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What to read next …
People who have read and loved A Land Remembered often ask me what they should read next. I always recommend Forever Island. This is a beautiful, yet heartbreaking tale of the Seminole Indians set in the Florida Everglades and is another of Dad’s wonderful books.
This book was written years before he even thought of writing A Land Remembered. As it turned out, researching and writing Forever Island gave him a great sense of the Seminole culture that he needed for A Land Remembered.
In fact, more people have read this book than that more popular novel. Forever Island brought him international acclaim, awards, accolades, and even a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
Florida Everglades and 19th Century Expansion
Forever Island was Dad’s first novel set in Florida.
In 1966, we moved to Merritt Island, Florida from Mississippi. Dad started work as the Public Relations Manager at what was then called Brevard Community College (BCC). It’s now Eastern Florida State College. After relocating, he set about learning more about his new home state.
One particular situation piqued his interest and gave him an idea for this story.
Florida did not escape the national push for expansion and progress toward the latter part of the 19th century. In fact, there was an increased interest in draining the Florida Everglades for agricultural use. According to Wikipedia, it was considered the proper thing to do.
By the late 1960s, it was becoming clear that this was not an environmentally wise use of this special, fragile, and very important area. Attention turned from developing the land to restoring the Everglades. By that time, however, much irreparable damage had been done.
Find more books here on the history of the Florida Everglades environmental crisis
Florida Seminole Indians
He decided to write about what was going on in the Florida Everglades from the perspective of the Seminoles. Not only was the overdevelopment harming the natural habitat their lives and livelihood were also being negatively affected.
In order for him to really find out what the Seminoles were going through, he knew he had to go there and get to know them. Little did he know then that researching and writing this book would be a time-consuming and huge undertaking.
Getting to Know the Seminole Way of Life
This book took him years to write. First, he had to learn about the Seminole culture in order to write about it, and they live far south of his home on Merritt Island.
Since he was working full-time at BCC, weekends were the only time he could take off and go to southern Florida.
Second, Seminoles were not open and trusting to him or anyone else from the outside. They allowed him to sit and watch their activities in their villages but wouldn’t talk to him. Eventually, they got used to him, and then one day, a young Seminole man approached him about what he was doing. They struck a rapport. This man started to share the Seminole way and outlook on life.
That young man was James Billie who went on to become the chief of the Seminole nation and a good friend of Dad’s.
Synopsis of the Book
Charlie Jumper is an 86-year-old Seminole man who lives in the Big Cypress Swamp in the Florida Everglades. He rejects white civilization and clings to the ancient ways of his people, and teaches them to his grandson, Timmy. Development threatens his family’s simple existence so he fights back.
However, it is an uneven battle with tragic consequences.
You may also want to read these books about the history of the Florida Seminole Indians.
International Success, Awards, and Accolades
Not only was it hard to get publishers to read the manuscript, but when they did, many quickly rejected it. When W.W. Norton finally published it, it wasn’t an overnight success.
Little by little, it caught on. Momentum really picked up in 1974 when Reader’s Digest added it to their monthly reading selection. After that exposure, international recognition soon followed.
The Soviet Union was really enamored with the book. In fact, it was so recognized in the Soviet Union that the Soviet Union Writers Guild invited him and my mother, Iris, to visit at their expense. They toured them across all nine time zones of the country, paying for everything. This led to him writing a non-fiction book about that experience, In Search of The Russian Bear.
He was eventually nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Forever Island.
When it first came out it was a paperback book. Today, it is hardbound.
Forever Island $14.95 Hardbound 
Also, Forever Island is now on Kindle. Yay!
Wrap Up
So if you haven’t read it yet or know of someone else who would like to read Dad’s classic and heartbreaking tale of one man’s fight to protect nature and his treasured way of life, you won’t be disappointed in this touching story. Just make sure you have enough Kleenexes on hand!
sunnyday@infionline.net: Pat and I met @ BCC as new employees Since he had started a month earlier, he had seniority. Shortly, his first Florida novel, Forever Island was published and I immediately read it …and Pat shared his meticulous research plus his ability to touch the human heart made me an instant fan. He told me the background of his relations with the Seminole tribe and arranged to have Jim Billie speak at a college meeting. Our office was in the Administration with windows facing the parking lot and I found him pacing waiting for Jim’s arrival. I realized I’d never seen him and asked Pat to describe him (thinking he’d be an older gentleman) Pat described him as a Wild Indian…The description fitted hm. He pulled into the lot and jumped out of his red sports car, wearing a Seminole vest and came into our office where he shared his tales about life as an Indian Chief. In later years Pat initiated a Seminole and Florida Pioneer Weekend on our Campus – Pat was a unique man, opening our eyes to Mississippi and Florida life. A Good ‘ol Boy with a lived in face, he blended in with noted officials and the man on the street to cherish life.