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THE MYSTERIOUS MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS MYSTERY


      I have recently become aware of something mysterious going on.  It is people referring to Marjory Stoneman Douglas' book   Everglades: River of Grass   as   River of Grass . The first few times this happened I didn't pay much attention but after the sixth and seventh I woke up.

      I tried contacting some of these people. They said "Doesn't everyone do this ?". Well, no, most people are not trying to change the title of a book. Even innocently. In my many years in the book business I have never heard of an instance of people trying to change the title of a book.
  • In the novel Powder Burn (1981) by Carl Hiaasen on page 245 the protagonist is in a bookstore in DadeLand and a lady comes up to him, thinking he is a clerk, and asks where she can find a copy of River of Grass.
  • On the blurb on the front flap of the dust jacket of Nine Florida Stories... edited by Kevin M. McCarthy and published in 1990 it says "The author whose River of Grass would alert ...".
  • In a discussion of Elizabeth Royte's The Tapir's Morning Bath (2001) the author says in passing "...Marjorie(sic) Stoneman Douglas (she of River of Grass fame)."
  • In Skinny Dip (2004), the novel by Carl Hiaasen, on page 282 are the words "...you must've read River of Grass about a hundred times.".
  • In the Wikipedia article on Skinny Dip, it says "the novel makes reference to River of Grass by Marjory ...". The change adding this to Wikipedia was made on Aug 6 2007 by CROUCHBK.

      Then it occurred to me. It's a conspiracy. Some mysterious organization must be behind this. What are they doing ? They are leaving out the word "Everglades". They must be trying to diminish the idea of the Everglades itself. How diabolical. Why are they doing this ? I can't see power or glory involved; it can only be money. That points to the wicked sugar barons, the land developers, and their craven minions, the politicians.
       A new item. On May 7th 2009 I received a copy of the May issue of the Miami Monthly magazine. It featured an article about the history of Miami. In the paragraph about Everglades National Park I came across a sentence saying that awareness of the park was boosted by publication of "River of Grass".
       Another. Looking through the net I came across this web page: Marjory Douglas on the website of the American Park Network about MSD. Here they first call the book Everglades: River of Grass but two subsequent times they call it River of Grass. On 8 May 2009 I left them a comment about this on their site. Checking back several months later (August 2009) I see they posted my query on their page but have not corrected their error.

Last modified: 15 August 2009