of 5 stars in places, but it was uneven. Especially the end was rushed, unfortunately. I'm really glad I read it though. If you liked John Jakes 's Bicentenial series, this is similar, but follows 3 generations of a family across one century in Florida from the Civil War to the 's.
Some of the privations they endured were just amazing. The uneveness: - While much of it was accurate, there were a few times horses did a bit too much racing around to fit into the timeline of the story. A fairly minor detail, but I found it grating amidst so much authenticity. Usually, it was pretty good, but when it got bad, it was really bad.
Just normal folks doing the best they can with not all that much to work with. It was very readable. Old Florida - a land teeming with wildlife, birds, flora, and fauna that has now disappeared or diminished.
A place where wild cattle and hogs, alligators, and snakes roamed and egrets, herons, ibises, whooping cranes, coots, and cormorants swooped over hammocks, cypresses, sawgrass, hardwood trees, cabbage palms, wild orchids, mashes, and the sea of grass.
0コメント