Posted on March 29, 2002 at 11:14 a.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — Before her death in 1998 at age 108, Marjory Stoneman Douglas was best known to Florida residents as a “champion of the Everglades.” A passionate environmentalist and journalist, her groundbreaking book The Everglades: River of Grass, published in 1947, was credited for bringing public attention to the Everglades.
Her early writings for the Miami Herald are the focus of a new book, The Wide Brim: Early Poems and Ponderings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, (2002, University Press of Florida), edited by Jack E. Davis, Ph.D., an associate professor of history and director of environmental studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The book is a collection of Douglas’ best articles — many of which were preceded by a poem of her own composition — from her daily column, The Galley, which ran 1920 to 1923 in the Miami Herald.
Douglas, known for the wide-brim hats she loved to wear, was a writer of numerous short stories and nonfiction books who began her career as a journalist and columnist for the Miami Herald. Her columns often reflected her passion for the environment. Preservation of the South Florida beaches for public use was a frequent topic. She also was an observer of politics, a social activist and an intellectual, who, with her straightforward reporting, biting wit and humor, often wrote about party politics, voting, human welfare and civil liberties.
“Her commentaries and poems of early 20th century are a window into the major events of that period, not just events of Florida, but also of national events,” Davis said. “The year 1920 was year of the first national election in which women were allowed to vote. Prohibition had just been put into effect. It was the post-WWI period. There were a number of issues, world and domestic, that the country was dealing with at the time. Many of the issues she dealt with remain unresolved today and so her commentaries still resonate today.”
“Also, for those who are familiar with Douglas,” Davis said, “we get a glimpse of her early life, her early values and we get a sense of how she evolved as a human being and as a social and environmental activist, and I think reading her columns are just fun. She was a very witty person, and even today, when I’m reading columns, I still laugh out loud at her humor.”
Davis also is author of Race Against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez Since 1930, (2001, Louisiana State University Press). He is now working on a biography of Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
NOTE: For review copies of The Wide Brim, call Andrea Dzavik, University Press of Florida, at (352) 392-1351.