October 20, 2017 Hello ,
Marjory Stoneman Douglas earned her place in history for her tireless advocacy in helping preserve the Florida
Everglades. She did it all in the second half of life. Rocking the Second Half of
Life At first glance Marjory appears an unlikely heroine. She began her journalism career as the society reporter for the Miami Herald and later published short stories and novels.
She
rarely went out for a picnic, let alone visited the crocodile invested Everglades, saying it was "too buggy, too wet, and too generally inhospitable....I know it’s out there, and I know it’s important....There are no other Everglades in the world."
South Florida land developers considered the Everglades a useless swamp just waiting for them to turn it into shopping malls and subdivisions.
Scientists warned if the area wasn't protected, soon all wildlife there would be extinct.
Marjory wrote stories set in South Florida
and vividly described the natural world. She was writing a novel 1941 when an editor asked her to write a non-fiction book addressing threats to the Everglades and she agreed.
"They are unique...in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life they enclose," wrote Marjory. "The miracle of the light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades of Florida."
At age 57, Marjory published The Everglades: River of Grass. It hit the shelves in November 1947 and sold out before Christmas. The impact of the book is sometimes compared to Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring.
And it launched Marjory into her role as an environmental activist, which took up the next 51-years of her life. She founded Friends of the Everglades,
wrote more books on the subject and fought developers, the Army Corp of Engineers, and anyone else who threatened the unique species and habitat of South Florida.
"[She's a] tiny, slim, perfectly dressed, utterly ferocious grande dame who can make a redneck shake in his boots," said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Nathaniel Reed. "When Marjory bites you,
you bleed." Marjory's wisdom is crucial today as we face climate change. She said. "I would be very sad if I had not fought. I'd have a guilty conscience if I had been here and watched all this happen to the environment and not been on the
right side."
In 1990, Marjory published her autobiography, Voice of the River beginning with the admission "the hardest thing is to tell the truth about oneself."
And ending with the advice, "life should be lived so vividly and so intensely that
thoughts of another life, or a longer life, are not necessary."
Marjory lived “my own life in my own way,” for 108 years. Her spirit gives me hope and challenges me to do better.
Thanks to those who wrote expressing care and concern for my brother-in-law's sister, Deborah, whose house was burned to the ground in Santa Rosa, CA, last week. You can help here.... For the young people in your life, a wonderful book about the continuing issues of land use in Florida is Tangerine by Edward Bloor.
Matt Berman of Common Sense Media says, This complex, multilayered novel is impossible to synopsize briefly -- there's just too much going on, and
every bit of it is engrossing and powerful.
The author has a lot to say on a wide variety of subjects: race relations, child rearing, sports, class conflict, and more, but he does so in a book that is at once exciting, moving, strikingly original, and thought-provoking."
I loved it!
Thanks to Joanne Cesar for reporting issues she had reading this newsletter on her phone! I have resolved the bug, and everyone should get a readable version now across all devices.
Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy
my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe below anytime with a single mouse click. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary
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