Florida Books

Clyde Butcher is one of a small group of large format landscape photographers who keep their lenses focused on the diverse beauty surrounding us in this expansive country. This is beauty that only a few will ever witness firsthand out in the wild.

He is certainly one of the very few large format black and white photographers to make Florida his primary subject. It is the real Florida that this artist wants to record, the Florida of the Everglades and Big Cypress National Parks. We should all be grateful, because this photographer set out on this journey by way of the tragedy of the death of his teenage son from an auto accident; and this father's sleepless nights led him out into the wee hours and for days to the last remaining protected wilderness so that he could be alone with his camera and his thoughts.

His images are stunning for the range of grayscale tones that he is able to capture, as well as for the their composition and detail and pinpoint clarity from foreground to background. Only the large format view camera with its 8 by 10 negative can make such a record.

You see every facet of bark, every leaf, every ripple of sand and shimmer of water surface and tangle of mangrove. Butcher loves the skies and the endless cloud formations that loom like mountains on the Florida horizon. He carefully executes his shots waiting for the precise right moment to capture the subtle changes in daylight from early morning to late afternoon.

How he is able to venture waist deep into the waters of the Everglades or the Loxahatchee to get a shot is daunting to say the least. He doesn't shy away from snakes or alligators. This is a photographer who will risk danger for the sake of his art.

The book contains some of his best work and it has some of my favorite images like his photographs of the lesser known and undeveloped Florida Keys. It is this very urgency that you feel when looking at his photographs, that this was the way Florida once appeared when Ponce de Leon set foot here in 1513.

His photographs, like the one used for the book jacket cover, have a deep focal point and he uses perspective the way a painter might, to draw the viewer inside. He balances with visual weight, the darker tones of a palm tree forest with the lighter tones of clouds and midtones of sky and juxtaposes these against an angle of beach running along an edge of water. It feels as if you could run naked through this picture splashing water down these empty beaches and jumping over piles of drifwood.

What Butcher has accomplished has been to bring this beauty out of the mangrove swamps and away from the desolate and remote beaches and onto the walls of galleries and into this book so that we can appreciate this precious resource. And just maybe it will help in the effort to preserve what remains of what is perilously in danger of vanishing.

From Publishers Weekly:

The Florida Life of Thomas Edison
Michele Wehrwein Albion. Univ. Press of Florida,
$34.95 (264p) ISBN 978-0-8130-32559-7

This is both a portrait of Thomas Edison and a record of the vast changes to the region of Fort Myers, Fla., as it grew from a remote and unspoiled wilderness into a popular modern resort area with the attendant problems of overdevelopment and environmental damage. When Edison decided in 1885 to build a winter retreat and laboratory in Fort Myers, the region
was regarded as a "frontier outpost." The local paper proudly announced Edison's decision, and the town enjoyed an economic boom as construction progressed on the inventor's compound. Edison's new second wife, young Ohio-born Mina Miller,arrived in Fort Myers in 1886 and initially
found the lack of running water and abundance of bugs "miserable." But she
grew to love the place and became a strong advocate for both the people and the environment. Albion, former curator of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates,writes with an eye for extraordinary as well as ordinary details, from the difficult task of lighting Fort Myers in the late 1880s to family expeditions up the Caloosahatchee River and into the Everglades.

McCarthy's book on Florida's lighthouses is wonderfully thorough and marvelously concise. Each lighthouse merits a few solidly written pages of its history and lore, graced by dramatic William Trotter paintings of each light. Directions and maps conclude each chapter. This is a delightful work, easy to read and ready to use. Anyone journeying to Florida to see the state's 30 lighthouses should take along a copy of McCarthy's book. Among the growing number of lighthouse books, this one is well worth having on the shelf.

Florida Lighthouses For Kids is a profusely illustrated introduction to the lighthouses of Florida in a form and format that is ideal for young readers. The informed and informative text details the history and lore of Florida's thirty-three lighthouses. Fascinating facts pepper the engaging presentations as children will learn how lighthouses operate and how their original roles (so vital to the safety of ships at sea) gradually evolved into today's maritime museums. Highly recommended and thoroughly fun reading!

What a perfect way to tour the State of Florida. I had no idea there were so many Historical Lighthouses in our beautiful State of Florida. Thank-You Roger Poulin

For single women who need both guidance and a bit of encouragement, Florida Men: A Road Atlas for Single Women offers both. This inspirational and humorous guide motivates all singles--women and men--that in order to find your mate, you should set out your net so that you can bring in a great catch.

The author has collected an intriguing collection of easy-to-follow breakfast recipes. With it, one can do away with boring morning meals for weeks and weeks.

IN YOUR VISIT TO ORLANDO VISIT THE FLORIDA MALL AND ENJOY THE GRAND OPENING(NOV).OF VERTIGO ORLANDO. MENTION THIS ADD AND GET 10% IN YOUR SHOP. ASK FOR ALEX OR CARMEN. GOOD LUCK AND THANKS

I just finished reading "A Florida Pioneer", and want to congratulate the author on a superb work!

When I first heard about this book, I thought it might just be another uninteresting and boring personal history. I was very surprised and happy to experience that it was just the opposite - a fascinating insight into a Swedish immigrant experience in adapting to a new life in the USA in the 1800s . And that it took place in Florida, instead of Minnesota, added extra color to it.

But, more than that, the deep personal insights into the events in Josef's life and his relation to them was fascinating reading. It was given an extra twist by his very special relationship to Knut, a somewhat mysterious friend in Sweden he kept communication with during his life. Josef had a very strong feeling for this friend Knut, which seemingly had no obvious basis in their life. I eventually got the feeling that the only clarification for this is that they might have had a strong relationship in a previous life - this was emphasized by Josef's description of his very strong experience when he first met Knut and made him his life-long friend.

Rebecca Weiss' text commentary was crucial in placing Josef's letters into a context that became alive. She was able to tie the threads together in a very simple, yet effective way, without "intruding" into Josef's letters - letting them speak directly.

Josef's final commentary at the end is so revealing and touching!
After reading all about all his exploits, adventures, and monetary problems, it provided a wonderful insight into his deepest thoughts.

Congratulations to the author.
What at first, seemed to be a simple and uneventful history, became a gripping story and lead one into a powerful experience of Josef and his new life in America.


Ronald Nameth, Sweden

Have you ever asked yourself where a name of a city or county in Florida came from? While a lot of them sound like Indian names, we still never really know the true meaning. This book breaks down every city & county in Florida and tells you how the name was dervied & what it's true meaning is. Great book for Florida students writing on a particular area.