"In the first comprehensive examination of Florida’s remarkably rich library of colonial literature, Have You Not Hard of Floryda? explores how our southernmost state’s multicultural, multilingual roots continue to bear fruit today. The book’s fascinating interdisciplinary approach and delightful prose style create a savory blend of literary analysis and historical narrative, a true feast for anyone interested in the ways our past can shape our future."

          -- Eddie Huang

             Author of Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir (adapted as a television series on ABC),  restaurateur, producer, and attorney.

“Maurice O'Sullivan begins this amazingly thorough and fully realized history with a quote from Eugene O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night (1941): ‘The past is the present, isn't it?  It's the future, too.’  His combination of scholarly and literary knowledge in Have You Not Hard of Floryda? brings O'Neill's observation vividly to life. The cruelty, bravery, prejudice and generosity of Florida's past is still with us as Climate Change and politics display daily in contemporary newspapers and novels. O'Sullivan presents this history of ‘America's Oldest literary tradition’ with clarity, grace, and, in the end, empathy:  Despite its dark background and flawed present, Florida is still beautiful.”

          -- Peter Meinke, Poet Laureate of Florida