Interview with Keith Honeycutt, author of “The Storm”

We’re trying to highlight more Florida authors and books about Florida. Can you share a little about your personal connection to the state of Florida?

My attachment to Florida began when I was a kid going along on regular family holiday vacations from North Carolina down U. S. 1 visiting pre-Disney roadside attractions and enjoying the beaches. During my high school years, an aunt, uncle and cousins moved down to West Palm Beach, so the visits continued. When I was in college, my father-in-law moved to Kissimmee, so that just strengthened the connection, spurring me to look for a teaching job down here, which I found in 1987 at Florida Southern College. My wife and I raised our children here and have made many friends -- both transplants and natives. I'm a really happy transplant.

Your book, The Storm: An Antebellum Tale of Key West, brings us a previously unknown novella by Ellen Brown Anderson, a nineteenth-century Florida resident. Could you give us an overview of the story?

This novella is set in Key West in1846. The narrator, Jenny Greenough, marries at sixteen and moves from New York to Key West with her husband, Peter, a 29-year-old physician. She soon becomes unhappy with her repressive husband and expresses discontent over the institution of marriage and the lack of formal education and interesting options for women. Jenny's sister, Malinda, and her husband arrive and move in with the Greenoughs. One day, Jenny's brother-in-law announces that he is going north; she joins him to visit her parents, but her mother encourages her to return to her dismissive husband. As her boat reaches Key West, the big storm approaches. Not only does the hurricane destroy much of Key West, but it also changes her life in many ways. She returns to New York, where she eventually finds a happier, more fulfilling life.

What drew you to this topic? And how did you find out about it?

I first heard about this story in 2016 when Jim Cusick, curator of the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History at the University of Florida, contacted my colleague Mike Denham and me to see if we knew anything about the unsigned manuscript of The Storm, which had recently been donated to the library. Jim was familiar with our 2004 book, Echoes from a Distant Frontier, an edited collection of the letters of sisters Ellen and Corinna Brown, written when they lived in Florida from 1835-1850, including nine months in Key West. He had reason to believe that it might have been written by them.

One theme that runs through the letters, especially Ellen's, is the sisters' aspirations to become published authors. They faced numerous obstacles that prevented them from fulfilling that goal -- the prevailing prejudices facing female authors, unstable living circumstances, illness, and for Ellen, the death of her husband, which left her to raise three children on her own. I knew from Ellen's letters and from other unpublished stories and fragments that she never gave up trying to become a successful writer. Once I realized that this story could only have been written by Ellen, possibly with help from Corinna, I felt that I had to try to see it through to publication. I also believed that it would make a significant contribution to Florida's literary tradition.

The Keys are always interesting to people--they're a favorite Florida setting for many stories. And there always seem to be creative people in the Keys. What do this novella and author add to our understanding of the Keys?

This story provides a unique view of Antebellum Key West through a woman's perspective. This story shows what people ate and how they prepared it, how they gardened, how their houses were constructed, and how they furnished them. This story shows that Key West had a society of people who got together to socialize -- dine and dance together, shop together, attend dances, and share news -- and The Storm presents a look into their lives. It also presents a woman's perspective on the Keys' shipwreck rescue and salvage industry, showing how it affected everyone on the island.

How does this book help us better understand Florida, as a whole? 

The story is set almost entirely in Key West, which was different from most of the rest of Florida, such as the northern plantation belt or the inland settler communities. Still, Key West resembled the rest of Florida in that many Antebellum Floridians were new residents from northern states attracted by the opportunity to obtain land and/or money quickly, and so their ties to the community were loose; Key West in this story had a high concentration of get-rich-quick residents, such as the narrator's husband. 

What surprised you most in researching this book or in bringing it to publication?

I was surprised (and delighted) by the clearly documented paper trail following the manuscript from its first appearance at the University of Florida in 1972, its departure, and its possession by various people until it returned to UF in 2015.

What is it that you hope readers take away with them?

For one thing, readers will experience an exciting story with interesting characters, especially the narrator. For another, they will gain insight into antebellum life in Key West, a surprisingly bustling place in 1850. They will also get the unusual perspective of an antebellum female character who questions the subordinate status of women in the United States.

What are you working on now/next?

I'm currently working on a presentation about The Storm for a conference in Tampa in a couple of weeks, but for the long term, I'm thinking about working on an edition of the letters of Ellen 's older brother, Mannevillette. (This interview was conducted in October 2024.)

What do you think makes Florida special?

The undeveloped places in general make Florida special -- the national, state, and county parks, especially the rivers, creeks, and spring runs that you can best reach by canoe or kayak.

And/or, do you have a favorite Florida food or place? 

For wild places, I'm especially fond of Fisheating Creek and the unpopulated stretches of the Hillsborough River. My favorite Florida food is any seafood from the Starfish Company Seafood Restaurant in Cortez.

The Storm: An Antebellum Tale of Key West was published by the University Press of Florida in September 2024