He spent a month emptying his apartment of derelict Selectrics and Royal 440s, then got into his twenty-year-old Dodge and drove southeast, into the scrub-pine flats of northern Mississippi.

NEWYORKER: Idols

The 400, 000-acre Ocala National Forest is a tangle of springs, sand-pine scrub and subtropical forest that is home to raccoons, flying squirrels, otters and black bears, as well as many species of bird.

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The sprawling lake, estimated at being two thirds the area of Sydney Harbour, is framed by the Danbulla Forest, a green blanket of rainforest, pine and scrub that offers refuge to kangaroos, bird colonies and platypus.

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