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Last Train To Paradise:

Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean

- Last Train to Paradise is a Book Sense 76 Selection of the independent booksellers of America.

- Book Sense and The History Channel have recently included it among the "Top Ten History Titles" for Spring 2003.

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"Wonderful. I'm excited about this as I was about LONGITUDE and ISAAC’S STORM, when I read them in galley. Les has successfully illuminated a previously dark corner of Florida history, using a narrative as driven and engrossing as one of his well-crafted mysteries. I caution anyone who would believe this to be too regional. Readers of THE ORCHID THIEF, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, and BRUNELLESCHI’S DOME have demonstrated that there is keen and abundant interest in those histories which happen ‘between the lines.’”

-Mitchel Kaplan, owner of Books and Books in Miami, founder of the Miami Book Fair, a member of the Board of Directors of the ABA, and a contributor to BookSense76.

To read the back cover or flyer, click on image

"...a fascinating fact-filled bio-history of Flagler, Florida, the Keys and his

railroad. You just can't make these things up. Fast and fun and entertaining...it is all here..." --Robert A. Hittel, Bookseller, Ft. Lauderdale

Les appeared on a recent FOX NEWS

NETWORK program about Hurricane Andrew.

The segment is a few minutes long and Les

appears about halfway through.

click on screen to play but please be patient while film loads

“…A POWERFUL TALE TOLD BY A TALENTED WRITER,” Duncan Stewart, LIBRARY JOURNAL

“…A REMARKABLE ACCOUNT OF ONE MAN’S DREAM THAT ENDED IN DISASTER,” George Cohen, BOOKLIST

“…READS LIKE A RAISE THE TITANIC FOR THE RAILROAD SET…RIVETING…A COMPELLING MIX OF SUSPENSE, HEROISM, AND DETERMINATION.” Elena Simon, BARNES & NOBLE.COM

“…STANDIFORD DOES AN ADMIRABLE JOB…AND HAS AN EYE FOR THE MEMORABLE DETAIL..,ENGAGING,” KIRKUS REVIEWS

“…TRULY GRIPPING…WITH NARY A SINGLE MISSED NOTE, THIS FASCINATING TALE IS POPULAR HISTORY AT ITS BEST,” H. O’Billovich, AMAZON.COM

A PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY DAILY FALL “HARDCOVER HIGHLIGHT” SELECTION FOR NON-FICTION.

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER REVIEW!

September 8, 2002 Sunday, CHICAGOLAND FINAL EDITION

By June Sawyers.

"Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean"

Of all the engineering feats in the history of the human race, surely one of the most remarkable--critics would call it foolhardy--was the building of a railroad that connected the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, a distance of some 160 miles across open and often treacherous water. The mastermind behind this idea was Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller's brilliant and meticulous business partner. Ultimately, a railroad was built. Remarkably, it withstood the elements for some 22 years until 1935 when a devastating hurricane swept through the Florida Keys, and in a matter of hours washed away all but one section of Flagler's precious railroad. "Last Train to Paradise" is a terrific story of a place (the always fascinating Key West), a larger-than-life character (Flagler) and of a dream that refused to go away. But it came at a cost. As author Les Standiford makes clear, many men died in the process of turning Flagler's far-fetched vision into tangible reality. Anyone interested in the Florida Keys will find this story truly irresistible. (ISBN 0-609-60748-0)

More praise for LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE

by Les Standiford

"I've read many, many non-fiction books about Florida, and LAST TRAIN TO

PARADISE by Les Standiford is one of the best of all time. His account of

the 1935 hurricane moves from the factual to the existential, and, along the

way, illustrates the heroic, rogue character that is uniquely

American."--Randy Wayne White, author of Shark River.

"LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE is not only a fascinating story of a mammoth natural

disaster, but also the triumph of one man's ingenuity and vision. A

railroad was lost, but Florida was created."--Dan Wakefield, author of New

York in the Fifties.

"This is the remarkable true-life chronicle of one of America's greatest engineering achievements, and how it was all blown to bits in a few hellish hours. No novelist could have invented such a stunning tale, or such unforgettable characters."

- Carl Hiaasen, author of Basket Case

“As someone who resides a good part of the time in Palm Beach, Florida, I am very aware and respectful of Henry Flagler's imprint there. He was a man with great vision, who successfully brought an amazing number of impressive projects to fruition. Last Train to Paradise is a fascinating and incredibly compelling account of the execution and ultimate destruction of his greatest and most daring project, the Key West railroad. I could not put it down!!"

- Donald Trump

“Last Train to Paradise is a mesmerizing account of Gilded Age titan Henry Flagler and his extraordinary dream to build a railroad across the sea. Les Standiford has written a detailed and startling history of the man behind the dream, the visionary engineers who insisted--against all odds--that it could be done, and the thousands of workers who spilled their blood making the dream into a reality. Henry Flagler’s quest to build an overseas railroad from the tip of the Florida mainland to Key West has all the elements of a classic Greek Tragedy, and Les Standiford has captured both the man and his times with pitch perfect grace.”

-Connie May Fowler, Author of Before Women Had Wings and When Katie Wakes

“Only one thing could have stopped entrepreneur Henry Flagler -- the most powerful storm ever to strike the United States. Les Standiford has given us a rousing -- a deeply sobering -- story of this 1935 collision between hubris and hurricane in the Florida Keys.”
-Barbara Ehrenreich, Author of Nickel and Dimed

"This is a wonderfully told tale, a strange and compelling story about a strange and compelling part of the world. With sharp, evocative reporting, the book captures an era, the Florida landscape, and the very human dream of doing the impossible."

- Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

"Last Train to Paradise is a fast-moving and gripping story about one of the most ambitious and difficult engineering projects of the last century-the connecting of Key West with the Florida mainland by an oversea railroad."

-Henry Petroski, A.S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering, Duke University, and author of Engineers of Dreams

"If Henry Flagler’s railroad from Miami to Key West was the eighth wonder of the world, Les Standiford’s bravura work of nonfiction is a wonder in its own right. The triumph is in the telling of this deeply American story in which a hard-nosed tycoon becomes a hopeless dreamer trapped in a courtship of steel, sky and water as beautiful as it is doomed. Technology challenges nature to a duel, and the only real winners are the lucky readers of this suspenseful, elegant, breath-taking volume."

-Madeleine Blais, author of Uphill Walkers: Portrait of a Family

"Last Train to Paradise is an extraordinary achievement. A non-fiction book as exciting and finely-written as a first rate novel, with the narrative drive of a locomotive. Les Standiford has seamlessly interwoven three fascinating stories: the rise and fall of the richest man in America, a chronicle of the most complex engineering project ever, and the story of the most powerful storm ever to blast our coastline. Throw in Ernest Hemingway and some of the most dramatic scenes of the chaos of a hurricane ever written and you've got one hell of a spectacular book.
- James Hall, author of Rough Draft and Under Cover of Daylight.