Spilman Dewey

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. Naughton, 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.

Byrd Spilman Dewey was an accomplished author, conservationist and pioneer developer, witnessing Florida’s development from 1881 until her passing in 1942. Mrs. Dewey’s accomplishments across multiple disciplines are well chronicled. She was a frequent contributor to such magazines as Good Housekeeping, Vogue and the Christian Union. She was the trailblazer for women journalists in South Florida, becoming the first columnist for The Tropical Sun, the earliest South Florida newspaper. Her column The Sitting Room inspired and counseled pioneer women on running a household in the harsh South Florida environment. She continued her literary career with the 1899 publication of Bruno, the first national best-selling book to be written in South Florida. Seeing Florida’s great potential, she began investing in land, an unusual occupation for a woman of her time. The land she purchased near Lake Worth in 1892 was eventually platted by her and her husband in 1898 as the Town of Boynton, making her the only woman to plat and found a town in the to-be Palm Beach County. She continued her work well into her 60s by becoming the Florida Audubon Society’s field secretary, traveling the state making speeches in favor of bird sanctuaries and humane treatment of animals. The City of Boynton Beach has recently paid tribute to Mrs. Dewey and her husband by renaming a city park in their honor, located in the town’s original plat.