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Dr.
Florence Weinberg
Born
in the high desert country, in Alamagordo, New Mexico,
Florence loved exploring the wilderness on foot and
horseback. Those grandiose landscapes formed her sensibility.
Hidden pockets of unexpected greenery tucked away near
springs in folds of barren mountainsides spoke to her
of gentleness and beauty in an otherwise harsh world.
She published her first poem in a children's magazine
shortly after she learned to read at age four; wrote
her first 'novel' at age six, entitled Ywain, King of
All Cats. She illustrated the 'book' herself.
She traveled extensively with her military family during World Ward II. With her husband
the brilliant scholar and teacher, Kurt Weinberg, she
worked and traveled in Canada, Germany, France, and
Spain. After earning her PhD, she taught for twenty-two
years at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, and
for ten at Trinity University in San Antonio. She published
four scholarly books, many articles and book reviews,
doing research in the U.S. and abroad.
When, after retiring in 1999, she was freed from academia to devote herself to writing fiction, she produced ten novels, ranging from fantasy to historical romance and mystery. Six are in print as well as one in press: an historical romance about the French Renaissance, published in France in French translation by Editions Lyonnaises d'Art et d'Histoire, three historical mysteries starring the 18th-century Jesuit missionary, Father Ignaz (Ygnacio) Pfefferkorn. Two of these set in the Sonora Desert, the third in an ancient monastery in Spain. The book in press is a further Pfefferkorn mystery that follows his fate after his release from Spanish prison: Unrest in Eden. Four of the historical novels have received a total of eight awards, some of them multiple: Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross (three awards), about the founding of San Antonio, Seven Cities of Mud (one award), depicting the fate of the small Franciscan expedition up the Rio Grande in 1581-82, forty years after Coronado, Sonora Moonlight (one award), about Father Ygnacio’s confrontation with a Pima Indian medicine man and his search for the murderer of a local white rancher by beheading and crucifixion, Sonora Wind (three awards), about Father Ygnacio’s pursuit of the murderer of an army captain sent to inspect the mission’s books, together with a depiction of his arrest and expulsion along with all Jesuits from Spain and the colonies in 1767, and The Storks of La
Caridad, (nominated for the Global e-Book Award), where Father Ygnacio, a prisoner of the Spanish Crown in an ancient monastery, is asked to catch a stealthy, in-house murderer.
Her
favorite animals are horses-an intense love affair over
many years-and cats, her constant companions. She enjoys
music, traveling, hiking, biking, gardening, and swimming.
Scholarly
works:
The Wine and the Will: Rabelais's Bacchic Christianity
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1972)
Gargantua in a Convex Mirror: Fischart's View of
Rabelais (New York and Berne: Peter Lang, 1986)
The Cave: The Evolution of a Metaphoric Field from
Homer to Ariosto (New York and Berne: Peter Lang,
1986)
Rabelais et les leçons du rire: paraboles évangéliques
et néoplatoniciennes (Orléans: Editions Paradigme,
2000)
In addition, many articles in learned journals on French
and Spanish Renaissance subjects, contributions to literary
dictionaries, Festschrifts, collected volumes, etc.
Also, many reviews in specialized journals on French
literature both in this country and abroad.
Contact
Florence at florenceweinberg@juno.com
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