The Beneficent Blaze: The Story of Major Lew B. Brown.

New York: Pageant Press, Inc., (1960). First Edition. Signed by the Author. Octavo, yellow cloth (hardcover), 347 pp. Very Good, with heavy darkening to pages; in a Fair, mylar protected dust jacket with edgewear that includes chipping. From dust jacket: Every automobile license plate in the state of Florida bears the words “Sunshine State.” St. Petersburg, Florida, is as well known by the name “Sunshine City.” The stretch of neighboring communities along the Gulf of Mexico comprise the “Sun Coast,” linked by an eleven-mile-long bridge and causeway called the “Sunshine Skyway.” The word “Sunshine”, in fact, has come to be almost synonymous with the word “Florida.” This is the fruit of a project begun by one man. Fifty years ago, when Florida was beginning its fantastic growth as a great resort area, it needed something to serve as the trademark of its special peculiar climate and the environment. “This region,” reasoned Lew B. Brown, “where all the time is summer and the flowers never die, is blessed with an abundance of sunshine.” So he called St. Petersburg “Sunshine City” and made an unheard-of offer -- to give away, free, every copy of every edition of his newspaper every day that the sun failed to shine on the office of publication. Fire played a conspicuous part in the life of Major Lew B. Brown. He was born during the fire of the Civil War. In the years that followed, fire destroyed his business, his home -- but never his fighting spirit or his absolute integrity. In this admirably written biography by his granddaughter, we follow “Gandy” as she affectionately called him as a youngster in Arkansas. The War Between the States had ended, and with it, a way of life. Shortly after, Lew’s father passed away. His mother, Amelia, a veritable pillar of courage and determination, imparted to Lew her own indomitable spirit: “You can do ‘most anything if you set your mind to do -- so long as it is right.” He became a printer, a reporter, an editor; he found time to write poetry and to pass the Kentucky bar examinations. His lack of formal education hardly deterred him. Indeed, if anything, it drove him harder to slake his insatiable thirst for knowledge...