An Essay on Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s THE EVERGLADES in the September Issue of TIN HOUSE

My first trip to Florida this past March introduced me to all kinds of new things: alligators, islands called keys, spring break on Miami Beach, Cape Canaveral, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the amazing writer and environmentalist whose name is on the Florida school where 17 students and staff were murdered earlier this year.

Although Douglas published the definitive book on the Everglades in 1947–The Everglades: River of Grass–her work is not as appreciated today as it should be.  To do my small part to remedy the oversight, I wrote a piece for Tin House magazine’s Lost & Found section.  You’ll find it in the new September issue, out tomorrow.

Douglas was 108 when she died in 1998, old enough to have cut her advocacy teeth in the struggle for women’s suffrage.  You can get a taste of her remarkable career as a journalist, fiction writer and activist on her Wikipedia page.

Or, for a quick list of 13 things to know about her, try this page.