Edith Pope was born in St. Augustine, Florida, on July 23, 1905. Her parents were Florence and A.M. Taylor, a local banker and Florida state senator. After attending the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she matriculated to the Florida State College for Women, now Florida State University. She received a B.A. degree in 1928, and a M.A. degree from Columbia University (1931). In 1933, she married Verle A. Pope of St. Augustine, later a state senator (1949-1972) and president of the Florida Senate (1967). Her writing career began early. Black Lagoon and Other Verses (1926), her first book, was published while she was still in college, and her first novel, Not Magnolia (1928), the year she graduated. Two additional titles, Old Lady Esteroy (1934), and Half Holiday (1938), were also published under her maiden name Edith Everett Taylor. Her later works Colcorton (1944), River in the Wind (1954), and the juvenile Biggety Chameleon (1946) were authored under the name of Edith Pope. This change of name confused reviewers into believing that her most successful work, Colcorton, was a "first novel."
From the guide to the Edith Pope Papers, 1899-1961, (Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida)
