The Everglades: River of Grass was published in 1947 and sold out of its first printing a month after being released.[18] The first line of the book, "There are no other Everglades in the world", has been called the "most famous passage ever written about the Everglades",[38] and the statement welcomes visitors to the Everglades National Park website.[39] Douglas characterized the Everglades as ecosystems surrounding a river worthy of protecting, that was inescapably connected to the people and cultures of South Florida.[40] She outlined its imminent disappearance in the last chapter titled "The Eleventh Hour":