FLORIDA AUTHORS Q to Z

Shelby Strother was an award winning journalist who won many awards and was nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize.  He was most noted for covering sports and worked for the Orlando Sentinel, St. Petersburg Times, Florida Today, Denver Post, Forida Today, and Detroit News.  Read more about Shelby Strother.

JACK RUDLOE

Jack Rudloe was born in New York in 1943 and moved to Florida as a boy and began his self-education as a marine biologist. 

In 1964 he founded the Gulf Specimen Company of Panacea, Florida, which collects marine specimens for laboratories around the world.

A few years later,  he began writing personal narratives that blend science and philosophy as they explore contemporary problems of marine ecology.

Inspired by an early correspondence with John Steinbeck, Rudloe’s works combine concrete descriptions of the coastal environment’s ecological diversity with philosophical speculations on life and death, coastal development, and the struggle between the human desire for knowledge and nature’s need to exist untouched.

His first books, The Sea Brings Forth (1968) and The Erotic Ocean (1971), focus on specimen collecting. The Living Dock at Panacea (1977), a more autobiographical work, describes a year in the life of the dock in front of his home on Dickerson Bay. The Time of the Turtle (1978) and Search for the Great Turtle Mother (1995) traces the life cycle and mythologies of the sea turtle. The Wilderness Coast (1988), and Shrimp, the Endless Quest for Pink Gold (2009), describe numerous forays after rare sea creatures.  He also published two novels, Potluck (2003) and Chicken Wars (2005).

These books were republished in multiple editions and have received over a hundred favorable reviews including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly and Science News. All Rudloe books are available in Kindle Editions.

Numerous well-known authors have provided jacket quotes for his books.

Among them are James Dickey, (author of Deliverance), Edward O. Wilson (Sociobiology, Diversity of Life) Randy Wayne White, (Caribbean Run, The Man Who Invented Florida, Doc Ford series), Jimmy Buffet (Tales from Margaretville, A Salty Piece of Land) Peter Matthiesen, Killing Mr. Watson, At Play in the Fields of the Lord) and Joe Hutto (Illumination in the Flatwoods, A Light in High Places).
   
Rudloe has contributed articles to such naturalist periodicals as Audubon, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated and Natural History, many of them coauthored with his late wife, Anne Rudloe.

Between 1975 and 2001 they published 16 scientific peer reviewed publications. Their manuscripts and papers are archived at the University of Florida’s Smathers Library’s Special and Area Studies Collections outstanding Florida authors.

The Rudloes received the Environmental Law Institute’s National Wetlands Award, and the Chevron-Texaco Conservation Award and many others.

The recognition he treasures most is Smithsonian Institution naming a deadly Madagascar sea wasp jellyfish Chiropsella rudloei, after him--- a fitting name, due to his stinging attacks on developers and polluters. 

There have been over 30 articles about Jack Rudloe in magazines and newspapers, including features in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated and Audubon.

More information about Jack and his books is available at:

Jack Rudloe,  President
Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratories, Inc.
P.O.Box 237
222 Clark Drive
Panacea, Florida 32346
PH: 850-984-5297
FAX:850-984-5233
Website:  www.gulfspecimen.org
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GulfSpecimenAquarium/

PATRICK SMITH

Patrick Smith was born in 1927 and died on January 26, 2014.  He spent most of his adult life living in Merritt Island, Florida.

He is one of the best known contemporary Florida authors.

He was born in Mississippi and moved to Florida in 1966, and has Bachelor and Master degrees in English from the University of Mississippi.

Smith is the author of seven novels and two non-fiction books.  He is also co-author of the non- fiction book The Last Ride and author of the non-fiction book In Search of The Russian Bear.

Smith has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize: in 1973 for Forever Island; in 1978 for Angel City; and in 1984 for A Land Remembered.

In the annual "The Best of Florida" poll taken by Florida Monthly Magazine, A Land Remembered has been ranked the No. 1 Best Florida Book eight times.

Read more about Patrick Smith

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811 and died on July 1, 1896.  

She was one of Florida's first "snow birds", wintering at her home on the St Johns River near Jacksonville.

Her most famous novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", depicted life for African-Americans under slavery.

The book reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the U.S. and Britain and made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery seem real and horrible to millions of people.

The novel energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South.

Upon meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln allegedly remarked, "So you're the little woman that started this Great War!"

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Beecher Stowe was the daughter of an outspoken religious leader, Lyman Beecher.  She was the sister of the educator and author, Catherine Beecher, clergymen Henry Ward Beecher and Charles Beecher.

In the 1870s and 1880s, Stowe and her family wintered in Mandarin, south of Jacksonville on the St. Johns River.  Mandarin can be reached by following State Road 13 south out of Jacksonville along the eastern bank of the St. Johns River.

Stowe wrote "Palmetto Leaves" while living in Mandarin, an early promotional book directed at Florida's potential Northern investors at the time.

The book was published in 1873 and describes Northeast Florida and its residents. Stowe shows an ideal life of picnicking, sailing and river touring expeditions.

In 1870, Stowe created an integrated school in Mandarin for children and adults. This was an early step toward providing equal education in the area and predated the national movement toward integration by more than a half century.

The marker commemorating the Stowe family is located across the street from the former site of their cottage.

It is on the property of the Community Club, at the site of a church where Stowe's husband once served as a minister.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Garden is a nice place to visit at the Mandarin Museum. The three raised beds feature crops grown in Mandarin in the 19th Century.

Some of the crops were mentioned in "Palmetto Leaves" in the chapter entitled "Our Experience in Crops."

Some of Stowe's books include:

1. (1834) Mayflower
2. (1852) Uncle Tom's Cabin
3. (1853) A Key To Uncle Tom's Cabin
4. (1856) Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp
5. (1859) The Minister's Wooing
6. (1862) The Pearl of Orr's Island
7. (1868) Men of Our Times
8. (1869) Old Town Folks
9. (1870) Little Pussy Willow
10. (1870) Lady Byron Vindicated
11. (1871) My Wife and I
12. (1871) Pink and White Tyranny
13. (1873) Woman in Sacred History
14. (1873) Palmetto Leaves
15. (1875) We and Our Neighbors
16. (1878) Poganuc People
17. (1890) The Poor Life

Some of her books are still available at Amazon.

DAVID T. WARNER

David T Warner was born in 1948 and died on January 3, 2012. Toward the end of his life he lived in Lochloosa, near Cross Creek, Florida.

He was very skilled in describing Old Florida and the Florida Crackers that used to live here along with their modern ancestors.

His family were Florida pioneers. Among them were his grandfather, Senator J. Turner Butler, and his great uncle former Sheriff Jim Turner.

Warner wrote many articles and short stories for literary, New Age, regional and national magazines and was one of the most prolific Florida authors.

He was also a contributing editor to "Gulfshore Life"and "Sarasota Magazine".  He wrote and produced two travel videos, "Bimini By The Sea", and "Cowboys and Indians and UFO's."

Warner was one of the contributing authors of "A Book Lovers Guide To Florida" that talks about Florida authors and where they lived and worked.

Warner wandered around Florida and was a keen observer of the people he met along the way.

In earlier days he lived in Sarasota and was a friend of John D. MacDonald and some other famous Florida authors. He and MacDonald and other well known Florida authors, artists and cartoonists used to meet at a "liar's lunch" every Friday afternoon.  Among the other attendees were author Borden Deal and "Hagar the Horrible" creator Dik Browne.

One of Warner's other adventures was owning the Sarasota adult movie theater where Pee Wee Herman got busted by the cops. Warner was an absentee owner when it happened, but he told some interesting stories about those days.

Warner loved Bimini, and once interviewed "the other Hemingway" down there:  Papa's brother Leicester.

ABOUT DAVID T. WARNER FLORIDA BOOKS

Here is a listing of some of David T Warner's books that have a Florida theme and setting:

1. (1999) High Sheriff Jim Turner.The sheriff was one of Warner's relatives, an honorable man who dealt with an often dishonorable world in Old Florida.
   
   
2. (2001)Vanishing Florida. Warner writes of timeless Florida. He writes of places like Crescent City and the St. Johns River. He tells of places that make Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's books "Cross Creek" and "The Yearling" come alive; of places like Eatonville, where Zora Neale Hurston lived, and St. Petersburg, where Jack Kerouac died; of places like Cassadaga, where you can have your fortune told, and Tallahassee, where the presidency-and our nation's fortunes were twice decided.

David T. Warner also published numerous articles and short stories with Florida themes and settings.

RANDY WAYNE WHITE

Randy Wayne White was born in 1950 and is alive and well and living in Southwest Florida.

Many of his novels feature the adventurous Doc Ford, a marine biologist with a mysterious military past who lives on Sanibel Island.

RANDY WAYNE WHITE'S WEBSITE

E. LYNN WRIGHT

A native Pennsylvanian who loved books even before she learned to read, Lynne began turning out stories almost as soon as she learned to write.

As a junior high school student she was thrilled to have some of her articles concerning school activities published in her town’s local newspaper. After writing for the school paper during her first two years of high school, she was named editor for her last two years, and then was honored to be appointed editor for her senior class year book. 

There wasn’t much time for writing while she attended classes in Pittsburgh and upon completion became a registered nurse. Following a year of graduate work at the Neurological Institute in New York City while also attending writing courses at Hunter College, Lynne returned to Pennsylvania to the Pittsburgh Medical Center, where she worked, studied, passed the State Boards, and became a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. 

She put people to sleep in Johnstown, Pennsylvania for a few years and also fell in love with a handsome intern in the O.R. They married and moved to Philadelphia where he completed a surgical residency while she gave anesthesia, and then raised their family, a daughter and two sons before they all moved to Cleveland, Ohio. 

Lake Erie in your backyard can’t be ignored, and before long the family took the plunge and bought what would be the first of many boats. From then on, boating would play a big part in their lives. Family trips on all the Great Lakes and nearby rivers were relaxing, educational and sometimes terrifying, but always a way for the family to share exciting times and most importantly, share them together. 

As the children grew and required less attention, Lynne spent more time writing and was delighted and amazed when her work began to be accepted and published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Hartford Courant and other respected publications. 

When the children were off on their own, Lynne and her husband, who was retiring, decided to move to Florida and to make that move all the way from Cleveland, across Lake Ontario and the state of New York, and down the Atlantic Coast on their boat. By then, they were pretty proficient boaters, but Lynne added to her experience before they left by completing a live-aboard week-long women’s boating course in Annapolis, Maryland, an excellent learning experience and a unique source of fascinating facts to be stored for future writing. 

The boat trip to their new home was even more magical and memorable than they expected and they were delighted with their new life in Florida. 

Little did she know when she responded to a classified ad in a writers’ magazine that she was about to embark on a long, gratifying association with the Globe Pequot Publishers in Guilford, Connecticut. Since 2001, they have published nine of her books about the people and some of the fascinating happenings in Florida, the state her family now calls home.

Her Globe Pequot books:

• More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Florida Women (2001)
• It Happened in Florida (2003)
• Disasters and Heroic Rescues of Florida (2006)
• Remarkable Florida Women, Ed. 2, (2010)
• Florida: Mapping the Sunshine State Through History, (with Vincent Virga)(2011) 
• Myths and Mysteries of Florida (2012)
• Jerks in Florida: Speaking Ill of the Dead, (2013)
• Florida Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival (2017)

She has also had short stories published in magazines and in the following fiction anthologies:

• In the Company of Women (Old Lieutenant Press, 2000)
• When Last on the Mountain (Holy Cow! Press, 2010)
• A Second Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul(Health Communication, Inc. (1998)
• Friends: A Space Coast Writers’ Guild Anthology (Precious Publishing 2017)

Lynne is a founding member of the National Women’s History Museum and a long-time member of the International Women’s Writing Guild. She joined the Space Coast Writers’ Guild shortly after moving to Florida and has served on the Board and won several prizes for her short stories in the Guild. 

She has participated in workshops, presentations and projects for the:

• Brevard Authors’ Book Fairs
• Meet the Author Book Fairs
• Space Coast Writers’ Conferences
• Florida Institute of Technology’s Celebration of Women’s History
• American Association of University Women’s Book-Author Event
• Henegar Center for the Arts, Florida, Florida, Florida Show
• St. Lucie County Historical Museum
• Indian River National Organization for Women 

Lynne has continued to write, both non-fiction and fiction and is currently preparing a novel and a collection of short stories for submission.

NICK WYNNE

Nick Wynne was born in the 1940s and lives in Rockledge, Florida.  Although he has lived in Florida most of his life, he was raised in McRae, Georgia. 

He has Bachelor, Master's, and Doctoral degrees from the University of Georgia and taught at several colleges. 

He also served a three year hitch in the U.S. Army.

He was the Executive Director of the Florida Historical Society from 1987 to 2008.

Nick published his first book in 1986.

That book was his doctoral thesis, a history of planter politics in Georgia between 1865 and 1892. 

Since that beginning he has published more than 25  books.  He is sometimes a co-author and other times the sole author.

In addition to his histories, he has authored and published novels, cook books, and adventure stories.

Some of his work includes:

• Coot Redux (2017)
• Edge of Armageddon (2017)
• Utopian Communities of Florida (2016)
• On This Day In Civil War History (2015)
• Two Good Ole Boy's Cookbook (2014)
• On This Day In Florida History (2014)
• Flighty Jo Jones: A Love Story (2012)
• Florida in the Great Depression (2012)
• Dahlonega Gold (2011)
• Florida Civil War Blockades (2011)
• Florida in the Spanish American War (2011)
• Coot (2011)
• Florida in World War II (2010)
• Pirkle Hall (2010)
• Paradise for Sale (2010)
• Golf in Florida 1886-1950 (2008)
• Florida Tales (2007)
• Florida Antebellum Homes (2004)
• Southern Cooking: A Man's Domain (2002)
• Florida in the Civil War (2001)
• Tin Can Tourists in Florida 1900-1970 (1999)
• Florida Pathfinders (1994)
• The War So Horrible (1993)
• Divided We Fall (1991)
• The Continuity of Cotton (1986)