A Florida Anthology 50 Years in the Making
“Handsomely designed and packed with photographs, this wide-ranging anthology is a fine introduction for newcomers as well as a treasure trove for residents who want to better understand the state they’re in.” — TAMPA BAY TIMES
As part of Florida Humanities’ 50th anniversary year, we published Once Upon a Time in Florida: Stories of Life in the Land of Promises to bring together curated articles from our ongoing, award-winning magazine, FORUM.
A milestone anthology of fascinating and thought-provoking Florida-related stories, the impressive 300+ page coffee table book Once Upon a Time in Florida explores the places, cultures, and events that have shaped the state from prehistoric times to the present. With 50 stories and over 150 images vividly rendered by some of the nation’s most acclaimed writers and scholars, Once Upon a Time in Florida is a must-have book for anyone who calls Florida home or simply enjoys history and great storytelling. It was edited by Jacki Levine, former FORUM magazine editor, who shared the anthology’s origin story in this video.
The anthology opens more than 14,000 years ago with the first people to inhabit the peninsula and continues through the state’s territorial beginnings, the era of slavery, statehood, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow period, and Florida’s transformation into a complex, powerful megastate.
