-- Anthology of writings about Florida -- a historical and literary introduction to our state's rich and diverse culture
-- From early Spanish myths and Seminole and African-American folktales to the latest descriptions of modern Miami
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, John James Audubon, Zora Neale Hurston, Zane Grey, Wallace Stevens, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Jose Yglesias, and Harry Crews

Bringing Shakespeare to the Sunshine State, this book gathers together a talented group of teachers, choreographers, directors, set designers, musicians, costumers, actors, and artists to discuss how they have adapted the bard's monologues in Miami, assassinated Julius Caesar on the steps of Tallahassee's Capitol, trained students to duel in Florida's Panhandle, placed Shylock on trial in Orlando, and transformed Gainesville into Puck's magical forest. This guide for teachers and lovers of literature and theater is an original collection of essays exploring the idea that Shakespeare's plays are best approached playfully through performance. Based on their wide-ranging experience as theater professionals and teachers in Florida, New York, London, and Stratford, the authors celebrate Shakespeare's continuing appeal to our complex, diverse culture. The essays include reflections on acting by the Royal Shakespeare Company's longest-serving member. And there's practical advice on acting; directing; staging fights; designing costumes; and integrating music, dance, masks, and puppets into performances from teachers and others who have refined their methods by performing Shakespeare in the classroom.

For generations scholars have labored scrupulously to try to separate the facts of William Shakespeare's life from the myths that have entangled them. However, those who have written fictions about the bard have operated under no such constraints. They offer solutions to the identities of W.H. and the Dark Lady, suggest Shakespeare's role in the shaping of the King James Bible, and trace his relationships with Sir Thomas Lucy, Francis Bacon, Elizabeth I, Kit Marlowe and Ben Jonson. And they speculate endlessly about Shakespeare's pets and poaching, his sources and inspiration, his melancholy and death. From Alexandre Duval's Shakespeare (1804) to Anthony Burgess's ?The Muse, ? this is an anthology of nineteen fictional depictions of Shakespeare. They include Edward H. Warren's account of Shakespeare playing the stock market on Wall Street (with the Three Weird Sisters making stock predictions near a blast furnace in New Jersey), Leon Rooke's vivid memoir of the Bard's dog, and the works of such notables as George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling and Edward Bond are included.

""Orange Pulp" is a stylish, engaging collection that belongs on everybody's night stand. Each story sizzles and pops with Florida's raunchy, intoxicating heat. This is great fun."--Carl Hiaasen
"Ah, Florida's growing cash crop--scumbags in paradise. With "Orange Pulp," Glassman and O'Sullivan again make the case that the Sunshine State need not look to L.A., or even past the azaleas, for the next noir fix. The 'lost' Willeford piece alone is worth the price of admission."--Tim Dorsey, author of "Florida Roadkill" and "Hammerhead Ranch Motel"

"It's about time someone gathered a full collection of the writing about the dark side of the Sunshine State."-- George H. Meyer, author of "Kill the Landlord"

"This collection brings together for the first time a good sample of the many stories that have made Florida such a natural, popular setting for mysteries. The editors have made available rather inaccessible stories and novels that will entertain mystery lovers for quite a while."-- Kevin McCarthy, University of Florida

"Orange Pulp" is an anthology of crime, of heroes and villains, and it celebrates the murder mystery. The writers--creators of the genre sometimes called "American noir"--including John D. MacDonald and Charles Willeford, helped Florida become a serious contender for the title of crime fiction capital of America.

Even the most devoted aficionados of the genre have rarely encountered the kind of nonstop action concocted by the reclusive founder of the American hard-boiled mystery, Carroll John Daly; the comic elegance of Jonathan Latimer; or the eclectic world of Mike Shayne in Brett Halliday's classic series.

"Orange Pulp" also includes Mary Roberts Rinehart's only Florida story, Edwin Granberry's brilliantly realized account of an execution, and a tribute to the ecological concerns of John D. MacDonald, whose work transformed the Florida pulps into a true art.

The editors begin with a comprehensive survey of Florida crime fiction and provide generous introductions to each individual author. The book includes two special bonuses: the complete text of "The Hated One" by Don Tracy, a riveting novel of murder, race, and culture that has been out of print for decades, and the opening to an unfinished work by Charles Willeford, creator of the classic Hoke Moseley novels such as "Miami Blues" and "Sideswipe."

With work by legendary pioneers from the golden age of pulp fiction, this collection reveals a rich and popular--though often overlooked--tradition of mystery writing in the Sunshine State.

Contributors
Carroll John Daly
Edwin Granberry
Jonathan Latimer
Brett Halliday
Mary Roberts Rinehart
John D. MacDonald
Stephen Ransome
Charles Willeford
Don Tracy

Maurice O'Sullivan is Kenneth Curry Chair of Literature and chair of the English Department and Humanities Division at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. He is the coeditor of "The Florida Reader" and (with Steve Glassman) of "Crime Fiction and Film in the Sunshine State" (an Edgar finalist in 1998).

Steve Glassman is associate professor in the Department of the Humanities at Embry-Riddle University, Daytona Beach, Florida. He is author of the novel "Blood on the Moon," coeditor of "Zora in Florida" (UPF, 1991), and (with Maurice O'Sullivan) coeditor of "Crime Fiction and Film in the Sunshine State."