Letter From Key West

Judy Blume made waves with “Margaret,” but her “minor” work is just as fun: “Freckle Juice,” “Blubber,” “The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo.”

In recent years, Blume has become a champion of gay characters, in picture books: Julian the Mermaid, Amy Bloom’s “Flower Girl.”

Blume spends at least a portion of the year in Key West; her husband rescued the local cinema, and Blume seems to have contributed to the literary scene. I don’t think she runs Books and Books, but she has donated her time. Her photo is in the windows, with a note to the viewer: “I READ BANNED LITERATURE!” (Blume is beaming.)

It’s charming to see Blume’s evangelism for certain writers. Under the new Sigrid Nunez novel, Blume has written a letter to shoppers: “I’ll read anything by Sigrid. I’d just like to be her friend. I wish I could have lunch with her every week….” For Mary Karr, and for “The Liars’ Club”: “THE MEMOIR THAT STARTED IT ALL!!”

My favorite part of Blume’s store is the small wing of picture books; Blume understands that this type of writing is the hardest to master. She is putting her substantial clout behind Rosemary Wells, Kevin Henkes, Ryan T. Higgins, Jules Pfeiffer, Arnold Lobel, and Doug Salati. Writers can wield power in surprising ways; you won’t find many Wells titles at the Strand, but you’ll find them in Key West, and I’m certain that that’s because of Judy Blume’s advocacy.

Along the ceiling: names of major Floridian authors. James Merrill, Alison Lurie, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Thornton Wilder, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Terrence McNally, Shel Silverstein, and so on.

So happy to have stopped here.

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