University of South Scholar Commons

FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities Florida Humanities

4-1-1991

Forum : Vol. 14, No. 01 (Spring : 1991)

Florida Humanities Council.

Peter Matthiessen

John Hope Franklin

Gordon Patterson

J. D. McClatchy

See next page for additional authors

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/forum_magazine

Recommended Citation Florida Humanities Council.; Matthiessen, Peter; Franklin, John Hope; Patterson, Gordon; McClatchy, J. D.; and Szuchman, Mark D., "Forum : Vol. 14, No. 01 (Spring : 1991)" (1991). FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities. 10. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/forum_magazine/10

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Florida Humanities at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Florida Humanities Council., Peter Matthiessen, John Hope Franklin, Gordon Patterson, J. D. McClatchy, and Mark D. Szuchman

This article is available at Scholar Commons: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/forum_magazine/10 THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

FEH Spring * 1991 RFORUM INSIDE * Peter Matthiessen on Killing Mister Watson Introduction by Carl Hiaasen * John Hope Franklin Traverses the Road to Race and History * Le Moyne’s Florida: Europe’s First Pictures from America * A Visit with Two Great Poets: Richard Wilbur and James Merrill ______

BOARD MEMBERS Carl Christian Andersen THE HUMANITIES Leesburg Marcia Beach Philosophy, ethics, religion, history, art criticism, Ft. Lauderdale Samuel P. Bell Ill literature, language, linguistics, folkilfe, Tallahassee archaeology, anthropology and jurisprudence. Cici Brown Ormond Beach They tell us about our lives, our cultures and our societies. Locke Burt They provide the traditions, interpretations and visions Ormond Beach Myra Janco Daniels which define our existence. Naples Francisco Jose de Varona Miami Carlos F. Diaz Defray Beach Nancyl. Ford Inside Highlights Tampa Tulle K. Fowler Jacksonville 1 Killing Mister Watson and other matters by Peter Matthiessen

Marcia Frey The story of the wild west - Florida’s wild west - when it was a haven for outlaws Winter Park James L. Bacchus at the turn of the century. Introduction by Carl Hiaasen, author of Skin Tight. Orlando William T. Hall, Jr. 3 Traversing the Road to Race and History by John Hope Franklin Niceville Lois C. Harrison A noted teacher/scholar reveals among otherthings how the historian works and Lakeland how he contributes to the quality of life. Richard P. Janaro Miami 5 Le Moyne’s Florida by Gordon Patterson William R. Jones Tallahassee No European knew how the New World looked until Theodore De Bry published a Eugene Lyon book of etchings of the first professional artist to record his impressions of this new St. Augustine country. Patsy J. Palmer Tallahassee 7 A Visit With Two Great Poets by J. 0. McClatchy Charlotte M. Porter Lifelong friends Richard Wilbur and James Merrill share an instinctive elegance and Gainesville a cultivated, wiffy tone. Masters of the word from a young age, they show us W. Stanley Proctor Monticello ourselves in startling textures and tones. Annette Scherman 9 Grant Application Deadlines for 1991-92 Sarasota Mark D. Szuchman 21 A View from the Board by Mark 0. Szuchman Miami Frank E. Taylor Key West

STAFF THE FLORIDA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES ANN HENDERSON Executive Director F * E * H FORUM Vol. XIV. No. 1 * Spring 1991 ANN BOOKS The magazine of THE FLORIDA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Associate Director For Administration 1718 East Seventh Avenue * Suite 301 * Tampa, Florida 33605 SUSAN LOCKWOOD 813 242-3473 Associate Director for Program JOAN BRAGGINTON Proprom Director The Florida Endowment for the Humanities, a non-profit organization-funded Endowment Humanities, the State of Florida, and RON COOPER by the National for the Resource center Director private contributions- supports public humanities activities in Florida. Views STEPHANIE COHEN expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Florida Endowment Administrative Assistant for the Humanities. F.E.H Forum is distributed tree of charge to the friends of MYRA STONER the Florida Endowment for the Humanities and interested Floridians. If you wish Secretary to be added to the mailing list. please so request in writing.

Editors Dorothy B. Maxwell George Schurr FRONT COVER Printing Charles Sherod "Ted" Smallwood stands in the door of the Chokoloskee post Fidelity Printing office. He eventually became the owner of most of the island of Chokoloskee. Author Peter Maffhiessen called Smallwood’s account of Ed Watson the "best" of ©1991 F.E.H the hard-to-come-by tales of that controversial Floridian. See StOPy’, Page 1

Front page photo courtesy ofthe Historical Museum of Southern Florida tivates you. That is a rare thing for a

writer to pull off - hit you with the big punch at first. Then expect you to hang around and see what hap pened. He does it wonderfully. This is really a story of wild west, Florida. People don’t realize what Florida was ilke at The turn of the century. Florida was a haven for out laws. I write about outlaws all The time. Matthiessen made me feel guilty about The way I write, which is pretty much by the seat of my pants. Any writer will tell you that the mast numbing moment is to pick up a book That’s really, really good and start reading it. You have suicidal Thoughts, including The Thought that

- and This occurred to me in a dark

moment - compared to what Peter Matthiessen had done, I was doing pretty much The work of a fraud. It’s really a magical book. It will take you back to a place in time that is still happening today. We in Florida remain a magnet for people who are on the run from somewhere else. They are coming here either for the sunshine or to es cape from someThing. Many of Them have been elected to publlc office. Peter Matthiessen Ed Watson hadsimilar ambitions. That is no accident, His heritage and his on Killing Mister Watson* legacy live on. and other matters with an introduction by Carl Hiaasen Carl Hiaasen / Miami Herald

Abstracted from comments presented January 14, 1991 at the Broward It occurs to me that Ishould, since County Library, Ft. Lauderdale, sponsored bythe Florida Center forthe Book and the I am not a Floridian, make some at Naples Literary Seminar, Inc., with FEH funding. tempt to establish my credentials for Last year I was asked by the Chicago Tribune to review Killing Mister Wat having wriffen a book which pretends son. It just knocked me out. to represent Florida. It tookme into places that I had been in my childhood. Rivers I had taken Once I wrote a book about a boat on orcanoed. Places I had been snook or tarpon fishing. He told me American Indian people. I spoke things I did not know about in the voices of those who lived there. about this book in City. I This book held me from the first page to the last. The interesting thing is that tried to reassure the mainly elderly the climax of The book happens in the first chapter. Itis the sorting out that cap- audience that I was not Indian nor

New York: Random House, / 990. =4

Spring 1991 1 Killing Mr. Watson... continued from preceding page anything like that. At the end of the talk there was a short silence. Then a lady in the back row said, "I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Indian before. He’s really quite attractive." So. I’m not a Floridian. However, I’ve been hanging out and around Florida for over 50 years. My first memory of Florida was going up the Loxahatchee River, visit ing an old trapper up there when Iwas eight. I remember losing a big tarpon down in Government Cut when Iwas little, It broke my heart. The mate on The J.J. Whidden family at Henderson Creek prior to 1911. The pet deer the boat was clumsy with the gaff. He belonged to Graham Whidden. hadn’t had much experience with tarpon. He lost my fish. Iwas inconsol able for days. When I was about 17, my father, suspense story. I was much more in Icame down here to Florida in my my brother and Iwere starting up the terested in the psychological makeup twenties and thirties. I was a rabid west coast in his boat. As we went by of the people who killed Mr. Watson ornithologist. I just loved birds. I got the Ten Thousand Islands region my and their feelings as opposed to those into conservation writing. I did a lot of father told me about a big old white who felt that he should not have been writing for magazine. Isav house sitting in the mangroves. Noth killed. So I set the execution up as a agely attacked the Kissimmee River ing else around it. A big strong white kind of myth and then work back to it project. I wrote about Corkscrew house. at the end of the book. Swamp. I attacked the Jet Port. I did a That house was taken down after Here, from the author’s note to long piece for the Miami Herald Sun Hurricane Donna. The National Park the reader: dayMagazineon the Miccosukee Res Service said it had been so damaged The book is in no way "historical," ervation situation. that it was a menace. They just used since almost nothing here is history. the hurricane damage as an excuse. On the other hand, there is nothing That house was very, very strongly built. - Peter Matthiessen - That could not have happened - Peter Matthiessen helped Anyway, that was Ed Watson’s nothing inconsistent, that is, with the found one year famous house where terrible deeds verylittle that is actually on record, Itis after he graduated from Yale Uni took place. Just before he was killed my hope and strong belief That This re versity. He has been a fount of liter by his neighbors, three people were imagined llfe contains much more of ary ferment ever since. His works of murdered there. the truth of Mister Watson than the lu fiction include At Play in the Fields Watson did not do it. It was actu rid andpopularlyaccepted "facts"of of the Lord, FarTortuga, andOn the ally his foreman who did the killing. the Watson legend. River Styx and Other Stories. Hemay The dispute was, "Did Watson order it? Now the Prologue, or as Carl be even better known for his non Was it done under his direction, or was Hiaasen calls it. the first chapter: fiction: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, it not?" That question has never been In The hurricane’swake. The laby The Tree Where Man Was Born, The successfully resolved, So here we are rinthine coast where the Everglades Snow Leopard, The Cloud Forest, considering the relationship between deltas meet The Gulf of Mexico lbs Under the Mountain Wall. Men’s fact and legend in Florida history. broken, stunned, flattened to mud by Lives, and other memorable titles. I didn’t want this book to be just a Continued on page 11

2 F.E.H Forum Traversing the Road to Race and History by John Hope Franklin

FEH sponsored a series of isiana State University Press. evenings with eminent authors 1990. during Miami’s world renowned Perhaps the greatest satis Book Fair International in Novem berof 1990. Professor Franklin was faction grew out of theoppor one of The participants. We have tunity to review virtually my prevailed on him to share the entire writing career, and to substance of his remarks with a make some judgments and wider audience, our readers. decisions about the appropri A few years ago I made ateness of including this or that the statement that if a com essay in this volume. poser could write operas, string I was pleased, of course, quartets. symphonies, etudes. that I had so many options. I concertos, and oratorios, then could choose from published an historian should be able to essays at least three times the cut a similar swath. The histo number that made the final rian should write monographs. cut. Had I extended the con broad interpretive works, histo sideration to unpublished es riographical studies. general says. the number could have works, textbooks, historical es been several times those that says. and edit the works of had been published. others. Observing that Ihad al Among the unpublished ready written in all these areas. Delighted audiences crowd eagerly around essays were works involving on Ideclared myself ready to start Dr. John Hope Franklin wherever he speaks. going research whose conclu all over again. sions were. at best. tentative. The head of a major publishing From this experience I learned and which had not been refereed in New York responded with the since they had not been considered house that an historian’s work is never done. I learned journal, and not acute observation that had never In all probability he or she had not by any had edited an encyclopedia. Thereupon, benefited from outside criticism. Some worked in all the established catego I rejected dealt his he invited me to be the general editor ries. Further, new or emerging cate essays that with of an encyclopedia of African Ameri torical matters that greatly interested gories could well claim his or her at history. me. such as women’s history and can tention for years to come. At my advanced age, with so western history. but which I had That lesson, however, did not re many unfulfilled commitments, I had dropped before myfindings reached lieve me of the satisfaction I derived to decline his exciting invitation. I the definitive stage that could claim from mymost recent book-length pub should have added that my earlier the serious and critical attention of lication: Race and History, Selected statement had been brash, ill-advised, others. Essays. 1938-1988 Baton Rouge: Lou- and inaccurate!

Spring 1991 3 Traversing... continued from preceding page

Other unpublished essays were lively enough but perhaps not schol arly enough. They were written,in most instances, to blow off steam, to vent my hurt and outrage at the mistreat ment of others. They dealt with such topics as the barbaric treatment of blacks on trains and railroad stations during World War II. and the curious appeal to blacks to fight in that war because it would secure basic free doms for Europeans and Asians which Dr. Franklin as a young professor of blacks themselves were daily denied history at Howard in the United States. University, 1947. My editor once called these my "mad essays." She still hopes that Iwill Only two of these essays are the sensitive. bellicose. trigger-happy put them together in a volume. She actually chapters in published books. Southern slaveholders. has a point. As long as our universities One deals with slavery and the Many white historians at the time are centers of racial bigotry and intol martial South. It appeared in a slightly seemed to feel that black historians erance, as long as the President of different version in The Militant South should confine their studies of the past the United States calls a bill to restore 1800-1860. published in 1956. It ex to "their own people." Should a black the rights of blacks guaranteed in the plores the nature and the impact of Continued on page 75 Civil Rights Act of 1866 a "quotas bill," there isaplaceformy"mad" book on the shelves of bookstores and librar - John Hope Franklin - ies. John Hope Franklin is one of Currently James B. Duke Pro I have resisted the temptation to America’s premier historians. fessor Emeritus of History and Pro deal furtherwith the politics of higher A graduate of Fisk University. fessor of Legal History in the Law education and African American his he received his doctoratefrom Har School of Duke University. Professor tory with which I dealt in a paper I Franklin holds honorary degrees read before the American Academy vard, then taught at Fisk, North Carolina Central. Howard and from more than 80 colleges and of Arts and Sciences. Nor do I wish to Brooklyn College.before joiningthe universities. expound further on the future of Afri can American history, the subject of facultyof the University of Chicago He has served as president of in 1964, where he was appointed such professional organizations as my first Martin Luther King Lecture at Phi the New School for Social Research. John Matthews Manley Distin The United Chapters of Beta guished Service Professor in 1969. Kappa and the American Histori These essays struck me as being Perhaps best known for From cal Association. He has also served incomplete in themselves. The discus Slavery to Freedom: A History of as Pitt Professor of American History sion period following my delivery of Negro Americans in press for over and Institutions at Cambridge Uni the lectures had much to do with their versity England, Consultant on effectiveness. To be included, they 40 years, his publications define the racial integration of America’s American Education to the Soviet would have to be rewritten, which historical record. His current re Union, Fullbright Professor in Austra would violate a cardinal rule govern search focuses on "dissidents on lia and Lecturer on American His ing theselection of the essays in Race tory for the People’s Republic of and History. the plantation," once called "run- away slaves." China.

4 F.E.H Forum A Chief in council. A depiction of early American Indians by , The first professional artist to record his impressions of this newly discovered land.

Le Moyne’s Florida: Europe’s first pictures from America by Gordon Patterson

From the very first accounts of cation of Le Moyne’s representations and Protestant camps. War threat Columbus. Europeans were fasci of Florida. ened. Spain vowed to exterminate nated by America. Aside from a hand Le Moyne was the first professional the Protestant heresy. France was ful of crude woodcuts, no one had artist to record his impressions of the nominally a Catholic power but it shown how the New World looked. New World. This visual record of the possessed a strong Protestant faction. Nothing until 1591. Then Theodore De New World was then. and still is, a The French government temporized. Bry published a book of etchings. watershed in the cultural exchange With a clear eye for the uncer Brevis Narratio eorum quae in Flo which Columbus began. Others had tainties in these conditions, Gaspar ridae Americae provincia Galles by written books. But none of those gave de Coligny, a powerful Huguenot Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, in an ideaof how the New World looked. Protestant nobleman, was inspired cluding 43 handsome etchings, was Le Moyne madethe words come alive. by the idea of creating a Protestant the second volume in De Bry’s series Few now realize the pictures colony in the New World. In 1562, he H/star/a Americae. When completed. came out of an abortive attempt to sent Captain to find a lo the Historia included 35 accounts of make Florida into a French Protestant cation for this enterprise. voyages and over 250 illustrations. province. On the first of May. 1562, Ribault The year 1991 marks the four hun At the midpoint of the 16th cen arrived at the mouth of a river. He dredth anniversary of De Bry’s publi tury. Europe was divided into Catholic

Spring 1991 5 The French experience in Florida was short and tragic. By the fall of 1564 the French had finished con structing . Laudonniére. however, failed to provide adequate leadership. There was a mutiny in No vember. Relations with the Amerindi ans deteriorated. Summer brought the harvest of the French folly. Relief from France did not come. By July. 1565, they were starving. Laudonniére ordered his men to destroy Fort Caroline and prepare for departure. Then, a miracle. On August 28. 1 565,Jean Ribaultshowed up. His ships were filled with supplies and new col onists. But they had the devil to pay. l-’reparing tar a reast. Unfortunately. Philip II of Spain Le Moyne... had gotten wind of the French under taking. That the French were heretics continued from preceding page was bad enough. That they were po named it the River of May and dedi estant and Catholic factions. Ribault sitioned to threaten the Spanish treas cated the site by erecting a column sought assistance in England, ran afoul ure fleets was unthinkable. Spain dis bearing the arms of the King of France. of Queen Elizabeth. and ended up in patched Pedro Menendez to rid La Today the river is known as the St. jail. Florida of the French menace. Johns. The "May" is retained in the Two years elapsed before Admi Six days after Ribault’s arrival name of the naval base. "Mayport." ral Coligny was prepared to rekindle Menendez’s fleet reached Fort Caro Ribault explored the coast and the Florida enterprise. In 1564 he di line. The French and Spanish fleets found it an "incomparable lande," rected René Laudonniére, Ribault’s fought an inconclusive battle. Then both bountiful and full of potential. in former lieutenant, to recruit colonists Menendez sailed south to found St. habited by "naked" people "as well and gather a fleet. Clearly, Coligny Augustine. On September 10, Ribault shapen and proportioned of bodye envisioned Florida as a sanctuary for followed Menendez. He sailed with as any people in all the worlde, very his fellow . themajority of thetroops, leaving only gentell, cautious. and of good na 20 soldiers to defend Fort Caroline’s Laudonnière specifically re 240 inhabitants. ture." Surely God would bless a per cruited Jacques Le Moyne forthe trip. manent colony here if the French A native of Dieppe, Le Moyne was A powerful hurricane intervened treated the natives with "gentilness both a trained artist and an ardent before the battle could take place. and humanytie." Huguenot. Ribault’s fleetwas smashed along the coast. Menendez ordered 500 of his Ribault returned to France early in In Le Moyne’s words: June. He left thirty of his men at a men to march northwards from St. Au My precise role would be, when hastily constructed fort, called Char gustine to Fort Caroline in the midst of we reached The Indies, to chart The lesfort. located near what is now the hurricane. Shortly before dawn sea-coast and to observe the situ Beaufort, South Carolina. Ribault on September 20th. the Spaniards at ation of The towns and The depTh and promised to return with shiploads of tacked the French outpost. course of the rivers, and also the har colonists and supplies. Fort Caroline and 132 French were bours, The houses of The people, and destroyed. Only a handful of Hugue Unfortunately, civil war inter anything in new there might be that nots escaped. vened. France wastorn between Prot province. Continued on Page 78

6 F.E.H Forum ___

H 1r.A2,1AAJ IVI-L4T A-& r Pe--1.. l144 W7i tj S,W3 t, e. aeg a ei.,c r ti ws,-, ,‘tc wu.. Z4JC4 k-gs, M

‘ ‘" ‘4 t--ti hevr LLA. k44*w f1.u, -FM rk.r P9 r 1,e.-l- i’ ?& ltAt C ,t,r’r-! 14-e ‘-v cw dtkj 7t’t O,. La £h’ sU zeQ 1"0 1Tt. 54.’j ,. te’g tt c we4ves t’Jo e-45e, L &4 ‘hi,, tts t, a.VQ &- Lj ‘.j’ck ijt" Lokl Less tt- a. 145 U e. rLzLi t,,t,e ‘tAch ?L5 14 clej c4Lets ss ‘s*9. .‘-lo4,c a. I’Vi..t cp-e jsL.11 yt.&t kc-’.,.., Lr ,, -h’ee,c cL &k>rJ ti &lwe.

,j fe 7k. L.’/dc’11 ‘J/.: 6 a-,2,,;t.& .t 7 c,frcL’ tr .ç rt4L k - mi& - 7I.e C ai c..e Lke&. wk !

dm LQ _1 Vr[-

In the authors’ own handwriting - snippets of Arabian Night by James Merrill and Hamlen Brook by Richard Wilbur.

A Visit with Two Great Poets by J. D. McClatchy Poet and auThor J.D. McClatchy teaches at Princeton University. His most recent book of poetry is The Rest of the Way 1990, Knopf. A White Paper, a collection of his essays, appeared in 1989. He edited The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry1990. Random House. and has authored two opera librettos.

When James Merrill arrived on friendship that has lasted nearly half a nature with every page I turned - the Amherst College campus. "there century. But the friendship even pre given form and voice. It was what art was, Ifancied, on my favorite teach ceded that meeting. could do." ers’ faces a kind of afterglow, a trace Merrill remembers that reading What from the start these two po of half-bewildered delight: the bril those earliest poems by Wilbur: ets discovered in each other’s work liant youth Richard Wilbur. whose "though Ihadn’t yet met their author. was a temperament that believed in poems were appearing in magazines was for me like the first meeting with a art - believed in the power of lan and were soon to be collected in a lifelong friend. I marveled at their guage to refresh and redeem experi first volume, had only lately satin their relish for the world, their openness to ence. believed that things are most classrooms." intimacy, their good humor and, best themselves when seen as something

When the two young poets - of all, their unaffected faith in art. In a else. Their instinctive elegance. their

Merrill and Wilbur - met soon after, it flash Isaw a dozen aspects of my own play of mind over the graces of this is not surprising that they formed a nature - or what was becoming my world and gravities of its sorrows, their

=4

Spring 1991 7 Two Great Poets... continued from preceding page preference for traditional forms and a friend passed them on to a publisher. and over again dramatized in New England scenes of volatile seasonal cultivated, witty tone - there was a The Beautiful Changes appeared in time, a few decades ago, when all 1947, announcing a poetwith extraor changes or surprising urges from un this seemed to one side of a burly dinary gifts. derground or overhead. A loneliness haunts his poems too. Wilbur writes American literary culture that had His work stood out as brightly in with the understanding that love and come to favor a mare surreal or natu tellectual. and brilliantly turned. He beauty imply a separation. The de ral manner, expressionist melodrama delighted in a "maculate, cracked. tached observer in a forest clearing, or stuttered confessions. but Richard askew/Gaypocked and potsherd or the lover awakened by dawn - Wilbur and James Merrill persisted in world" of objects and ideas - the both share the same ache: the art they believed in. Not the least fallen world, in short. of the religious of their achievements is to have con imagination that yearns for transcen And call that sorrow sweet verted a large readership to the ex dence but works out its salvation That teaches us to see acting standardstheyhad held them among the jagged edges of scat The final face of love selves to all along. tered, flashing bits of an ordinary mir In what we cannot be. Between them, Wilbur and Merrill rored life. From the start he wrote in a What also became clear over the have more medalson their chests than style that flattered themind his poems years is that Wilbur’s voice changed. the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Each has won celebrated - its powers and limits. Perhaps that owed something to the

- sometimes twice - every major The complex disciplines of verse have theater work he had done, his Broad prize that can be awarded our writers. always intrigued Wilbur. way lyrics for Candida and his incom And both got off to prodigiously quick "A lot of my poems are arguments parable translations of Moliere. In any starts. Each had published a first book against a thingless. an earthless kind case, the best of his late poems were by age 26, though there was nothing of imagination. orspirituality," he once looser, longer, closer to speech, with a of the stilted newcomer about told an interviewer. ‘I like resistance. I dramatic flair and psychological nu either;each was acclaimed at once like itin art, asGautlerdid: ‘vers,marbe, ance. And if anything, he has sharp as the young master of a complex art. onyx, email.’ And I like the world to ened his ability to scrutinize details, Richard Wilbur was born in New resist my ordering of it. so that I can which are described with a precision York City in 1921. and grew up in New feel it is real and that I’m honoring its that can startle. Jersey. His reality." To equate verse with marble "I should like to be thought of." he father, a or enamel says something of the pol once put it with a characteristic un portrait ished finish a Wilbur poem has, but derstatement. "as someone who wrote painter, underestimates the pulsing, vivid two or three had rented movement of thoughtand feeling that poems a farm goes on inside the poem. which, as there from Newcollections of Wilbur’s poems Robert Frost a friend - appeared regularly, beginning with said, have Richard Wilbur an exquis Ceremony in 1950 through New and been ‘hard ite gentle Collected Poems in 1988. a book that to get rid man’s farm, with tennis court and won for Wilbur hissecond Pulitzer Prize. of." walled garden along with the dairy These publications made two things Like James Merrill and barn. clear. One is that his abiding subject Wilbur. After serving in the 36th Infantry is desire. "the dreamt land / Toward James Merrill was also born in New Division duringthe war, Wilbur enrolled which all hungers leap, all pleasures York City. but in 1926. HisfatherChar at Harvard to do graduate work. He’d pass." That desire can be embodied les, co-founder of the famous broker intended to be a scholar of 17th cen in a woman, in a landscape, in the age house of Merrill, Lynch. and his tury literature, but his wife showed weather. mother were divorced in 1939, an some of his poems to a friend: the "The heart’s wish for life" is over event with reverberations throughout =4

8 F.E.H Forum Spanish Pathways Resource Guide Grant Application Available Deadlines for A compilation of the Florida’s li and the resulting interaction among 1991-92 braries, museums, and historical so cultures. cieties which hold documentary and The guide has information on the For projects expected to begin after other materials relevant to the Span holdings of 37 significant collections November 1, 1991: ish presence in Florida has been pre relevant to the Hispanic heritage of Preliminary Application due by pared by FEH. Florida, plus a bibliography of sug July 10. 1991 Those looking forward to the 500th gested readings. Final Application 1 original, 28 anniversary of the voyages of Colum For a copy at no charge. request copies due by August 8. 1991 bus will be particularly interested. Spanish Pathways in Florida: a Re Notification by October 9, 1991 Readers can locate materials dealing source Guide from the FEH office: 1718 with Columbus’ connections between East Seventh Ave.. Suite 301 Tampa, the European and Amerindian worlds, FL 33605. 813 272-3473. For projects expected to begin after February 1, 1992: Preliminary Application due by Candidates Sought October 3, 1991 Final Application 1 original, 28 Candidates for the 1991-92 public speaking experience out copies due by November 6, 1991 Speakers Bureau are being sought. side of the classroom. be willing to Notification by January 2, 1992 Initiating theapplicationproc travel, and be prepared to speak ess is simple. Send a letter of inter to two topics. est, an indication of topics which We are particularly interested For projects expected to begin after could be addressed, and a res in topics dealing with Florida, espe June 15, 1992: ume to the Resource Center cially Florida and the Columbian Preliminary Application due by Director. Quincentenary. February 8, 1992 Appropriate candidates Selection of the 1991-92 Speak Final Application 1 original, 28 should hold an MA. or Ph.D. in one ers Bureau members will be made copies due by March 15. 1992 of the fields the humanilies, have summer, 1991. of by late Notification by May 15. 1992

Two Great Poets... continued from preceding page

Merrill’s poetry - as if he were the 1951 - with their exquisite, highly than that, not least because it stresses child of a broken home continually wrought lyrics, would have come by the autobiographical and narrative trying to reconcile his warring parents. 1982 to write "The Changing Light at thrust of his work, his sense of a life or those sides of his own personality Sondover". a gigantic and unnerving lived and understood over time. and those parents had helped shape and epic poem based on the Ouija board. also because it links this poet’s two still represent. It would be absurd, of But both those early lyrics and great themes together, love and loss. course, to reduce Merrill’s genius to Love is notfully itself until lost, until it be that late epic - along with the narra any such formula. In fact, if any word tives and meditations of this middle comes a memory, becomes art. describes his temperament, it is mer period - resolve to a phrase used Again and again, in small poems curial. lfanyworddescribestheshape about Merrill’s work by Mirabell, one of and large, Merrill returns to the great of his career, it is surprising. the characters in the poet’s epic tril est loss of love in his life - that occa Few readers would have antici ogy. He calls Merrill’s poems "Chron sioned by his parents’ divorce. It is as pated that the author of Merrill’s early icles of Love & Loss." There is no better if that split threw into stronger relief a books - his First Poems appeared in description of Merrill’s achievement

Spring 1991 9 Two Great Poets continued from preceding page kind of split personality in the poet illuminate the toils of both the flesh tions and revelations, have everything himself. and the spirit. to do with his life, and with ours. Certainly his mind prefers dou Neither Merrill nor Wilbur is com bled perspectives, prefers to be of The imagesboth poets finally fortable with large claims and theo two minds about all matters. And the show us are of ourselves. ries about his work. To understand elegant tensions in his work as well either poet, it makes more sense tore- derive from characteristics we could read the poems themselves. call paternal and maternal. But Mer As far back as 1967.when he was You will find Merrill’s "Arabian rill’s ambition is not merely to display awarded the first of his two National Night" in The Inner Room 1988. The the two aspects of his personality or Book Awards, thejudges praised Mer poem is written in sapphics. a de savor his own ambivalence about ex rill for "his scrupulous and uncompro manding. highly stressed, and perience, but to unite and harmonize mising cultivation of the poetic art. unrhymed verse form, named after the sides of his life. evidenced in his refusal to settle for the Greek poet Sappho. From those first books in the 1 950s any easy or profitable stance; for his Wilbur’s "Hamlen Brook" first ap his until latest, The Inner Room, pub insistence on taking the kind of tough. peared in his New and Collected lished in 1988, the hallmark of Merrill’s poetic chances which make the dif Paems1988 and should remind us of art has been the luxuriant allure of his ference between esthetic success or his link with Robert Frost-the buoyant work’s textures, the lapidary brilliance failure." speechliness, his controlled surprises. of its imagery, the fluent, refined elo There was nothing easy about and canny moralism in Wilbur’s cold quence of its tone, qualities that the task he set himself in the mid pastoral. Wilbur’s rhyme-scheme complement its thought-provoking 1970s. when he began to make a "ABBA" envelops line-lengths that designs. poem from the messages he and his expand and contract like breathing. Early in his career he wrote a novel companion David Jackson had taken The images both poets finally and two plays, and that may have down from the Ouija board over a 20 show us are of ourselves. Trying to ac helped him toward a narrative ampli year period. "In Divine Comedies" count for the origin of poetry - what tude and a more wholly convincing 1976, "Mirabell: Books to Number" prompts the words. the thoughts? - voice. Merrill has also been a con 1978. and "Scripts for the Pageant" Robert Frost once said that poems stanttraveler, and for many years lived 1980 - eventually collected into a begin with a lump in the throat, a part of each year in Greece. The single volume, with additional mate homesickness. In this world, Richard ironic discoveries and displacements rial, and titled The Changing Light at Wilbur once wrote, we are all "home of a life on the move alternate in his Sandover - his project grew into an lessly at home." When poems show us books with marvelous descriptions of immense encounter with the sublime. our true condition - as these two the domestic life. Rather than in delib ‘Don’t you think there comes a exquisite poems do - then each of us erate shifts of style, he has sought in time," he has asked, "when everyone. is left with that same lump in the new experiences the sources of not just a poet, wants to get beyond throat. That, as James Merrill said, is change in his work. the self? To reach, if you Iike,the ‘god what art can do.

Travel, romance, history, aging - within you?" Merrill’s encounters with in each turn of life he looks for ways to the spirit-world, of course, all the initia

1991 June 13-14 September 13 December 6 FEH Board Meetings Clearwater Tampa Tampa

10 F.E.H Forum Left to right John Bowman, Billy Roberts, Water Turkey, Sheriff Tippins of Lee County, Frank Brown, and W.H. "Bill" Brown early in this century. Ed Watson lived close by men such as these.

Said Old Man D. D. House, "He will be back." The House clan llves one hundred yards away, east of the store. Ted Smallwood sees his father-in-law’s Killing Mr. Watson... black Sunday boats descend the continued from page 2 Indian mound, with Bill House and Young Dan and Lloyd barefoot be The wild tread of God.... a far gray sun Postmaster Smallwood, Ted Small- hind. picks up dead glints from windraws of wood, was real. Ted Smallwood wrote Ted Smallwood married the rotted mullet, heaped a foot high. the best account - well, he didn’t House boys’ sister, Mamie. These are write it, he told it to Dr. Charlton This is the famous hurricane of the three oldest D. D. House boys - 1910. If produced the highest re Tabeau. a very fine historian who used Young Dan, Lloyd, and Bill. to be at the University of Miami. corded wind in the history of the United Daniel David House has silver in States’ weather service to that time. Tabeau wrote a book called his brows and his mustache juts into A figure in mud-fringed calico, Chokoloskee Bay Country. It is a axhead sideburns. Though he wears calling a child, stoops to retrieve a wonderful account of the old frontier. no collar underneath his beard, he is Bible, then wipes wet grime from The There are a few pages in it of Ted dressed as if for Sunday, in white shirt, Goad Book with pale, dulled fingers. Smallwood’s memoirs, including his shiny black frock coat, wiped boots, She straightens, turning slowly, staring account of Ed Watson. Smallwoad’s and stiff black pants hauled high by toward the south. From the wall of account, with one other coming from galluses. more or less thesame time, are proba mangraves far off dawn The bay, The "Where’s his missus, then?" the bly the most accurate in existence. drum of The boat engine comes and old man says. goes, Then comes again, a llttle louder. But even they have a few mistakes. "She’s right inside here with her Back to Smaliwood on his knees. "Oh, Lord," she whispers, half- yaung’uns. With your daughter and under his store. raking outthe last of his aloud. "Oh no, please no, sweet Je granddaughters, Mr. House." When drowned chickens: sus." the old man grunts and turns away, Along towardlowgray-yellawtwi Three days before, when That Ted’s voice goes higher. "Them souTh, all ten fami light, Postmaster Smallwaod, on his boat had headed women and children gone to have knees beneath his stare, is raking out lies on The island watched it go. Small- ‘em a good viewl" wood was the only man to wave, but The lastofhis drowned chickens. What Henry Short, expressionless, moves he, too, prayed That This would be The The hurricane has left of Smallwaad’s past, holding his rifle dawn along his end of it, That the broad figure at the dock - a few poor pilings - sticks out leg. at angles off The end of the spoil bank helm, sinking into darkness at the far "You, too?" where he’d dug his canal for Indian law line of trees, would disappear forever from their lives. canoes. =4

Spring 1991 11 Killing Mr. Watson... continued from preceding page

Some of you know Marjory Stone- One calls. "Looks llke y’all are fix this. The day is late, and a llfe runs man Douglas’swonderful book on the ing to gun him down." swiftly to its end.... Everglades. In her book she has a fairly AnoTherman nods urgently, clear Little Thelma and her friend Ruth accurate account of the Watson leg ing his throat. "Thought you fellers was Ellen stand in the corner, guarding The end. ShesaysthatCurtis House’s great- aiming to getdeputized! Thought you toddlers from something scary. RuTh grandfather. C. G. McKinney. was re was aiming to arrest himl" Ellen’s mother clutches Baby Amy, puted to be the man who led the "Won ‘t let hisselfgetarrested,"Bill born five monThs before dawn at Key posse. She correctly states that he House says. "Men here found that out West. "Ad," she whispers to the miss actually was not there. the oTher day." ing boy. "Oh, please." She claims the man who fired the "Bestifnobodyhan gs back?"coils Ruth Ellen and Baby Amy and Ad first shot was a white fisherman name Old Dan House.... are Addison R. Watson’s children by Luke Short. In fact. it was Henry Short. his third wife, who is this young woman. In his old leaf-colored clothes, in He was a black man. He was a very These are not the right names. I was shadows at The woodedge, distinguished hunter and fisherman the brown ableto reach the family, buttheyare Henry Short has sifted in against The who had been raised by the House very insistent that their names be dis tree barkllke a chuck-will’s-widowshuf family. guised. fling soft wings. He seems intent an the The island men are gaThering, white bow wave where The dark boat The motor dies, in a long wash of twenty or more. All have shotguns or silence. The launch coasts down on parts The gray chap of The channel, rifles.... and the rifle-fire pot-pat-pot loudand Smaliwood’s landing, just west of Henry Short leans his 30.30 Win louder. The silhouette of the lone where The dock had been before The chesterinto a fork of the big fish-fuddle boatman rises slowly on The evening storm.... that the hurricane has felled across sky. A twig snaps and The twilight stiff the clearing. The gun is hidden when This dark day has been coming ens. A hard shift, the whip crack of a he leans against the tree, and his arms dawn forever. Even the young woman, shat. two shots together. There is time are folded as if in sign thatnone of this in her pale foreboding, seems to know far an echo, time far a high shriek, be is any of his business. fore the last evening ofthe old days in Twillght got the Islands flies ers behind the apart in a volley of coming boat. The wild fire. - Getting to the Heart of Mr. Watson - armedmenstand The young half-hidden in the With Killing Mister Watson nearly spawning ground forstories of gator woman stands for undergrowth, too finished, Noel Buckner and Rob poaching, smuggling, and Mr. mally before his tense to slap at Whittlesey of the PBS Adventure Watson. Here is the mysterious house, as far a pic The mosquitoes. In series followed Peter Matthiessen to source of Killlng Mr. Watson. ture, brawn dress dusk dark the of a the Everglades in 1989. The result, Is your organization interested darkened by the in tree day, the "Lost Man’s River," is 56 video min in discussing Killng Mr. Watson? dusk, face pale as shadow, the post utes on the track of the reflections Want to use this filmed provoca salt. master can no and memories which brought Mat tion for discussion? It is available on "No,Lard,"she longer make out thiessen back to this wild frontier loan to any non-profit organiza whispers, as the ter faces beneath over 15 years. tion. Contact the FEH Resource ror overtakes her. The old and bro Matthiessen and his old friend, Center 813 272-3473. "Oh, dear ken hats. His Peter White, move through the neighbors seem If you wish to purchase a VHS God" she moans. channels. rivers, and islands that are copy for your own use, contact "Oh Lord! "shecries. anonymous as the Everglade coast. Perhaps outlaws. Mystic Fire Video, Inc. 800 727- "They are killing Mis America’s last frontier, this is the 8433. ter Watson!"

=4

12 F.E.H Forum Any questions? I Q. What motivated you to write about Watson? When I first heard the story I was intrigued by a man being executed by his neighbors. The neighbors were not outlaws, but peace-loving, hard-working people. And Mr. Watson was, by all accounts, very popular: a very good husband, a very good father, a very good provider. Hewasn’tsomesortof stunted killer. He was quite a guy. That attracted me. Deaconess Bedell wiTh Doctor Tiger and a The Watson story is a very strong small bay, 1936. They one. The deeper one gets into it the were contemporaries stronger it gets. of Ed Watson. Q. How many people has Watson been accused of murdering? Isn’t it Q. Wasn’t there a big scandal at There’s a couple that are kind of around 100? the time? How do the families feel cross with me. Idon’t think they should about it today? be. Ireally bent over backwards to be I do not think so. The highest fair and to get it straight. But most of number Ihave ever heard is 55 or 57. Oh. it’s still going on. Iam doing a the people I have heard from like it a It’s hard to know. No one survived to second volume which is really about lot. House. whose great uncle, Ernie, tell. No one ever saw him kill. There is a the fallout among his family, his sons was Bill House’s son, was one of my mathematical possibility that he, in and grandsons. howthey reacted and most important informants. He and his fact, killed no one. Based on what I how they lived after this. In those days family like ita lot. And the Smallwoods know. there are seven deaths from it was no joke to have a man like like it. But others are a little cranky which it is very hard to separate him. Watson as your forbearer. The scan about it. It is fiction, after all. It is not Let’s put it that way, about seven. dal must have been tremendous. supposed to be dead accurate. That is enough. His daughter was a very beautiful Q. Are there things you left out of He was the only man ever ar woman who marriedthe president of the book? rested for the murder of Belle Starr. the First Notional Bank in Fort Myers. "The Outlaw Queen." In Oklahoma. The son-in-law was a big family man, A second book will deal with on February 3. 1&89. she was am came from a very goad family, and so Watson’s sons and grandsons and their bushed, shot off her horse, and fin it was a complicated business. Even families and resolve some of the mys ished off. She’d had a fight with some the Governor, Napoleon Broward, teries I set up in this book. Who actu one named Watson. The same Ed interceded for Ed Watson atone point ally shot first? Who was Leslie Cox? Watson. Depending on his mood, he when he was tried for another murder Who actually killed the three people used to boast from the bars of Key up in Madison County. on Watson’s plantation? I stay even West that he’d knocked off Belle Starr. He had goad connections. He handed because Idon’t know quite Other times he denied it. There is no was very well known. He was a friend who Watson is and Iwant the readers question Watson was the man who of Jose Marti. He got around. to have their own intuitions. was arrested for the killing. But they Q. How did the families react to The third book - Iam very ambi acquitted him. Not enough evidence your doing the book? Any objections? tious - will be Watson’s side of the for conviction. =4

Spring 1991 13 Killing Mr. Watson... Meanwhile we myself and the continued from precedingpage publisher, were sued for $24 million by governor whole story, from the time he was a William Janklow, and then for $25 little boy until the time he’s approach million more by David Price. an FBI ing this crowd of men an the shore. agent. Their feelings were hurt by the things I said about them in the book. How did the people react when Q. They have lost every decision in the you came around? courts, but meanwhile the book has They didn’t like me much in the been suppressed. The new and re beginning. I just hung around. They vised In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is now thought maybe they could get rid of available. me if they answered my questions. Ihope you will acquaint yourself I’ve been doing this at least five or six 0 .0 with . He is very, very years. I’ve made a lot of good friends. E 0 well-known in Europe. He has won a They introduce me to other people. 0 big Spanish peace prize. Gradually other people trusted me, at 1 In this country, no one has ever least a little bit. > C heard of Peltier. "Sixty Minutes" won’t Q. Do you think of Watson as a do the story. It is very controversial. But of twentieth cen Josie Bille and Frank Brawn in 1908. typical example a Like Ed Watson. They lived in it has not gone away. tury American? Chokoloskee Bay country. Q. Will you reissue the original He is a classic American frontier book? type. Nowadays the classic frontier them on our current frontiers - both types have other people do their dirty our corporate frontiers and our wilder Yes,lthinklwill. Unfortunately, the work forthem. We all know, from read ness frontiers. current Supreme Court is very conser vative. Even though we won every ing Carl Hiaasen and other people. Q. What about the Crazy Horse single court decision, they can now that there is plenty of that. We know situation you were involved in a while say that during the court hearings and from the Karen Silkwood story, and ago? many others, that people who get in depositions Ishould have learned what Maybe Ishould explain. Many of the way of corporate enterprise may nifty guys these two fellows were. you will not know about Crazy Horse. not survive. Watson was more direct Because I still say the same things, The book has been suppressed for about his methods. He took things in they could claim that I am being seven years. In the SpiritofCrazyHorse his own hands. reckless and malicious. Therefore,they Viking. 1983 is the story of a man could sue me againforthe same book. Yes, he is an American charac named Leonard Peltier who is doing So, we have made certain cuts. ter. He is also a very classic nineteenth two life terms in Leavenworth for al But I am going to put in a preface century character. There were many legedly murdering twa FBI agents. people like him. Some ran small re saying we do not do this willingly, or He did not do it. He was railroaded publics in South America. They were because we feel what we said wasn’t and framed. very ruthless. a little bit like in medieval true. but becausewe are condemned days, or Renaissance Italy, or places We are trying to get Peltier a new to do this by the Supreme Court ruling. like that. If people were in your way, trial, Senator McCain. who has gotten Q. Is thesame publisher involved? interested in the case, is trying to get you took care of them. Viking is, indeed, publishing this him pardoned. Now we have a man, Saddam book. These are the same folks who Hussein,who behaves this way. Hussein Twice in this past year I’ve talked brought you Salmon Rushdie. They is in a situation where he can do pre to the Indian who actually killed the are pluckily coming back and asking cisely what he wants and kill whom he agents. He is upset that Leonard is for more trouble with this book. pleases. But he is by no means unique. doing all this time. But he also feels he There have been people like this isn’t responsible. It was done in self- throughout history. We have a lot of defense. And he doesn’t want to go to prison either. It is a painful situation.

14 F.E.H Forum Dr. Franklin enjoys talking with the youngsters who come to hear him. Young Ivy Redd gets his attention and his autograph at the 12th Baptist Church of Boston while Donald Hill and Ronald Whitehead look on.

Traversing.. continued from page 4 historian write about white people? have changed, even if not enough. garn Collection at Howard University. Who would take it seriously? The other essay previously pub handed me the letter of a semi-liter One of the readers of my manu lished in a book summarized my 40- ate George Washington Williams script told the Director of the Harvard year effort to reconstruct the life of the seeking ad-mission to Howard Univer University Press that he could not most unforgettable person Ihave ever sity in 1869. understand why the Press would be at encountered. It is the introductory Then Istumbled upon a cache of all interested in publishing a Negro’s chapter of the book, George Wash letters from Williams to his benefactor, view of the Old South. The Director ington Williams: A Biography. I call it Collis P. Huntington. They provided an replied that what the manuscript "Stalking George Washington Wil almost day-by-day account of his contained was an exciting and fresh liams." This 19th-century soldier, edi African journeyin 1890-1891. They were look at the Old South and that my tor. Baptist minister, Ohio legislator. a quite satisfactory substitute for Wil race was incidental. historian, African explorer, and phi liams’ diary of that trip, which, unfortu True, when The Militant South landerer packed more into his 41 nately. had disappeared shortly after appeared in 1956, it experienced years than any other person known to the death of Williams’ widow in 1945. some rough patches. One reviewer me. It was not enough for me to per My life of Williams shows the had second thoughts about his sist year after year pursuing one clue reader how the historian does his work. groundless tirades against my pre after another, even as such pursuits It also reveals facts about the subject sumption in presenting myself as an yielded precious bits of information that were unknown even to the sub authority on the conduct of white about the life of Williams. I also had to ject’s contemporaries. Two examples people, and at the last minute sought have luck on my side. will suffice, and each of them will to retrieve his review from the journal. Luck brought me to a Belgian reveal a side of Williams that was sus Alas, it was too late. When one reads priest in Kinshosa, Zaire. He knew a pected but never conclusively the reviewtoday, ittells as much about great deal about the sojourn of Wil proved. the reviewer and the status of race re liams in the Belgian Congo. A Belgian When Williams died in Blackpaol. lotions at the time as it does about my diplomat in Washington provided de England,onAugust2, 1891 ,Alice Fryer, book. Consequently, I decided to tails regarding the controversy swirl an Englishwoman to whom, accord include in Race and Historya chapter ing around Williams after he exposed ing to Miss Fryer, he was engaged, from The Milltant South to see how the incredibly inhumane policies of was at his bedside. ltshould be added much things had really changed with King Leopold II in the Congo in 1890. that he was still legally married to Sarah respectto certain attitudessince 1956. Iwas also fortunate when Dorothy Williams in Washington. D.C. ,who had In this regard, at least, things seem to Porter, curator of the Moorland-Spin =4

Spring 1991 15 Traversing... continued from preceding page steadfastly refused for several years Mrs. Williams was biding her time in I have been surprised at the ex to give him a divorce. Rumor had it Washington, D.C. tent to which the essays in Race and that Williams and Miss Fryer had met History have been regarded by many on a ship somewhere between India reviewers as essentially autobiographi and Egypt. I have tried, above all, to cal. There is, strictly speaking, only one I could never be certain that this be a teacher. piece of autobiographical writing in account was at all accurate until, at the book. That one is called "A Life of the prodding of my secretary, Iwent Learning." delivered as the Haskins Lecture before the American Council to the Public Record Office in England Irecount this not for the salacious of Learned Societies in 1988. and examined the manifests of ships premise of the story, but because the traveling from India via Egypt to Eng Upon re-reading the essays and records - along with the Mediterra examining the volume as a whole, I land in the late spring of 1891, While nean nights - tell us things that the examining the many manifests. I en couple’s contemporaries could not can understand how the work may countered that of the S.S. Golconda, possibly have known. Later, perhaps be viewed as autobiographical. which recorded that Alice Fryer in order to protect the good name of Several essays, such as "The Di boarded the ship at Madras, India, the young Englishwoman. the ac lemma of the American Negro and that Williams boarded the ship at counts said that on the voyage she Scholar" and "The Historian and Pub Ismailia, the principal Egyptian port was accompanied by her mother. A lic Policy." are deeply personal, but before Alexandria became Egypt’s careful examination of thepassenger only because I was seeking to deline main point of ingress and egress. list reveals no person who could possi ate the role of the scholar in general

So - they must have become bly have been Alice Fryer’s mother. and the historian in particular. It is. acquainted,these two young people, The other example followed the perhaps, the dates, 1938-1988. that somewhere between Ismailia and death of Williams. When the Consul suggest a summing up. or the author’s London. Perhaps it was the balmy journeyed from Liverpool to Blackpool "final statement," and therefore as Mediterranean nights, or the calls at to take charge of his affairs, Alice close to an autobiography as I shall Crete or Malta. In any event, at some Fryer, prostratewith grief, told him that ever come. point along the way they fell in love as far as she knew, Williams had one After I delivered the Haskins Lec and became engaged. Meanwhile, relative in the United States, an aunt ture, several friends urged me to write by the name of Lois Staples. This name an autobiography. These essays are meant nothing to the Consul until he not a response to their advice. Some received a letter from Ms. Staples sent day Imay venture into that genre. If I from Worcester. Massachusetts, ur do. you may be certain that it will be - NOTICE - gently requesting him to return to her with great trepidation. MEDIA immediately any letters or papers APPLICATIONS If I were to attempt a brief de among Williams’ personal effects with SUSPENDED scription of Race and History. I would her name on them. say, merely, that the essays are an No media applications will be It seemed quite clear to the attempt to demonstrate how the his considered in 1992. The media Consul that Staples was not Williams’ torian works. what his objectives are, grant program has been sus aunt but an older but intimate associ and how the historian’s skills can con pended. The originally an ate of Williams. Idiscovered that they tribute to the improvement of the nounced media application belonged to the same church in quality of life and especiallythe qual deadline is inoperative. Worcester. The status of "Aunt" Lois ity of human relations. NO MEDIA GRANTS had been given her by Williams. Who Idid nat have such sterling objec TO BE AWARDED wouldn’t wonder about letters com tives in mind when Iwrote a paper in IN 1992 ing regularly from a woman in the 1938 for Professor Arthur Schlesinger United States?

16 F.E.H Forum Dr. Franklin leads a seminar on the History of the South at the University of Chicago in Autumn, 1972.

Sr.’s class. It became my first pub books and articles to their credit. Two I painted out in "The Dilemma of lished piece, coming into print later have even become chairs of depart the American Negro Scholar" that he that year as "Edward Bellamy and ments, although at least one of them or she, like their fellow citizens, had a the Nationalist Movement." My sole is chafing to get back to more teach responsibility to work as diligently as objective on that occasion was get ing and research. possible for a better world in which to ting a good grade! Gradually, I I have also attempted to insist live. adopted nobler objectives, and I that at all costs the historian must Finally, Ido not think that thehisto have since then tried to adhere to maintain the highest standards of his rian should shirk leadership roles. them faithfully. craft. That is why Iundertook to point The historian has a rare opportu I have tried, above all, to be a out in "Whither Reconstruction Histori nityto relate the materials of history to teacher. For over 53 years I have ography" the travesty of making a the special ways in which the lessons sought to instruct and inspire what mockery of the truth during the Re they teach can point to a better life now adds up to many thousands of construction era as E. Merton Coulter and a better world. It has been a students. It has been my privilege to had done in his book The South During source of downright joy to be in the have had direct contact with some Reconstruction. That is why I called people chase as well as the paper of them. With others Ihave had to be attention to the manner in which David chase. content with reaching them through W. Griffith and Thomas Dixon used the One final note. Race and History my writings. Ihave shared with teach new medium of the motion picture to is dedicated to Margaret Fitzsimmons, ers and students some of the meth distort, malign, and misrepresent the my secretary of 25 years. In doing so I ods and approaches that Ihave used Reconstruction period to a trusting express my heartfelt thanks that a in an essay called "Archival Odyssey: and believing public. society of equals begins when equal Taking the Students to the Sources" The role of teaching does not roles and equal status can be main Race and History, pp. 3-9. prevent the historian from assuming a tained even where roles are culturally In 1967,1 took my entire University role of leadership. In "The Historian defined but where subordination is of Chicago seminar to North Caro and Public Policy" I indicated the both stifling and counter-productive. lina to do research on their term manner in which the historian lent his Thus Race and History, even in its dedi papers. What an impact on their talents and skills in working on school cation, is a reaffirmation of my beliefin careers! Many have become quite desegregation cases. true equality. distinguished. There are numerous

Spring 1991 17 Le Moyne continued from page 6

The battered survivors of Ribault’s Early in 1566 Laudonnière "and a part This James Morgues was no otherthan shipwrecked fleet made their way up of his company" reached the King Jacques Le Moynes de Morgues. the coast in two groups. They were and revealed the extent of the French Hakluyt persuaded De Bry to try unaware of Fort Caroline’s fate. When catastrophe. to buy Le Moyne’s drawings. In 1587 Menendez learned of the Frenchmen. Le Moyne was probably present Le Moyne declined. He probably he marchedto meet them. The French at this audience, In the Brief Narrative, planned to produce the book himself. surrendered and pled for mercy. he referred to a meeting with the king. Death prevented this. T he next year. Menendez ordered their massacre, He stressed that he had carried out his 1588, Le Moyne’s widow agreed to not because they were French but assignment "as faithfully as Icould, as sell both the drawings and the Brevis because they were damned here I showed his majesty, when having Narratia to De Bry. tics. More than 300 were killed. escaped the extreme treachery and De Bry intended to publish Le Terra Florida, Ribault’s "flourishing atrocious cruelty of the Spaniards." Moyne’s Brief Narrative as Part I of his land," had become a killing field. The Le Moyne’s knowledge of the Historia Americae, Richard Hakluyt French were vanquished. St. Augustine New World placed him in good stead urged otherwise. First, he counseled, endured to assure that La Florida with the group of powerful English no bring out Hariot’s Brief and true report remained Spanish. blemen who wished to establish an ofnew foundlandof Virginiatogether Jacques Le Moyne escaped the English presence . By the with John White’s drawings of Virginia. slaughter. After wandering in the 1 580s, Le Moyne was in "the service of Hakluyt’s motives were purely marshes and pine woods around Fort Sir Walter Raleigh acting as painter, practical. Raleigh was trying to gen Caroline for three days, Le Moyne fi engraver of wood,a teacher. art pub erate support for the troubled nally reached the river bank. Two small lisher and book seller." Roanoke colony. Hariot’s report and French vessels lay offshore. Sailors sent In 1586, Laudonnière’s account White’s drawings would help. De Bry a boat to retrieve the pitiable survivors of the Huguenot colony in Florida was agreed. The Hariot/White book came who had gathered atthe river’s edge. published in France. The next year the out in 1590, but De Bry wrote in the On September 25, Le Moyne and his book appeared in English. The fa forewordthat he had decided to pub compatriots set sail for home in these mous English geographer, Richard lish Hariot’s report on Virginia first at two ships, "poorly equipped with sail Hakluyt, supplied the translation and the request of friends: ors and provisions." an introduction which contained the albeyt I have in hande The Hista The passage proved difficult. first published reference to Le Moyne’s rye of Florida which should be sett There was not enough food. The ships drawings ofthe New World. The French foorthe because yt was discouered were separated. Le Moyne’s ship, the experience, Hakluyt observed, "and by The Frenchmen long before The Levrier, landed at Swansea in Wales. divers other things chiefest impor discauerye of Virginia, yet I hope Laudonnière, who was also on tance are lively drawn in colours at shortly also to publish the same Histo the Levrier, recounted how the pas your no smal changes by the skillful rye doubtless so Rare, as I think the like sengers were "lent money to buy painter James Morgues sometimes has not been heard or seene. living in the Black-fryers in London". clothes" and then went on to London. Le Moyne’s Brief Narrative, with its 43 illustrations, went on sale in Sigis

- Gordon Patterson - mund Feyerabend’s Frankfurt book Gordon Patterson, a member GoeThe Institute. He has a special store in 1591. It’s reception was electri of the FEH Speakers Bureau. is asso- interest in the study of root meta tying. Sixteenth century Europeans ciate professarofHumanities at The phars and rhetoric, has published were astonished by Le Moyne’s im Florida Institute of Technology, books on Ancient and Medieval ages of the New World and its natives. Patterson’s Ph.D. from U.C.L.A. in- History, and he has also chaired Each of the illustrations, with the cluded graduate study at the The Social Science Section of The exception of Le Moyne’s map, was Universitat Heidelberg and the Florida Academy of Sciences. accompanied with a Latin Declario

=4 18 F.E.H Forum or explanation. As De Bry put it, Le Moyne was the first European to grasp "out of regard for intelligent people. that the story should not just C 0 be told but should also seem to be u a vividly enacted before their eyes." 0 0 0 The Le Moyne-De Bry engravings u a divide into three groups. a 0 The first seven plates depict 0 scenes from Ribault’s first voyage to =

Florida. Le Moyne was not there. He 0 based these drawings on Ribault’s ac a > counts. C There are minor discrepancies. How they treat their sick. For example, Ribault described the Indians’ fish traps as constructed: ‘afterthe fashion of a labirinthe or is knotted on the top of his head. Two having blood sucked from his fore raccoon tails adorn maze, with so manny tourns and it, Athore wears head by a medicine man. Two women crokes, as yt is impossible to do yt with ear ornaments made out of inflated stand to the side. Both are wearing more cunning orindustrye." fish bladders. His fingernails and toe skirts made of Spanish moss. One is nails have been filed to points. Vege drinking from a pottery bowl. The other As pictured, these traps are nei table offerings.fruits, grain, maize.and is suckling a child. Le Moyne informed ther complicated nor functional. Still, probably the leaves of the hex his readersthat the women "drink this the discrepancies are trifles when vamitoria used in preparing the cos blood, especially when it is that of a weighed against the richness of de sena drink lie before the column. strong young man, that it may im tail. To 16th century Europeans the Le prove their milk and make their off Moyne-De Bry illustrations were reve Strikingly, Le Moyne portrays spring stronger and more energetic." lations. "Okes. palme trees, cipers, Athore as Laudonnière’s equal. cedars and bayes" are represented A third group portrays scenes On the right side of the picture a in the drawings as well as what Ribault drawn from the daily life of Amerindi man is throwing something into a fire described as "the highest, fayrerest ans. These engravingsshow Indians at while another naked Indian lies on his and greatest ffirr trees that can be war, mutilating enemy corpses. stomach inhaling the fire’s smoke. A sene." They showed what is probably women mourning their fallen hus woman approaches from the left the first drawing of wild American bands, the work of hermaphrodites, carrying a string of berries or seeds turkeys. Behind the turkeys are grape the treatment of the sick, cultivation that will be fed to the fire. The smoke. vines and "great Pumpions pump of crops. cooking fish, meats, and other Le Moyne reported, "circulates the kins,much more excellent than those foods, sacrifice of first born sons. hunt entire body and induces vomiting and which we have in France." ing alligators, preparing for a feast. so expels the cause of sickness." In the holding councils, playing games,mar background, an Indian man is de The second group of the Le picted smoking a long pipe while a Moyne-De Bry engravingsrepresented rying, and burying the dead. Few are connected with specific events. woman stands to his right holding "ta historical incidents which occurred paco" leaves in her hands. during Le Moyne’s Florida sojourn. Four of the engravings capture the range of Le Moyne’s experiences. The plate marked 29 see page The first shows Laudonnière and One contains a greatdeal of informa 5. shows Indians gathered to advise Athore, Chief Saturiba’s son, standing their King. In the foreground women before Ribault’scolumn. Athore’sbody tion about Amerindian medicine. Two naked Indians lie prepare the cassena drink. A cup decorations are singular. His long hair on low wooden

benches. The Indian on the left is =4

Spring 1991 19 Le Moyne... continued from preceding page bearer carries the potion in a shell about 16th century Europeans as they drinking cup. Two men are shown do about the native Timucuans. When vomiting. Le Moyne remarked: a 16th and 17th century Europeans C So highly do they value this drink looked at these drawings they 0 C That nobody in This gaThering is al 0 "thought" theywere seeing the exotic 0 lowed to drink it unless he has first aC lands and peoples that lay across the C seas. Much of what they saw was, in proved himself a brave warrior. More 0 D over, This potion possesses The quality 0 fact, a vision. of inducing perspiration as soon as it The sacrifice of first-born children. The contemporary American es has been drunk. For this reason, those sayist, Wendell Berry, has written that who cannotstomach it but throw it up historically, Americans have exhibited - Suggested further reading - are not entrusted with any difficult much vision and little sight. What Berry undertaking ormilitary office. M. Alexander ed, Discover means is that as a people we have ing The New World. New York: The most disturbing engraving in Harper and Row, 1976. had a penchant for building our lives around visions of places rather than the series is entitled "The Sacrifice of R. Laudonnière. Three Voyages First-Born Children." In it a tatooed In C. Bennett,trans.. Gainesville: where we are. Sometimes it has been dian chief explains the ritual to a University of Florida Press, 1975 a vision of the place we left behind: a reprint of the 1586 original. French officer, who draws back in other times, it is a vision of where we Stefan Lorant ed. The New wish to go. Rarely, have we had suffi horror. Fourteen Indian women dance World: The RrstPicturesofAmer in a circle around a single woman ica. New York: DuelI,Sloan,and cient sight to see where we are and who is holding an infant above her Pearce, 1965, what we are doing. head. Another woman squats with The French and the Spaniards her face in her hands before a large launched an American tradition when stump. In the background a priest archaeologists’ findings. For instance, they tried to impose their vision of Flor holdingaclub stands flanked bythree William Sturtevant has identified the ida on the "flourishing land." men on each side. Le Moyne claimed "small bowls with handles, the bird leg Jacques Le Moyne was a rare to have witnessed such a sacrifice. ear ornament, the oval metal pen man. He possessed both vision and The engravings pose a number of dant, and the long-stemmed tobacco sight. Being human.his illustrations often puzzles. First, when did Le Moyne pipes" as being authentically Ameri fail. They contain misrepresentations. create the originals? Mostwere proba can. Nevertheless. there is something in Le bly drawn in the 1570s or early 1580s. But there are important anoma Moyne’s drawings that is honest and Two decades could have separated lies. The Indian women have wavy trustworthy. Le Moyne’s experiences and their hair. The baskets and quiver are of Eu Perhaps the value of the Le depiction. Second. how accurate ropean origin. Sturtevantobservesthat Moyne-De Bry engravings lies in their are De Boy’s engravings? Only one of the "exotic fruits in the baskets are im humanity. Human beings regularly Le Moyne’s original miniatures is ex probable - really impossible - for judge different cultural practices infe tant. It is impossible to know what Florida." Repeatedly, Le Moyne and! rior simply because they are different. liberties De Bry and his assistants may or De Bry Europeanize the Indian fig Le Moyne rose above his prejudices. have taken with the other drawings. ures and placeEuropean artifacts in a He heeded Ribault’s advice and The most vexing problem centers Florida setting, including pack bas looked on Florida’s "uncivilized" on the question of the engravings’ his kets, hoes, and shell vessels; the forms people with "gentilness and humany torical accuracy. They are, after all, of bows and arrowheads; the shapes tie." For this he deserves to be remem the product of a European mind re of pottery vessels; and even the awn bered among those who have fought membering American facts, ing on a litter. for humanity in the hemisphere of Consider the Athore engraving. The illustrations are not photo imagination. Some of the artifacts shown tally with graphic records. They reveal as much F.E.H

20 F.E.H Forum A View from the Board

As my term on the Board of Di any texts, be rectors comes to an end, Ihove been lieving that, reflecting on the relative worth of my through our activities. I don’t believe it is a mani publications. festation of mid-life crisis, but rather we have found the reflection that accompanies clo a way to guar sure. antee the im In the movie Sleeper, Woody Al mortality of au len offers us his vision of a future with thorship. It used Mark D. Szuchman an odd mixture of banality and high to be said that principles,self-referentialism and lead professors ership. In the end, the movie reminds could change students’ lives; by giv I feel fortunate, in contrast, to us of life’s pleasures. ing them knowledge we became have learned from colleagues on the agents of their growth, and by teach board and the staff of the FEH how to These images turn outto be noth ing them to learn weshaped their de affect the lives of creative people ing more than commentaries on our velopment. Today, such lofty and whose programs have, in turn, enli concerns and ideals today. Allen can narcissistic notions regarding our vened Floridians throughout the state. produce social criticism with his one- teaching have been reduced to a A young film maker expressed grati liners as penetratingly and deftly as more functional concept: information tude for the funds that made possible entire essays written by Thorstein empowers. the completion of her documentary. Veblen. In the movie, he awakens An anonymous Floridian scribbled an from a frozen state that had lasted for Such political reductionism rep earnest commendation for an FEH centuries. Asked how it feels to be so resents our times: we have learned to funded program devotedto the time deeply asleep, he replies that it is not think and actwithin a functional frame ly discussion of ethics and science. A too different from spending a week work. Only the concrete and specific librarian put together a literary pro end in Beverly Hills. is given value. Abstraction is consid ered inactive and wasteful. No won gram in a region of the state barely In important ways, we’re not very der so many young men and women noticed by most of us, yet richly imag different from Mr. Allen. We, too, are look for "practical" fields to study, by ined by scores of writers. These and capable of great imagination. We all which they mean professions whose hundreds of other instances of hu experiencemeditations that are noth activities yield concrete, measurable man spark brighten my path. ing more than adult versions of the outcomes in the form of goods or serv It’s notoften that we can make it mental autobiographies we fashioned ices. I’m not sure who is more naive possible for those with creativity to in our childhood daydreams. It’s only about their concepts of social value: share it. At FEH the results are visible, that, unlike Mr. Allen, most of us do not professors with their sense of immortal measurable, and concrete. fulfill our hopeful images of greatness. ity, or young CEO-wanna-be’s with Indeed, the sum total of our experi their notion of accumulations. Butboth ences may be reduced to a meta groups are subject equally, I’m cer phorical weekend in Beverly Hills. tain. to Allen’s Beverly Hills syndrome: People who belong to the profes when it’s all over, will that be all there sorate, as Ido,delight in writingschol was? Spring 1991 21 The maze called Ten Thousand Islands glistens along Florida’s southern Gult Coast below Marco Island. It marks the upper western edge at the mysterious, hauntingly beautitul Everglades Swamp - site of Peter Matthiessen ‘5 Killing Mister Watsan. See page I inside. Photo courtesy of the Florida State Archives,

FLORIDA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES 1718 E. Seventh Avenue * Suite 33301 * Tampa FL 33605