Customer Reviews

Everglades River of Grass 60th Anniversary Edition

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While the writing style is a little flowery, the content and the message are excellent and the afterword brings it up to date.

When activist Joe Browder was trying to round up people to fight a proposed jetport in the Everglades, one of the people he approached was Marjory Stoneman Douglas, whose 1947 bestseller Everglades: River
of Grass had first brought the state's most famous marsh to a national audience. But she demurred. Nobody would listen to some half-blind old lady, the 78-year-old writer said. People only pay attention to organizations.

"Well," Browder retorted, "why don't you start an organization?"

So she did, founding Friends of the Everglades with dues of $1 a year so anyone could join. Douglas not only denounced the jetport, she transformed herself into Florida's environmental conscience. She spent the next 30 years--until her death at 108--fearlessly confronting local, state, and federal officials, wagging her finger at them like Jiminy Cricket in a floppy garden club hat.

Her work stands as an environmental classic par excellence. For a look at Florida's current environmental woes, check out Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss (Florida History and Culture)

Although there are no photos, this is an excellent table book to read and share with guests visiting Florida. It has wonderful history notes on the Everglades.

This is an excellent book on the Everglades, the history of Florida, and the ecology of Florida.