Compiled for the first time, Florida pioneer author Byrd Spilman Dewey's books, short stories, magazine articles, newspaper articles and essays bring back a forgotten South Florida paradise of more than a century ago. This volume includes her national best-seller Bruno, and books From Pine Woods to Palm Groves and The Blessed Isle and its Happy Families, along with her shorter pieces of fiction and nonfiction. Read the enchanting tales of the Dewey's life in their beloved South Florida and the Lake Worth Country with their menagerie of cats and dogs that graced their Florida homesteads. Editors Ginger L. Pedersen and Janet M. DeVries, authors of the award-winning biography Pioneering Palm Beach: The Deweys and the South Florida Frontier provide background information on Byrd Spilman Dewey, with introductory essays to each book section to help tell the story of Florida's forgotten pioneer author, land developer and conservationist.

A vivid biography of the nineteenth-century society couple who helped turn a tropical wilderness into a Gilded Age paradise. Palm Beach’s sunny and idyllic shores had humble beginnings as a wilderness of sawgrass and swamps only braved by the hardiest of souls. Two such adventurers were Fred and Byrd “Birdie” Spilman Dewey, who pioneered in central Florida before discovering the tropical beauty of Palm Beach in 1887. Though their story was all but lost, this dynamic couple was vital in transforming the region from a rough backcountry into a paradise poised for progress. Authors Ginger Pedersen and Janet DeVries trace the remarkable history of the Deweys in South Florida from their beginnings on the isolated frontier to entertaining the likes of the Flaglers, Vanderbilts, Phippses, Cluetts, Clarkes, and other Palm Beach elite. Using Birdie’s autobiographical writings from her bestselling books to fill in the gaps, Pedersen and DeVries narrate a chapter in Florida’s history that has remained untold until now.

Tireless inventor and reckless speed demon Glenn Curtiss left a trail of firsts in his wake, including patents, transatlantic flights and a 1907 land speed record. James Bright was a fellow visionary who partnered with Curtiss to develop the communities of Hialeah, Miami Springs and Opa Locka. Told here for the first time, this captivating story is one of daring entrepreneurship in the midst of the south Florida land boom of the early 1920's.