Freelancer Corita Doggett Corse headed the Florida Federal Writers Project in the 1930s

Just a little more about the Federal Writers Project and its Depression-era state guide books we were discussing yesterday. Zora Neale Hurston worked on Florida, A Guide to the Southernmost State (1939), the Sunshine State’s contribution to the collection. Stetson Kennedy was ostensibly her supervisor, though Stetson was quoted as saying it was virtually impossible to supervise Zora. She tended to work out in the field alone and send large envelopes with her material back to headquarters.

The big boss, the overall supervisor of the Federal Writers Project in Florida was Corita Doggett Corse, a freelance writer who is credited with such tourist oriented volumes as The Historical Romance of Florida's Silver Springs: Shrine of the Water Gods (1948) and Florida Empire of the Sun (1930), which she wrote for the Florida State Hotel Commission. She also wrote Dr. Andrew Turnbull and the New Smyrna Colony of Florida (1919). Click on the photo to enlarge it. To enquire about these items, please call (727) 822-3278.