author
Byrd Spilman Dewey
1856–1942
A Florida pioneer who turned firsthand frontier experience into vivid fiction, she wrote stories that bring early central and south Florida to life. Her best-known book, Bruno, blends adventure, local color, and the realities of settlement in a fast-changing landscape.
1 Audiobook
Bruno
by Byrd Spilman Dewey
About the author
Born Julia Bird Spilman in Covington, Kentucky, in 1856, she later became known as Byrd Spilman Dewey. She moved to Florida in the early 1880s and spent much of the rest of her life there, drawing on pioneer life for her writing.
She is best remembered for Bruno, a novel rooted in the Deweys' early years in central Florida. Her work is often noted for its picture of frontier conditions, wildlife, and everyday life in a developing state, which gives it value both as storytelling and as a record of Florida's past.
Beyond writing, she and her husband, Fred S. Dewey, were involved in land development and are associated with the founding of the Town of Boynton in Florida. She died in 1942, leaving behind a body of work closely tied to Florida history and settlement.