Patrick D. Smith – Florida’s Most Beloved Novelist

Before the series arrives — read the books. Start here.

Who Was Patrick D. Smith?
Patrick D. Smith spent a lifetime watching Florida — its land, its people, its stories — and turned what he saw into some of the most powerful American fiction of the 20th century. Born in Mississippi, he made Florida his home and his obsession. He wrote about Seminoles, migrants, pioneers, sailors, and crackers with equal empathy and unflinching honesty.

His son, Rick — performer, emcee, and keeper of his father’s legacy — produced the award-winning documentary Patrick Smith’s Florida: A Sense of Place and spent eight years bringing his father’s work to audiences across Florida in over 350 live shows. He continues that work today.

A Land Remembered has never been more timely. Patrick saw what was coming. He wrote it down. We’re still catching up.

The Books of Patrick D. Smith

A Land Remembered
Three generations of a Florida Cracker family — from the untamed wilderness of 1858 to the gleaming towers of modern Miami. A story of survival, love, loss, and a land that can only be remembered now. Florida’s favorite novel. Soon to be a television series. Read more …

Forever Island
Aged Seminole Charlie Jumper has lived in the Everglades his entire life. When white developers set their sights on his land, Charlie faces an impossible choice. A quiet, devastating story about what it means to belong to a place — and what happens when that place is taken. Read more …

The Seas That Mourn
Seventeen-year-old Jimmy Kendall leaves Mississippi to join the Merchant Marine in 1942. He finds himself in the middle of some of WWII’s fiercest battles, supplying Allied troops through waters prowled by enemy submarines. Gripping, historically rich, impossible to put down. Read more …

Allapattah
Seminole Toby Tiger hates living in the white man’s world. When he can no longer take the heartless hunters, snooty tourists, and controlling officials, he does the only thing he knows how to do: reconnect with the land, with his beloved grandfather, and with Allapattah. But is it worth losing his life? Read more …

The River is Home
Patrick Smith’s first novel was written in 10 days in 1953. The Pearl River is not only home to the poor Cory family but also the source of life, happiness, heartbreak, and death as they struggle to adapt to changes in their rural environment. Read more …

The Beginning
Civil rights workers arrive in a small Mississippi town in the 1960s to establish a freedom school. What follows is a collision between the old South and a changing America — complex, human, and impossible to reduce to simple answers.  Read more …

Angel City
Jared Teeter brings his family to Florida, chasing a better life. What they find is a nightmare — trapped as virtual slaves in a migrant labor camp, at the mercy of a brutal crew chief. A story of courage, injustice, and survival that became a CBS television movie in 1980. As relevant today as the day it was written. Read more …

The Last Ride
Championship bull rider Pee Wee Mercer is at the top of his career and having the time of his life as one of the best on the American rodeo circuit. Then one fateful match-up with a bull named V8 renders him a quadriplegic. A true story. Read more …

A White Deer and other stories
 A mythical creature. A spinster with a dangerous secret. A sailor facing his past. A cat’s disastrous choice. Patrick Smith’s short story collection reveals the full range of his gifts — intimate, surprising, and quietly devastating.  Read more …

In Search of The Russian Bear
In 1983, Patrick Smith and his wife, Iris, traveled throughout the Soviet Union and Uzbekistan. Smith relates these experiences through fascinating stories and images in the fun, factual chronicle. Come along on this fascinating and fun journey. Read more …

Patrick Smith’s Florida, A Sense of Place DVD
In this multiple award-winning video, you get to know Patrick Smith in an intimate and fascinating 54-minute visit. He personally takes you back to a Florida that once was, but never again will be. Produced by Smith’s son Rick (Patrick, Jr.) Read more …