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Five
or so years ago, as if to entice me to peruse its pages, it called to me from
its prominent position in a book shelf in my father’s home in Northcentral
Florida, the place, ironically, that is the setting of much of the novel, A Land Remembered, written by Patrick D.
Smith, and published by Pineapple Press in 1984 has been dubbed the quintessential Florida story.
Passed down to
my father by one of his sisters, and to her by someone else, it is a book that
passes from hand to hand, a book as immortal as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie; as
masterful as Harper Lee’s To Kill a
Mockingbird; as truthful as Marjorie Rawlings’ The Yearling—all of that as well as introductory pages as good as
any that I have ever read, a chapter that has it all: a synopsis of the entire story; full-bodied
characterizations; accurate depiction of its natural settings; thoroughly
researched history; intriguing plot. It
is the envy of writers everywhere.
That
long ago visit to my father was occasioned by way of a road trip from my home
in Columbus, Ohio to his in Interlachen, Florida, that time a journey shared by
just my sister Sherri and me, the two of us taking turns at the wheel, and on
the way home, also taking turns turning the pages of A Land Remembered. It was
the quietest road trip of my life, one of us at the wheel, the other with her
face buried in the book, we spoke barely a word to each other during all of
those long hours. Having had a jump start
on Sherri since I had begun the book prior to our leaving our father’s home, I
finished it—I don’t know if Sherri ever did.
It ended up in my possession, however, and there it will stay—a
treasured compliment to my home library, as are all of his books currently in
print.
This
best-selling historical novel follows three generations of the MacIvey family,
like the book’s author, transplants from Georgia to Florida, pioneering people
in Florida’s hardscrabble interior who scratch a living from the unforgiving
land and conquer it, and emerge as pre-eminent real estate tycoons of the
state. A must-read for lovers of
history, A Land Remembered is also
available in a two-volume young reader’s version accompanied by a teacher’s
manual, a necessity since it is taught in many schools in Florida. Spanning the years of 1858 to 1968, in words
alive with the wild beauty and challenge of that bygone era of Florida, it portrays
a life and a landscape unknown to most people of today.
Although
A Land Remembered is his most popular
work, Smith has written other novels, a book of nonfiction, and a collection of
short stories. The River is Home, his first, chronicles a poor Mississippi
family’s struggles against encroachment on their beloved rural land. Adapted into a motion picture, the powerful
and moving Angel City is an exposé
on migrant workers in Florida during the 1970s.
Currently the two novels are printed in one volume. Forever
Island and Allapattah (Seminole
for “crocodile”) tell stories of one of Smith’s favorite subjects, Florida’s
Seminole Indians, the former, known as the classic novel of the Everglades, its
protagonist, Seminole Indian Charlie Jumper clings to the traditions of his
people and passes them down to his grandson; the latter, a story of a young
Seminole at odds with the world of the whites.
These two novels are also available in one volume.
A southerner,
Mississippi-born, -bred, and -educated, as a young man Smith emigrated to
Florida by way of Georgia, and in Florida he has stayed. In 1988 retiring from Brevard Community
College in Cocoa where he had worked as the director of college relations, his
retirement years have been hectic with speaking engagements, his topic centered
on how literature can better the world, he inspires audiences of all ages.
Recently,
I read A Land Remembered again, my
interest aroused this time by an article in the March 3rd edition of
the Tampa Bay Times that I came across during a visit with my sister Susan in
Crystal Beach, Florida on the Gulf Coast of the state, a piece titled, For
‘A Land Remembered’ and more, author honored. Penned by Times Book Editor, Colette Bancroft,
the opening paragraph of the piece states:
Novelist Patrick D. Smith is the
winner of the 2012 Florida Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing.
The award presented
on March 21st at a luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion in
Tallahassee, Smith was unable to attend, the 84 year old writer having been
homebound for a while due to injuries sustained in a fall three years ago. By telephone from his home in Merritt Island
that he shares with his wife, Smith said, I’m
real thrilled. This is a real nice award.
Patrick
D. Smith is no stranger to winning awards for his writing. In addition to having been selected in 1996
by the Southern Academy of Letters, Arts and Sciences for its highest literary
award, and having been inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1999, Florida’s
most esteemed cultural award, A Land Remembered
has been designated as Florida’s most outstanding historical novel, winning
the Florida Historical Society’s Tebeau Prize.
The organization in 2002 also gave Smith its one-time-only Fay Schweim
award for Greatest Living Floridian.
Books
by Patrick D. Smith, published by Pineapple Press can be obtained by mail at P.
O. Box 3889, Sarasota, Florida 34230; by telephone at 1-800-746-3275; or online
at www.pineapplepress.com.
A best-selling author, Linda’s
next novel, Guardians
and Other Angels, will be available in the near future at Amazon.com
and at Barnes & Noble.com.
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