Author At Ortona Libary

ORTONA, FL. -- Lee Gramling, a sixth-generation Floridian and author of
five "Cracker Westerns," will speak about his book, "Ninety-Mile Prairie,"
at noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 8 at the Ortona Library. Free
and open to the public, this presentation is last program of a project
called "Exploring Florida Through Literature," funded by a grant from the
Florida Humanities Council.

"I'm one of those great rarities in Florida nowadays," Gramling said, "a
native whose ancestors migrated here when this was still a wild untamed
frontier."

Although one branch of his family settled in Levy County in the 1840s, it
wasn't until he lived out west that he decided to write frontier fiction
set in Florida. While he spent seven years in Oklahoma, he became an
admirer of the late Louis L'Amour. His books combine lively storytelling
with the historical background of Florida's wild and wooly past.

Gramling lives and writes in Gainesville, where he works for the Florida
Department of Children and Families.

For more information or to register for the reading/discussion program,
contact Fran Way at 675-7880 or franwayrn@aol.com. For more information
about FHC grants, contact Susan Lockwood, Grants Director at (727) 553-3807
or email slockwood@flahum.org.