Theodore Pratt

The author of fifteen books set in the Sunshine State, Theodore Pratt (1901-1969) enjoyed an unofficial title of "Literary Laureate of Florida" in the middle of the twentieth century. His writings particularly capture the culture of south Florida, most famously in his "Florida Trilogy"--beginning with his most famous book, The Barefoot Mailman (1943), and running through The Flame Tree (1948) and The Big Bubble (1949)-- which covers south Florida's transition from early pioneering days to glittering playground of the wealthy. Along with the trilogy, he wrote powerfully of the Florida Keys in Mercy Island (1941), the Everglades in Escape to Eden (1953), and Chief Osceola in an outdoor drama and novel both entitled Seminole (1953/1954). Pratt conducted research for his books that resulted in an archive useful to researchers today and a story/essay collection, Florida Roundabout (1959), that provides a deeply revealing portrait of poor whites in the state. This biography brings Pratt's life and career to Florida enthusiasts, educators, the young writers he targeted, and literary scholars who focus on southern literature, Florida literature, and middlebrow twentieth-century American film and literature. Written as a narrative in reader-friendly prose, the biography captures the nostalgia of vintage Florida, promising appeal to general readers.
About the Author: Taylor Hagood is Professor of American Literature at Florida Atlantic University, the institution which houses the Theodore Pratt Collection. He is the author or editor of eight books and over seventy short publications. His scholarly monographs include Faulkner's Imperialism: Space, Place, and the Materiality of Myth (LSU Press, 2008); Secrecy, Magic, and the One-Act Plays of Harlem Renaissance Women Playwrights (Ohio State University Press, 2010); and Faulkner, Writer of Disability (LSU Press, 2014), which won the C. Hugh Holman Award for Best Book in Southern Studies. His co-edited book, Undead Souths: The Gothic and Beyond in Southern Literature and Culture (LSU Press, 2105), was reviewed in a range of venues, was well-received in the field, and spawned a subseries which has included his coedited 2020 volume, Swamps Souths: Literary and Cultural Ecologies. His biography/true crime, Stringbean: The Life and Murder of a Country Music Legend, is forthcoming as part of the University of Illinois Press's "Music in American Life" series as one of the last endorsements of Loretta Lynn. He has lectured in the United States, Canada, South American, and Europe to both academic and general audiences. He regularly lectures in south Florida at The Society of the Four Arts, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Palm Beach Historical Society, and private clubs such as Boca West Country Club, Ballen Isles Country Club, and Heron Bay.