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The Florida History and Culture Series
The Tropic of Cracker
" The Tropic of Cracker will . . . end the debate once and for all, of whether the term ‘Cracker’ is derogatory or a source of great pride. Al Burt has a masterpiece here."--Sandra Bogan, Florida Audubon Society
From the
"The Tropic of Cracker survives in myth, memory, and love of natural Florida. It exists more in the mind than in geography, more in the memory than in the sight, more in attitude than in the encounter. . . . This book tells you about one man’s vision of a state struggling to remain true to itself. It mixes new essays with a span of earlier ones written during nearly a quarter century of roving the state as a columnist for the Miami Herald . All of them, in sum, help illuminate and explain the Tropic of Cracker."--Al Burt
The crack of the old-time cow hunter’s whip gave the native Floridian a nickname, but Al Burt’s Tropic of Cracker is a state of mind shared by those who love "what remains of the Florida that needed no blueprint or balance sheet for its creation, that was here before there was a can opener or a commercial or a real-estate agent."
In his years of roving the state as a Miami Herald columnist, Al Burt mapped Florida’s Tropic of Cracker, not with lines of latitude and longitude but with stories.
The Crackers Burt tells of are men and women from Apalachicola to the Everglades, from Tallahassee to the Keys. They lived in the late 1800s, and they live today--along the Ocklawaha and in the floodplains of Lake Okeechobee. They were cow hunters, Conchs, and alligator men. They grew oranges, sugarcane, and muscadine grapes. They made moonshine. They drove mules, ate fried mullet, and told yarns in a Cracker creole about Florida’s panthers, snakes, alligators, and hurricanes. There are luminaries among them--Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Virgil Hawkins, John DeGrove, Harry Crews--but mostly they are just regular folk who mark the borders of the elusive and magical Tropic of Cracker.
For anyone who loves the old Florida and still has hope for the new one, Tropic of Cracker is the state’s truest road map and Al Burt its most eloquent cartographer. Al Burt worked as a journalist for 45 years, the last 22 at the Miami Herald . The recipient of numerous journalism awards, he has been a freelance contributor to many magazines, including The Nation and Historic Preservation , and is the author of several books, among them A Place in the Sun (1974), Becalmed in the Mullet Latitudes (1984), and Al Burt’s Florida (UPF, 1997), which was awarded the 1998 Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Book Award. In his honor, the 1,000 Friends of Florida established the annual Al Burt Award for Florida journalism.
From the
"The Tropic of Cracker survives in myth, memory, and love of natural Florida. It exists more in the mind than in geography, more in the memory than in the sight, more in attitude than in the encounter. . . . This book tells you about one man’s vision of a state struggling to remain true to itself. It mixes new essays with a span of earlier ones written during nearly a quarter century of roving the state as a columnist for the Miami Herald . All of them, in sum, help illuminate and explain the Tropic of Cracker."--Al Burt
The crack of the old-time cow hunter’s whip gave the native Floridian a nickname, but Al Burt’s Tropic of Cracker is a state of mind shared by those who love "what remains of the Florida that needed no blueprint or balance sheet for its creation, that was here before there was a can opener or a commercial or a real-estate agent."
In his years of roving the state as a Miami Herald columnist, Al Burt mapped Florida’s Tropic of Cracker, not with lines of latitude and longitude but with stories.
The Crackers Burt tells of are men and women from Apalachicola to the Everglades, from Tallahassee to the Keys. They lived in the late 1800s, and they live today--along the Ocklawaha and in the floodplains of Lake Okeechobee. They were cow hunters, Conchs, and alligator men. They grew oranges, sugarcane, and muscadine grapes. They made moonshine. They drove mules, ate fried mullet, and told yarns in a Cracker creole about Florida’s panthers, snakes, alligators, and hurricanes. There are luminaries among them--Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Virgil Hawkins, John DeGrove, Harry Crews--but mostly they are just regular folk who mark the borders of the elusive and magical Tropic of Cracker.
For anyone who loves the old Florida and still has hope for the new one, Tropic of Cracker is the state’s truest road map and Al Burt its most eloquent cartographer. Al Burt worked as a journalist for 45 years, the last 22 at the Miami Herald . The recipient of numerous journalism awards, he has been a freelance contributor to many magazines, including The Nation and Historic Preservation , and is the author of several books, among them A Place in the Sun (1974), Becalmed in the Mullet Latitudes (1984), and Al Burt’s Florida (UPF, 1997), which was awarded the 1998 Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Book Award. In his honor, the 1,000 Friends of Florida established the annual Al Burt Award for Florida journalism.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 21, 2019
The Tropic of Cracker by Al Burt (University Press of Florida 1999) (975.9063) (3406).
This is a volume of essays about “Old Florida” which was once populated mainly by cow hunters and cattlemen who were called “crackers” after the sound made by the long bullwhips the cowhandlers used to keep their charges moving. The cutoff date between New Florida and Old Florida falls somewhere between when the Army Corps of Engineers began to drain the Everglades and when Disney began to purchase massive tracts of land mid-state on which to erect theme parks.
Author Al Burt was for many years a roving columnist for the Miami Herald, and the essays contained herein were first published in said newspaper.
I wanted to love this book. Though well written, I found the offerings to be of the type that would appeal mostly to members of local garden clubs or chambers of commerce. I am neither.
My rating: 7/10, finished 12/20/19 (3406). HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
March 4, 2018
Having adopted Florida as my state of choice though not by birth, I have lived here the longest and find its ever changing dynamic fascinating. This is not my first book on Florida history, nor will it be my last. This is more a short story collection of little towns through time and less a history lesson. Thus had it been marketed differently, I think the disappointment among those having read it may have been more favorable. For those wanting a real slice of life type story, there are plenty of them including Peter Matthiessen's "Killing Mr. Watson" or the others in his Shadow Country Trilogy. Or the most respected "A Land Remembered" by Patrick Smith (which I need to finish). Also, I thoroughly enjoyed "Last Train to Paradise" which was very interesting and it's evil twin "Meet You in Hell" (which I didn't find as compelling as I anticipated).
Nevertheless, this story is told by someone with deep roots in the way Florida was before the damn Yankees and ferigners came and spoiled it. It was a time where many struggled to survive not only a vast region of swamp land and predators as terrifying as one might encounter in Africa and the weather that was as unforgiving as many places in the great North.
The various chapters are as diverse as the region itself. We meet people who are farmers to cowboys to those who rely on the sea for survival. My favorite story was on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her husband. I remember another story about a family and one son in particular that barely survived raising and grazing cattle in Central Florida and thinking that it could have been set anywhere in the Midwest and read exactly the same, which was disappointing because there are some very unique stories to be shared. There was a story on the Mermaids at Weeki Watchee attraction too which I never ventured to see and now wished I had. I recall one story about two men, set up an attraction in outside Lake Okeechobee, which was a tourist trap for those with nothing better to do than to stop and rest in that god forsaken region famous even abroad only to finance their continued survival and desire to do as little as possible to eke out a living.
This is one of those charming books you come across and think, this will be interesting but when you finish, you think well that will get 50 cents at the next yard sale, if a history buff wonders by.
Nevertheless, this story is told by someone with deep roots in the way Florida was before the damn Yankees and ferigners came and spoiled it. It was a time where many struggled to survive not only a vast region of swamp land and predators as terrifying as one might encounter in Africa and the weather that was as unforgiving as many places in the great North.
The various chapters are as diverse as the region itself. We meet people who are farmers to cowboys to those who rely on the sea for survival. My favorite story was on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her husband. I remember another story about a family and one son in particular that barely survived raising and grazing cattle in Central Florida and thinking that it could have been set anywhere in the Midwest and read exactly the same, which was disappointing because there are some very unique stories to be shared. There was a story on the Mermaids at Weeki Watchee attraction too which I never ventured to see and now wished I had. I recall one story about two men, set up an attraction in outside Lake Okeechobee, which was a tourist trap for those with nothing better to do than to stop and rest in that god forsaken region famous even abroad only to finance their continued survival and desire to do as little as possible to eke out a living.
This is one of those charming books you come across and think, this will be interesting but when you finish, you think well that will get 50 cents at the next yard sale, if a history buff wonders by.
September 8, 2022
This book is essentially a series of stories about Florida from mostly the late seventies early eighties with a few late nineties ones stuck in there.. The author, a former journalist from The Miami Herald, reprints some of his stories in this book.
My personal favorite is the one about the Plantation Inn being burned down as that takes place In Lake Wales where I am from.
Love all the Polk County references throughout all the stories. My favorite stories include the one about Marjorie Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings' husband, the one about Zora Neal Hurston even though I knew that story a little bit already and The story about the hand cranked steel bridge.. But there are lots of good stories in this. It took me a while reading the book to get the rhythm of what the author is doing.
The book sufficiently captures a snapshot of Florida during a certain time period. I liked some of the predictions near the end about the next Florida about how swamps will be more appreciated, more folks will love grapefruit juice and how the whole middle of the state will become one big mega city.
The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was that in a few of the chapters the Klan seemed to be a bit romanticized. Yuck!
Enjoyed reading this
My personal favorite is the one about the Plantation Inn being burned down as that takes place In Lake Wales where I am from.
Love all the Polk County references throughout all the stories. My favorite stories include the one about Marjorie Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings' husband, the one about Zora Neal Hurston even though I knew that story a little bit already and The story about the hand cranked steel bridge.. But there are lots of good stories in this. It took me a while reading the book to get the rhythm of what the author is doing.
The book sufficiently captures a snapshot of Florida during a certain time period. I liked some of the predictions near the end about the next Florida about how swamps will be more appreciated, more folks will love grapefruit juice and how the whole middle of the state will become one big mega city.
The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was that in a few of the chapters the Klan seemed to be a bit romanticized. Yuck!
Enjoyed reading this
May 26, 2017
Not particularly well written but interesting non the less. Short stories of Florida "crackers" and "conchs"!
February 26, 2022
Interesting history of old unspoiled Florida
January 13, 2015
As a new resident of north central Florida, this book brought so much context to the new world around me. Burt's love for old Florida and its cast of characters -- from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings to cracker cattlemen -- is always fun. Well written, fun and definitely worth the time for anyone interested in the history of north Florida. For those not interested in Florida, it offers some good insight into the South's segregationist past, old agriculture-based economy and mid-20th century literary scene.
May 21, 2008
Also not what I wanted it to be in terms of n account of Florida history, but a nice series of essays on cracker culture, too many pictures of skinned rabbits/boar's heads for my taste as well.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews