RIVER OF THE GOLDEN IBIS

by Gloria Jahoda ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 19, 1972

A caring if rather meticulously researched account (but then this is in the ""Rivers of America"" series) of the author's love affair with the Tampa Bay region on Florida's gulf coast. This history cum autobiographical reminiscence covers everything from geographical formation to Ponce de Leon's dog Bexerillo -- from the original settlers to the doomed de Soto, the acquisition by Britain, then America, colonization and the inhumanities of Jackson's Seminole War against the heroic Osceola, the Civil War depression and Henry Plant's dream and railroads and hotels and the cigar industry (along with the first Cuban revolutionaries), plodding on up through Italian immigrants, roaring '20's ""Tin-Can"" tourists (who brought their winter meals with them) to the banana and fishing industries to the oil spills and pollution that now threaten the bay. There is even a spirited defense of Sunshine State culture -- from composer Jaromir Weinberger (?) to onetime resident Jack Kerouac, but the heart of the book is in the change from wilderness to civilization to nobody knows quite what: airport? Everglades? Hillsborough River? or the dying of America's. Dream, or perhaps America itself?

Pub Date: Feb. 19, 1972

ISBN: 0813017890

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION