A Land Remembered has been ranked #1 Best Florida Book eight times in
annual polls conducted by Florida Monthly Magazine.
In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three
generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships
of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poor Cracker life to the wealth and
standing of real estate tycoons. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias
MacIvey arrives in the Florida wilderness to start a new life with his
wife and infant son, and ends two generations later in 1968 with Solomon
MacIvey, who realizes that the land has been exploited far beyond human
need. The sweeping story that emerges is a rich, rugged Florida history
featuring a memorable cast of crusty, indomitable Crackers battling wild
animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation,
hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the swamp. But their
most formidable adversary turns out to be greed, including finally their
own. Love and tenderness are here too: the hopes and passions of each
new generation, friendships with the persecuted blacks and Indians, and
respect for the land and its wildlife.
A Land Remembered was winner of the Florida Historical Society's
Tebeau Prize as the Most Outstanding Florida Historical Novel. Now in
its 14th hardcover printing, it has been in print since 1984 and is also
available in trade paperback.