Florida Southern College Professor of English Literature, Dr. Keith Huneycutt, Publishes Book About Life in Antebellum Key West

Having taught English literature for nearly 40 years, Dr. Huneycutt knows a thing or two about storytelling. When he discovered The Storm, an unpublished and undated manuscript donated to the University of Florida in 2015, he knew it could only be the work of Ellen Brown Anderson, a nineteenth-century writer who lived on Florida’s frontier for 15 years. Anderson’s work remained widely unpublished for nearly two hundred years due to unstable living conditions and prejudices against female authors during her lifetime. Now, nearly a century and a half later, her novella, The Storm, will be published.

Because Anderson completed the manuscript during her life, Dr. Huneycutt took an editorial role in the publication by polishing the writing and providing commentary and background on the content. He is passionate about Florida literature and has been editing the Anderson family’s writings since 1995.

“I knew from Ellen's letters, other unpublished stories, and fragments in her descendants' possession that she never gave up trying to become a successful writer,” said Dr. Huneycutt. “Once I realized that this story could only have been written by Ellen, I felt that I had to try to see it through to publication. I also believed that it would be a significant addition to Florida's literary tradition.”

The Story of The Storm

The novella tells the sweeping tale of a young bride, brought to Key West from New England, who must acclimate to her new surroundings in a loveless, hopeless marriage. The story culminates with a hurricane that washes away many of the town’s buildings and its lighthouse.

“The remote Key West setting worsens the difficult situation of the narrator,” according to Dr. Huneycutt. “She is age sixteen and unprepared for marriage, especially to an insensitive scoundrel, and she is isolated from her New York City family and friends.”

The Storm is a unique piece of antebellum Florida fiction. It presents everyday domestic life from a woman’s perspective, and challenges the status of girls’ education, the lack of employment opportunities for women, and the subordinate role of women in marriage. The novella is the first of many Florida hurricane stories written by women and suggests that Ellen Brown Anderson is the Sunshine State’s earliest female author.

Anderson illuminates the region’s shipwreck rescue and salvaging industry by describing the daily life of an average Key West citizen. Often, people were drawn to south Florida by the opportunity to rapidly acquire money and property, and this “get-rich-quick" mindset of the town is a major theme of the story, along with a general depiction of the lives of everyday people who enjoyed gathering to dance, shop, and talk.

The Manuscript’s Journey

When Ellen Anderson died in 1862 her children inherited her writings, including The Storm. The papers were passed down through several generations until 1972, when a family member sold them in Gainesville. After passing through the hands of historians and rare booksellers, The Storm was donated to the University of Florida in 2015.

Dr. Huneycutt’s first research task was to find evidence proving the origin of the work. He conducted interviews with Florida historians and compared Ellen Brown Anderson’s personal views to the ideas expressed in The Storm. He scoured antebellum Florida fiction to determine how Anderson’s novella fits into the literary tradition and conducted research about American and Florida history with an emphasis on antebellum literature.

Dr. Huneycutt has been working with the writings of Ellen Brown Anderson and her sister Corinna Brown since 1995. His previous publications have included anthologies of the sisters’ letters, co-published with Dr. James Denham, professor of history at Florida Southern College.

The Storm is currently available for preorder here and will be released in September 2024.