Michael Gannon will always have a special place in my heart. When I started this blog in 2013 it was his books that I first absorbed in my quest to learn everything I possibly could about Florida.
His History of Florida in 40 Minutes is a fun place to start. Florida: A Short history is good and I hear that The New History of Florida is very good too, but I haven’t read it quite yet.
Michael Gannon entered the catholic priesthood in 1959 and received his PhD in History from the University of Florida in 1962. Gannon became a faculty member at UF in 1967 and taught history and religion. He resigned from the priesthood in 1976 (little is known about his resignation, but I would guess he wanted to focus more on teaching, writing and he also got married at some point). He continued teaching at UF until 2003. He passed on April 11, 2017.
A few other interesting tidbits of this extraordinary gentleman:
- Made Knight Commander of the Order of Isabel the Catholic, granted by King Juan Carlos I of Spain
- Gainesville Citizen of the Year in 1972
- Received the Order of La Florida (City of St. Augustine’s highest honor)
- Was a war correspondent for the Vietnam War in 1968
If you would like to purchase one of his works via amazon, here is a conveniently located amazon link.
And now the books!
Rebel Bishop: Autustin Verot (1964)
The Cross In The Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida (1967)
Operation Drumbeat: Germany’s U-Boat Attacks Along American Coast In World War II (1990)
Secret Missions: A Novel (1994)
The New History of Florida (1996)
Florida: A Short History (2003)
The History of Florida (2013) (Editor)
History of Flordia In 40 Minutes (2007)
Black May: The Epic Story of the Allies’ Defeat of the German U-Boats in May 1943 (2011)
Pearl Harbor Betrayed (2014)
For further reading The Tampa Bay Times wrote a great profile piece on him that includes the time he was arrested and his friendship with Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
