Florence Weinberg Byham
Biography
Florence May Byham was born December 3, 1933 in Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA. Her father, a civil engineer and her mother, an elementary school teacher, lost their employment during the Great Depression. Florence came to consciousness on a ranch in the Tularosa Valley, where she first rode a horse in her father’s saddle as he led the animal. He also rode with her in the saddle at a trot and canter, and she learned to love horses and riding. Next, she experienced life in a mining camp when her father hired on briefly as a mining engineer in a silver mine near Miami, Arizona. Afterward, both parents taught school in an isolated ranching community, Cienega, New Mexico, for four years. 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.
When World War II broke out, her father volunteered. She and her mother followed him from one army installation to another until he was sent abroad. She was eleven when he returned wounded from the Normandy Invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. He died ten years later, in 1956, from his wounds.
Florence attended high school in1946-50 in Viola, Arkansas, and became a star basketball player. She then began studies for the Bachelor of Arts degree at Park College near Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated magna cum laude in 1954 with a specialization in French and Spanish language and literature.
She attended The University of Iowa in philosophy during the academic year 1954-55, marrying distinguished professor and author Dr. Kurt Weinberg of Yale University in May of 1955. The couple spent the following seven years in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where Florence worked as librarian and completed a Master of Arts degree in Spanish language, history and literature. They spent the year 1960-61 in Europe while Kurt, a Guggenheim Fellow, completed a book on Franz Kafka and Florence wrote her thesis for the Master of Arts on Miguel de Unamuno.
In 1962, they moved to Rochester, New York, where Kurt occupied the post of Full Professor at the University of Rochester, while Florence completed her PhD in French language and literature in 1968. She taught Spanish history and literature at the University for two years, then was hired by St. John Fisher College as a professor of French and Spanish, becoming a Full Professor in 1971, serving as Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classical Studies from 1972 to 1979, and Director of International Studies from 1983 to 1986.
In 1989, she and Kurt moved to Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where Florence served as Chair of the Department of Modern Languages from 1989 to 1995. Kurt died of Parkinson’s disease in 1996. Florence retired in May, 1999. During her years of teaching, she published four scholarly books: "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); and "Rabelais et les leçons du rire: paraboles évangéliques et néoplatoniciennes" (Orléans: Editions Paradigme, 2000). In addition, Florence published many articles in learned journals on French and Spanish Renaissance subjects, contributions to literary dictionaries, Festschrifts, collected volumes, etc. Also, she published many reviews in specialized journals on French literature both in the USA and abroad.
After retirement, she turned to writing historical fiction. "Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross" (Kingsport, TN: Twilight Times Books) written in 1999, published in 2005, was followed by "Longs Désirs: Louise Labé, Lyonnaise" (Lyon, France: Editions Lyonnaises d’Art et d’Histoire, 2002), "Sonora Wind, Ill Wind," and "I’ll Come to Thee by Moonlight," both published in 2002, later rewritten and republished as "Sonora Moonlight" and "Sonora Wind" by Twilight Times Books in 2008 and 2009 respectively. "The Storks of La Caridad" (Twilight Times Books, 2005), and "Seven Cities of Mud" (Twilight Times Books, 2008). "Unrest in Eden," the fourth and final mystery novel in the Ignaz Pfefferkorn, S.J. series (Twilight Times Books, 2011) and "Anselm, a Metamorphosis" (Twilight Times Books, 2013). The first three Pfefferkorn books have been translated into Spanish by Andre Csihas as: "El jesuita y el brujo," "El jesuita y la tormenta," and "El jesuita y La Caridad," all published by Twilight Times Books in 2011. In addition, "Unrest in Eden" is out in German translation by Dr. Renate Scharffenbrg as "Unruhe im Paradies" (Unkel: Verlag der Rheinlaender, 2012)
Her books have earned her nine literary awards in six years, between 2005 and 2012, including Finalist for the international Eric Hoffer Award and two finalist awards for the national Indy Next Generation Book Award in Historical Fiction.
Her avocations are reading, good conversation, gourmet cooking, swimming, hiking, horseback riding and gardening.
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