An Everglades Providence

No one did more than Marjory Stoneman Douglas to transform the Everglades from the country's most maligned swamp into its most beloved wetland. By the late twentieth century, her name and her classic The Everglades: River of Grass had become synonymous with Everglades protection. The crusading resolve and boundless energy of this implacable elder won the hearts of an admiring public while confounding her opponents-growth merchants intent on having their way with the Everglades. The environmental activism of this lifetime feminist, suffragist, champion of social justice, and author of diverse literary talents ultimately earned her a place among a mere handful of individuals honored as a namesake of a national wilderness area. Book jacket.

Jack E. Davis is a professor of history at the University of Florida. He is editor of The Wide Brim: Early Poems and Ponderings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and coeditor of Paradise Lost? The Environmental History of Florida.