A Land Remembered

A Land Remembered
by Patrick D. Smith

A Land Remembered
List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $7.77
You Save: $6.18 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.26 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Patrick D. Smith
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-01
ISBN: 1561641162
Number of pages: 403
Publisher: Pineapple Press
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9781561641161
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of A Land Remembered

Book Review: Some Thoughts About "A Land Remembered"...
Summary: 5 Stars

I came to Florida from Tennessee in 1968, the very year that "A Land Remembered" ends. And yet upon reading it, I have been blessed enough to encounter enough of the "old folks," to see the vast lands stretching out west of Melbourne, the old-timey ways, and so forth, to know that it all rings utterly true, and that all of these things arose organically from all of those things that came before.

Written in rough-hewn elegance, with lots of dialogue, some genuinely funny places, and a big dose of "rural-ity" that is found, perhaps, in all southern rurals, this book touches deep places in those of us who have been here for over 40 years. Just as Sol MacIvey witnesses a drastic change to Florida during his life, I can say that even since 1968 I've seen dramatic changes--sandy dunes and sea walls transformed to upscale subdivisions, rough palmetto land transformed to apartments, miles of riding alongside the Atlantic (where you could just park the car alongside the empty highway and run down to the beach) now cluttered with houses and condos, leaving only a few designated places to access the beach.

If the MacIveys witnessed and wrote the first part of Florida's American history, then surely I have seen the second part...and my son will see the third part. Especially disheartening is the well-intentioned draining of the Everglades. While allowing us to grow vegetables and create subdivisions, it stole something precious.

As Zech MacIvey noted the animals freely sharing a waterhole, I hope that I am made to better realize that I am not just connected to the modern world, but to the wild world, as well. When I "hog" the water, that means other animals aren't getting it.

One look at Tampa, Florida, which used to be a place that married the wild and the modern pretty well, and we see that the unrelenting growth, the willingness to build, build, build anywhere and everywhere, has stolen that "Wild West Florida" atmosphere, even from some of the county's more remote areas.

My point in all this rambling is to say this: WE ARE STILL LOSING FLORIDA. When is enough enough? When will we have enough people here? When will we insist that no more new houses be built except on preexisting properties. What we have is nothing like that portrayed in "A Land Remembered," but it is still precious--all the more so because there is so little left of what makes Florida truly special.

If I have any criticism of the book, it is that I would have wanted it to end on a slightly more optimistic note, or perhaps with Sol MacIvey simply lost in his memories, and not with the dark foot of "progress" squashing the life out of the wild. But in any case, it ends well, makes it's point, and is an epic story of it all.

How do you know a book is good? When you don't want it to end. I didn't. And in a real manner of speaking, the story is not yet all written about what is to become of my beloved Florida. I hope that the latter chapters find us reclaiming some of our past.

Summary of A Land Remembered

In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poor Cracker life to the wealth and standing of real estate tycoons. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias MacIvey arrives in the Florida wilderness to start a new life with his wife and infant son, and ends two generations later with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that the land has been exploited far beyond human need. The sweeping story that emerges is a rich, rugged Florida history featuring a memorable cast of crusty, indomitable Crackers battling wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of a swamp. But their most formidable adversary turns out to be greed, including finally their own. Love and tenderness are here too: the hopes and passions of each new generation, friendships with the persecuted blacks and Indians, and respect for the land and its wildlife. A Land Remembered was winner of the Florida Historical Society Tebeau Prize as the Most Outstanding Florida Historical Novel.

Historical Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novel ImagePirate Latitudes: A Novel
by Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops: $27.99
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel ImageThe Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel
by Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Last Witchfinder: A Novel ImageThe Last Witchfinder: A Novel
by James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $25.95
Zorro ImageZorro
by Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.12
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Hot Kid: A Novel ImageThe Hot Kid: A Novel
by Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1) ImageThe Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)
Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3) ImageBones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)
by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
March ImageMarch
by Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Emperor (Emperor 1) ImageEmperor (Emperor 1)
by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-06-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earring ImageGirl With a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar Books and other products
Some Kind of Paradise: A Chronicle of Man and the Land in Florida (Florida Sand Dollar Books) ImageSome Kind of Paradise: A Chronicle of Man and the Land in Florida (Florida Sand Dollar Books)
by Mark Derr
University Press of Florida; Published: 1998-11-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops: $18.95
The River Is Home: And Angel City. a Patrick Smith Reader ImageThe River Is Home: And Angel City. a Patrick Smith Reader
by Patrick D Smith
Pineapple Pr; Published: 1989-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985 (Florida Sand Dollar Books) ImageThe Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985 (Florida Sand Dollar Books)
by Dr. Gary R. Mormino, George E. Pozzetta
University Press of Florida; Published: 1998-11-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.93
Price in other shops: $19.95
Florida: A Short History (Columbus Quincentenary) ImageFlorida: A Short History (Columbus Quincentenary)
by Michael Gannon
University Press of Florida; Published: 2003-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops: $14.95
A Land Remembered ImageA Land Remembered
by Patrick D Smith
Pineapple Pr; Published: 1984-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.40
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Tropic of Cracker (Florida History and Culture) ImageThe Tropic of Cracker (Florida History and Culture)
by Al Burt
University Press of Florida; Published: 2009-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.22
Price in other shops: $19.95
State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet (State of the World) ImageState of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet (State of the World)
by The Worldwatch Institute
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2011-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops: $19.95
Forever Island and Allapattah (Patrick Smith Reader) ImageForever Island and Allapattah (Patrick Smith Reader)
by Patrick D Smith
Pineapple Press; Published: 1987-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops: $19.95
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean ImageLast Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
by Les Standiford
Broadway; Published: 2003-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.52
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise ImageThe Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise
by Michael Grunwald
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2007-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops: $16.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories