Verfügbar:*
Status | |||
---|---|---|---|
Suche... Archives and History | Reference book | FLORIDA 385.0975 STA | Suche... Unknown |
Suche... Port Charlotte | Book | FLORIDA 385.0975 STA | Suche... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
Bestellt.
Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung
The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad--one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores.
In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller, dreamed of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean--an engineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal. Many considered the project impossible, but build it they did. The railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as "the Eighth Wonder of the World," until its total destruction in 1935's deadly storm of the century.
In Last Train to Paradise, Standiford celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, bringing to life a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature's wrath.
Rezensionen (5)
Publisher's Weekly-Rezension
A good idea to have a novelist tell the story of Henry Morrison Flagler, the 19th-century mogul credited with developing Florida as a vacation paradise goes sadly astray here. Readers hoping to learn about the man will be disappointed, as will those looking for a good yarn about the engineering marvel that is this tale's centerpiece Flagler's creation, in the early 20th century, of a rail line that traversed 153 miles of open ocean to link mainland Florida with Key West. The narrative bumps along, frequently veering off into tantalizing detours that lead nowhere. Standiford presents pages about the power of hurricanes to destroy property and savage the human body, an emphasis that is the book's undoing: readers are led to believe that storm damage in 1935 was the sole reason for the railroad's abandonment. This prompts Standiford to argue that Flagler's undertaking was a "folly" from the start, as his contemporaries claimed, and that his story constitutes a classic "tragedy." In fact, the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) was undone as much, if not more, by a force Standiford never mentions: the internal combustion engine. After the hurricane of 1935, investors and the government considered rebuilding the FEC, but decided instead on a highway. The book's conclusion references Shelley's cautionary poem "Ozymandias," a gloss on the impermanence of man's works. The warning might apply to this unsatisfying book. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Sept.) Forecast: An author tour will concentrate on Florida, where this book should sell well. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus-Rezension
A History Lite tale chronicles the building, between 1892 and 1912, of the 156-mile railroad from Miami to Key West, once billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World. As he readily acknowledges, Florida resident and novelist Standiford (Bone Key, p. 296, etc.) owes much to those professional historians who dug out the details of the remarkable story he swiftly and ably summarizes. He begins at the end: Labor Day, 1935, when a massive hurricane struck the Keys, an event exhaustively detailed in William Drye's Storm of the Century (above). Among those scurrying around trying to protect life and property were Ernest Hemingway, whose house and boat suffered minor damage, and Bertrand Russell, who lost family members and very nearly died himself. Just as a 20-foot tidal wave hits a train, the author whisks us away to the year 1904. Henry Flagler, a trusted associate of John D. Rockefeller and an extremely wealthy man himself, courtesy of Standard Oil, has decided to develop Florida. Standiford fleshes out Flagler's remarkable career as hotel-builder and resort-developer, portraying him as an innovative entrepreneur with an unflagging faith in himself and in his structural engineers. Although the press characterized the projected railroad across swamp and sea as "Flagler's Folly," he never doubted it would one day exist and turn a tidy profit. He was right about the former, wrong about the latter. Standiford does an admirable job of keeping the story afloat as the project is plagued by hurricane, mosquitoes, and vast cost overruns, and he has an eye for the memorable detail (e.g., each morning, alligators had to be shooed away from the construction equipment), as well as a weakness for cliches. At the end, he returns readers to his exciting account of the 1935 hurricane that destroyed much of the roadbed and exiled the railroad to history. Engaging, but facile. (8 pp. b&w photos, not seen) Author tour
Booklist-Rezension
Henry Flagler, millionaire and cofounder of Standard Oil, was the man who conceived and built a 153-mile railroad from Miami to Key West, much of it over water. The railroad stood for 22 years, until it was destroyed by a hurricane on Labor Day weekend in 1935. (See Willie Drye's Storm of the Century, reviewed on p.1914 ). Standiford, a crime novelist, begins with a brief account of Flagler's early life, then describes Flagler's career building railroads and his conception and creation of the city of Miami. Standiford tracks Flagler's extraordinary vision, effort, perseverance, and sacrifices in his effort to construct the railroad. The greater sacrifice, of course, was suffered by hundreds of laborers, most of them southern blacks, plagued by hoards of mosquitoes, dehydration, influenza, rattlesnakes, and three hurricanes that killed many of them. With an eight-page black-and-white photo insert, this book is a remarkable account of one man's dream that ended in disaster. --George Cohen
Choice-Rezension
Standiford has written a well-written general interest book; however, it has several shortcomings as a book for academic libraries. He successfully interweaves three stories: the life of Henry Flagler, famous as a founder of Standard Oil and as "the visionary robber-baron who founded Florida"; his building, between 1904 and 1912, a 153-mile-long railroad from Miami across the ocean to Key West; and the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, perhaps the strongest ever to hit the US coast, which destroyed the railroad. Although Standiford describes the railroad as "one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken," he offers few details of the engineering process itself, concentrating instead on Flagler's battles against age (he was 74 when the "impossible" project began) and the forces of nature to complete the railroad. The book will disappoint some academic readers; as Standiford acknowledges, it is "not ... a work of traditional scholarship...." Beyond noting as "illusory" many of the dreams of an era when rich men felt themselves no longer "at the mercy of the fates, but as masters of their environment," Standiford makes no concerted effort to fit Flagler's quest into any broader historic framework. ^BSumming Up: Optional. General readers; lower-division undergraduates; faculty. G. E. Herrick Maine Maritime Academy
Library Journal-Rezension
Standiford (Done Deal, Miami: City of Dreams) brings his novelist's eye to the true-life drama of the railroad built to link Key West with mainland Florida. The book opens as one of the most powerful hurricanes in modern times rages across the Florida Keys, destroying the railroad and killing many unfortunates who sought shelter along its tracks. Standiford then follows parallel tracks, detailing the merciless progress of the storm while tracing the Key West Extension's brief and eventful existence. The brainchild of Standard Oil millionaire Henry Flagler, the railroad was considered an impossible dream because it had to cross 156 miles of water. But Flagler had the will and the millions of dollars, to make his "Folly" a reality. Begun in 1905, the railroad took nearly seven years and $20 million to build. Three hurricanes washed away miles of track during the building, and engineers had to develop entirely new techniques for spanning deep and wide bodies of water. In the end, the track stood for only 22 years before the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 swept all but a few miles of it back into the sea. A powerful story told by a talented writer; recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/02.] Duncan Stewart, State Historical Soc. of Iowa Lib., Iowa City (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.