Douglas, Marjory Stoneman

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, 1890–1998, American journalist, writer, and environmentalist, b. Minneapolis, grad. Wellesley College, 1912. In 1915 she moved to Miami and began working for a newspaper that later became the Miami Herald, writing about women's issues, social justice, and the environment. She advocated for protection of the Everglades, on which S Florida's increasing development was encroaching. After leaving the Herald (1923) she freelanced for the Saturday Evening Post and other publications, writing short stories, novels, and poetry as well as nonfiction. Her Everglades: River of Grass (1947) led to the creation of Everglades National Park. Her activism grew in the 1950s as flood control projects drained much of the Everglades and led to increased agricultural and urban development. Douglas founded the Friends of the Everglades in 1969.

See her autobiography, Voice of the River (1987); biography by J.E. Davis (2009).

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