tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487616197427135732024-03-12T22:12:44.223-04:00One Island One BookBlog for news and updates about the Key West Library's One Island One Book program. In 2014 we're reading "Killing Mister Watson" by Peter Matthiessen.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-73432860829580704532014-01-21T17:27:00.001-05:002014-01-21T17:27:40.309-05:002014 Selection: Killing Mister Watson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's official -- the Key West Library's selection for the 2014 edition of One Island One Book is Killing Mister Watson by Peter Matthiessen.<br />
This book was the first in a trilogy, which Matthiessen later reworked into a single book, Shadow Country -- which won the National Book Award.<br />
The first book tells the story, through a series of putative oral histories, of Edgar Watson, an outlaw who lived in the Ten Thousand Islands off Florida's southwestern tip. Watson, a real person, was famously gunned down by the rest of the community in Chokoloskee in a famous incidence of mass vigilantism. No one was ever prosecuted in the killing.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-64298594295410361882013-03-18T17:01:00.001-04:002013-03-18T17:01:11.640-04:00Heading for the finish line<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We're more than halfway through this year's One Island One Book and for me, at least, it's been one of the most educational editions of the program. I learned a lot about orchids, from reading the book and from attending a talk at the Key West Garden Club.<br />
The most important thing I learned, according to Garden Club board member Rosi Ware, is that orchids are "hardier than people think." We are blessed to live in a place with orchid-friendly conditions -- humidity and dappled sunlight, essentially -- so even the black thumbs among us (ahem) should feel free to give it a try.<br />
The most important thing about growing orchids, Rosi said, was to make sure their roots were well drained -- not in soil, unless they are ground orchids. She also noted something else I never realized -- that the skinnier an orchid's leaves, the more it wants sunlight.<br />
If you want to purchase an orchid -- and get information from an expert on staff -- Rosi recommends going to the<a href="http://www.marchouse.org/content/plant-store" target="_blank"> MARC plant store</a> at the old May Sands School (entrance is on Seminary Street). To learn more about orchids, come to the library at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to hear Jay Pfahl, president of the Key West Orchid Society. And to hear more about the Key West Garden Club at West Martello -- a remarkable institution in its own right -- come to the Library on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. to hear from Historian Tom Hambright.<br />
Still want to talk about the book (The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean)? You've got a final chance -- tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. at the Florida Keys Community College Library. The college is at 5901 College Road on Stock Island; the library is upstairs in Building A.<br />
And remember, you can chime in any time on the readalong (below). See you at the library -- or in the garden!Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-33628472119681921612013-03-06T17:55:00.000-05:002013-03-06T17:55:34.414-05:00The Orchid Thief readalong: Week 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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And so we come to the end and it's not far from where we started -- with orchid thief John Laroche in the Fakahatchee Strand, going after a ghost orchid. This time he's not intending to take it, just to show a ghost orchid in bloom to writer Susan Orlean, for whom it has become a minor obsession.<br />
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But they never find one. For me, one of the major questions of this book is whether that's OK. Orlean herself says this: "It was just as well that I never saw a ghost orchid, so that it could never disappoint me, and so it would remain forever something I wanted to see." Which is an interesting point -- kind of like Christmas morning when you're a kid, high expectations are so often not met. Except ... that the lure of the ghost orchid is central to the point of this book. Isn't it? (I can certainly understand, though, Orlean's overwhelming desire to get the hell out of the marsh before it got dark -- my husband and I once got lost until way past dark kayaking in the Everglades and it was most assuredly Not Fun.)<br />
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I'll be curious to hear readers' reactions to the book as we start meeting and talking about The Orchid Thief. The book definitely lacks the sort of narrative arc many may be used to from fiction or even more traditional nonfiction. Laroche as a central character -- the book is named for him, after all -- certainly poses a challenge for the writer, as he gives up on his driving obsession for orchids and cops a plea to the theft charge.<br />
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It appears to me that Orlean was really writing about obsession, not orchids -- the plants just happened to be the way she met the various obsessessives. "I suppose that is exactly what I was doing in Florida, figuring out how people found order and contentment and a sense of purpose in the universe by fixing their sights on one single thing or one belief or one desire," she writes. But on this re-reading after many years I mostly appreciated it as a book about Florida, specifically South Florida in the mid to late '90s, a time when I was really getting to know the place and figuring out that I was actually going to stay here. I liked her description and history of the Golden Gate Estates (yeah, I know that was in an early section) a lot. I admired the way she captured how the South Florida landscape can be both despair-inducing and so beautiful it takes your breath away, almost in the same moment. I loved her description of the smell of the Fakahatchee Strand: "you smell the tang of mud and the sourness of rotting leaves and the perfumes of a million different flowers floating by, each distinct but transparent, like soap bubbles." It reminded me of one summer, around the time she was writing this book, when I was housesitting on Upper Sugarloaf Key and came to appreciate the mucky mangrove smell of that area -- it's the smell of deterioration and rot, in one sense -- but also the smell of unstoppable, endlessly renewing Florida life.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-20733238982003108492013-02-25T14:53:00.002-05:002013-02-25T14:54:24.751-05:00The Orchid Thief Online Readalong: Week 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The second section of The Orchid Thief takes the focus a little off
John Laroche (which had to be a relief for the author as well as the
reader) and places it squarely on Florida, specifically the Everglades. I
often don't appreciate outsiders' descriptions and opinions on a place I
know well (though Orlean has probably spent more time in the Everglades
than I have).<br />
She captures, I think, the transition most of us go
through between the time when we first get a look at the Everglades
ecosystem and find it daunting -- it's not exactly Yosemite -- and when
we start to appreciate its strange beauty. And Orlean makes the
connection between that landscape and her real subject -- obsession --
on page 109: "the sheer bigness of the world made me feel lonely to the
bone. The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it.
There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to
go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care
passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a
more manageable size. It makes the world seem not huge and empty but
full of possibility."<br />
The other major theme of this section was
its focus on other orchid-obsessed people besides Laroche -- Mote and
Fuchs and Smith. I imagine the purpose of that was to show that Laroche
was not alone in his willingness to go to extremes in pursuit of orchid
glory. I couldn't quite decide, however, whether this demonstrated that
orchids make people a little nutty -- or just attract nutty people.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-24883736245706716262013-02-12T14:45:00.001-05:002013-02-12T14:45:21.547-05:00The Orchid Thief Online Readalong: Week 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aSzvvX4RBco/URqVpEVl4_I/AAAAAAAAAoc/YgBpnvtPW24/s1600/orchid+collector.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aSzvvX4RBco/URqVpEVl4_I/AAAAAAAAAoc/YgBpnvtPW24/s1600/orchid+collector.jpg" /></a>First of all, if you're wondering what the heck is an online readalong, I'll refer you back to <a href="http://www.oneislandonebook.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-heck-is-online-readalong-anyway.html" target="_blank">this post from last year</a>. Please don't feel in any way pressured by the schedule. That's the beauty of this thing being online.</div>
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For the first section of the readalong, we read the first five chapters, or pages 1-85. Two elements really struck me on reading (or re-reading, since I read this book when it was first published back in 1998). The first was Florida and how well Susan Orlean describes it, both the place and its people. "There is something about Florida more seductive and inescapable than almost anywhere I've ever been," she writes. And she notes dryly, when discussing Laroche's court case, that "The state of Florida does incite people." I especially loved this line: "Sometimes I think I've figured out some order in the universe, but then I find myself in Florida, and I have to start all over again."</div>
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The second thing that struck me about reading this passage was how this book isn't really about orchids or even about a particular orchid thief. It's about passion, or even obsession. I loved the historical sections about orchid collectors in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when orchids were "a rich and romantic accessory, a polished little captive, a bit of wilderness under glass." Orlean acknowledges that it is this obsession, rather than orchids, that interests her about Laroche and his story. "I don't even especially <em>like</em> orchids," she writes. "What I wanted to see was this thing that people were drawn to in such a singular and powerful way." And while she doesn't feel the passion herself, she finds it fascinating in others: "Collecting can be a sort of love sickness. If you collect living things, you are pursuing something imperfectible, because even if you manage to find and possess the living things you want, there is no guarantee they won't die or change."</div>
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The link between these two topics -- Florida and obsession, specifically orchid obsession -- is John Laroche. The book opens with a physical description of him, though I was most taken with the nicknames bestowed on him by his employers in the Seminole Tribe: Troublemaker and Crazy White Man. Laroche himself explains what it's like to be an obsessive: "I'll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It's like I can't just have something -- I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it."</div>
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Things I'll be thinking about as I read the next section of the book (though you should feel free to comment on any aspect you like): What do we think of Laroche? Do we like him? Does he seem like a real guy? And why is it so important to him that his intelligence is recognized?</div>
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Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-56936896099255259822012-12-18T15:20:00.003-05:002013-02-12T14:50:39.044-05:00Next up ... <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Key West Library is thrilled to announce the choice for its next One Island One Book read: The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean.<br />
Published in 1998, this work of nonfiction tells the story of plant dealer John Laroche, who was arrested in 1994 on charges of poaching the rare ghost orchid from the Fakahatchee Strand (part of the Everglades on mainland South Florida).<br />
The book started as an article in The New Yorker magazine and eventually made it onto film through Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's meta-adaptation titled, naturally, Adaptation. Starring Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage and Chris Cooper, the movie takes serious departures from the book into the realm of fiction.<br />
The Library will be hosting multiple events around The Orchid Thief in March 2013, including book club discussions, garden visits and a showing of the movie. Stay tuned here for more details!Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-31213040160183631272012-03-09T16:41:00.001-05:002012-12-18T15:49:29.945-05:00That's all, folks!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thanks for a terrific One Island One Book everyone -- the final event yesterday, a book discussion here at the Library, was emblematic of our success, pushing the Conference Room to its capacity. Over the monthlong program, hundreds of you attended lectures at the Library, tours at the Custom House, and read along here on the blog. Thanks to each and every one of you who participated -- and special thanks to author Les Standiford and to Headquarters Branch Administrator Christine Dunn. We certainly couldn't have done it without you.<br />
We haven't selected next year's One Island One Book yet -- but stay tuned here and we'll post as soon as we do. Remember, you can also keep up on Library activities by checking the <a href="http://www.keyslibraries.org/about-us/locations/key-west/" target="_blank">Key West page on the Monroe County Library website</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/KeyWestLibrary" target="_blank">like us on Facebook</a>, or <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/keywestlibrary" target="_blank">follow us on Twitter</a>. And you can keep on reading along, commenting on the posts below and reading more about the Over-Sea Railroad and Key West History. Happy reading!<br />
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Dec. 18, 2012 update: Because we're about to start updating the blog with information about The Orchid Thief I am copying here the suggested further reading for Last Train to Paradise. All the books here are in the Monroe County Public Library collection:<br />
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Key West: The Old and the New by Jefferson B. Browne -- written in 1912 to help welcome the railroad era to Key West, this is a comprehensive collection of information about the Keys from its initial development to the time of publication.<br />
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Florida's Great Ocean Railway by Dan Gallagher -- Detailed account of the construction of the project.<br />
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The Florida Keys: A History of the Pioneers by John Viele -- well-researched history of early settlers on the island, with an entire chapter called "Railroad Days."<br />
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Storm of the Century by Willie Drye -- An account of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, a Category 5 monster that killed more than 400 people and spelled the end of the Overseas Railway.<br />
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Category 5 by Thomas Knowles -- Another account of the Labor Day Hurricane, this one by a Key West native.</div>
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Hemingway's Hurricane by Phil Scott -- Another Labor Day Hurricane book, this one notable for the accounts from World War I veterans who were in Islamorada working on a WPA project at the time of the storm.</div>
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Speedway to Sunshine by Seth Bramson -- Authoritative history of the Florida East Coast Railway, Flagler's system that once stretched from St. Augustine to Key West and literally led to the development of South Florida</div>
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The Swamp by Michael Grunwald -- This book does not bear directly on the Overseas Railway but provides excellent background on the history and development of South Florida through the prism of the Everglades.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-69373235161272027012012-03-03T10:36:00.001-05:002012-03-03T10:37:37.005-05:00Now it's your turn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_0QbYWmZy_k/T1I4FZtXtII/AAAAAAAAAnE/vzUWB03Yb6I/s1600/train+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_0QbYWmZy_k/T1I4FZtXtII/AAAAAAAAAnE/vzUWB03Yb6I/s320/train+photo.jpg" uda="true" width="320" /></a></div>We read the book, we toured the exhibit at the Custom House, we've heard from the people doing the rail-to-trail conversion, our pre-eminent local historian -- and the author himself.<br />
Now it's your turn. This week, the Library's Book Bites Book Club holds three meetings to discuss Last Train to Paradise by Les Standiford.<br />
The first is at <strong>10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Library Conference Room</strong>.<br />
The second is at <strong>2 p.m. Tuesday at the Florida Keys Community College Library</strong>. The Library is in Building A, 5901 College Road -- perfect for folks who don't want to make the drive into Old Town and search for parking.<br />
The final event in this year's One Island One Book is <strong>Thursday, March 8, at 4:30 p.m., back at the Library</strong>.<br />
All Book Bites meetings are open to everyone -- you don't need to be a Monroe County Library patron to attend. Thanks to everyone for participating this year and please don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any -- stop by the Library, give us a call at 305-292-3595 or email <a href="mailto:neihouse-kris@monroecounty-fl.gov">neihouse-kris@monroecounty-fl.gov</a>.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-87072676771177891992012-02-28T11:41:00.000-05:002012-02-28T11:41:13.259-05:00An illustrated presentation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-imSBZt43qGA/T00CWL7AsVI/AAAAAAAAAm8/O_lOBz2xlVY/s1600/bahia+honda+LOC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-imSBZt43qGA/T00CWL7AsVI/AAAAAAAAAm8/O_lOBz2xlVY/s320/bahia+honda+LOC.jpg" uda="true" width="317" /></a></div>Terrific turnout for Last Train to Paradise author Les Standiford, both on Sunday at Key West Island Books and on Monday at the Library. Thanks, folks! It's great to see so much interest in our community in books, in local history and in a Library program. And wait -- there's more!<br />
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On Thursday morning our Cafe Con Libros -- that's coffee with books -- series joins the One Island One Book train for a presentation from Tom Hambright, the Monroe County Library's historian. Tom, as many people know, is the pre-eminent local history expert on many topics, including the Over-Sea Railroad. He oversees the Library's collection of documents and artifacts and, in the last few years, has taken on the immense project of getting <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/" target="_blank">thousands of historic images online</a>. That includes <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/sets/72157624587492499/with/4888799122/" target="_blank">700 just about the railroad</a>, including all the images on this blog -- and many in the beautiful new illustrated edition of Last Train to Paradise.<br />
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The program starts when the library opens at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, with coffee and treats; the talk starts at 10 a.m. As always, all are welcome -- you don't need to be a Monroe County Library patron or even have read the book to attend.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-10237236165118683512012-02-24T14:09:00.000-05:002012-02-24T14:09:04.728-05:00And now ... the author<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CLwYMENvIZ4/T0ffFO_8ayI/AAAAAAAAAm0/rAYbgjhewOY/s1600/last_train_to_paradise_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" lda="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CLwYMENvIZ4/T0ffFO_8ayI/AAAAAAAAAm0/rAYbgjhewOY/s320/last_train_to_paradise_1.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>We've been reading the book, we've been talking to patrons about it and blogging for more than a month ... and in just a few days we'll get to hear from the author himself.<br />
Les Standiford will be in Key West Sunday and Monday so you can hear from him directly and ask him questions about Flagler, the train, the hurricane, about the process of writing the book -- anything you like.<br />
Here's where he'll be:<br />
<strong>Sunday, Feb. 26, 3 p.m. Key West Island Books, 513 Fleming St.--</strong> Book signing.<br />
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<strong>Monday, Feb. 27, 3 p.m. Key West Library, 700 Fleming St. -- </strong>Presentation and discussion of Last Train to Paradise.<br />
<strong>Monday, Feb. 27, 6 p.m. Friends of the Library Lecture Series at The Studios of Key West, 600 White St.</strong> --In this final appearance he'll talk about his most recent book, Bringing Adam Home, about the 1981 abduction and murder of Adam Walsh.<br />
Questions? Stop by the Library or call us 305-292-3595. Hope to see you at these events soon.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-63509314806565326082012-02-19T17:58:00.001-05:002012-02-19T18:03:30.928-05:00Last Train to Paradise Readalong: Week 5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yvjEawZzY1Y/Tz_Ty4fFmbI/AAAAAAAAAmU/2X0KQSWFx3I/s1600/first+train+postcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yvjEawZzY1Y/Tz_Ty4fFmbI/AAAAAAAAAmU/2X0KQSWFx3I/s320/first+train+postcard.jpg" width="320" yda="true" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">The Beginning</span></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Wow what a finish this section (chapters 20-26) is -- from the triumph of Flagler's arrival in Key West on his private train car to the tragedy of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, with terrible loss of life and destruction of the Over-Sea Railroad after only 23 years of operation. I've indulged myself at the end of this post with images, all of which come from the Monroe County Public Library's <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/sets/72157624587492499/" target="_blank">fabulous online photo archive</a>, showing both the joyous beginning and, later, the catastrophic end of the railroad.</div>The celebrations were obviously huge on Jan. 22, 1912 -- one hundred years ago last month. From photos and contemporary accounts, we know that tens of thousands of people showed up, including a good portion of the island's population, military bands and visiting dignitaries from around the country and even the world. <br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Reading this section, I was struck with sympathy for anyone who tries to write about Flagler, both when he was alive and even now, as an historian. The man was clearly a journalist's nightmare -- a fascinating subject who is a horrible interview. In Chapter 22, Standiford quotes a contemporary journalist describing Flagler as having "a personality so elusive as to be unseizable." You know when a journalist admits that in print that he's tried everything else he can think of to get his subject to open up.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The historian has it slightly easier because at least at that point, you aren't under pressure to make the subject open up. Standiford concludes that Flagler's legacy is, in the end, "not the doer, but the deed." Or as Flagler himself put it, "I prefer to let what I have done speak for me."</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I was glad once more, reading this section, that Flagler lived to see the completion of his ambitious project -- and kind of glad, in a way, that he wasn't there to see its terrible end.</div>I was surprised and saddened, too, to read that John D. Rockefeller did not attend Flagler's funeral. Years ago, I read Ron Chernow's excellent Rockefeller biography, Titan -- I'm going to go look it up now and see if there's any mention of a falling out between the men at the end of their lives or other explanation. Perhaps traveling relatively great distances for funerals in that period wasn't common. But it does seem odd, for the two figures who forged such a gigantic enterprise together. I especially liked Standiford's comparison of their legacies, in which he points out that Flagler could have, like Rockefeller, simply benefited from the multiplying proceeds of the Standard Oil empire -- and be remembered now through universities, national parks and major real estate developments like the Rockefellers -- but chose not to. "Rockefeller did the safe and sane thing," Standiford writes, "and Flagler built his Speedway to Sunshine."<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">The end</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div>It's always hard to read about hurricanes when you live in the Keys, especially about the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, which killed so many. You inevitably start to question your decision in building your life here. I was fortunate enough to interview a number of survivors of that hurricane (yep, that's me name-checked on p. 232) -- and looking back now, it's remarkable how many people decided to stay even after going through that horrific storm. Even those who, like Bernard Russell, lost most of their extended family. I hope that, if the worst were to happen here, I would have the emotional wherewithal to do the same. And I pray that, with our advanced forecasting and analyzing technologies, we will prepare for such a storm to avoid that kind of loss of life (even though, like a lot of Key West residents, I am highly dubious about evacuating for all but the worst case scenario storm). I found I took no notes while reading the section about the hurricane -- it felt like I couldn't stop long enough even to put pen to paper.<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">It was a relief and, I think, highly appropriate that Standiford ends the book not with that terrible hurricane but with an assessment of Henry Flagler, the inscrutable, indomitable, unbelievably determined individual who made the improbably railroad happen -- and created not only a remarkable transportation link but a monuments that we can see and even walk on to this day.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>The author</b></span><br />
Don't forget the end of the readalong means the heart of the One Island One Book program begins. Les Standiford himself will be in Key West and will sign copies of his books at <b><a href="http://www.keywestislandbooks.com/" target="_blank">Key West Island Books</a>, 513 Fleming St., at</b> <b>3 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 26.</b><br />
The next day, he'll be at <b>the library, 700 Fleming St., at 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27,</b> to talk about Last Train to Paradise. So save up your questions and come on down.<br />
Later on Monday, at <b>6 p.m., he'll be speaking at the <a href="http://friendsofthekeywestlibrary.org/lecture-series.cfm" target="_blank">Friends of the Library Lecture Series</a> at The Studios of Key West, 600 White St.</b>, about his latest book, Bringing Adam Home.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kBBK9AbZRck/Tz_Tv46hb5I/AAAAAAAAAmM/o7IWgSSCTxk/s1600/flagler+first+train.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kBBK9AbZRck/Tz_Tv46hb5I/AAAAAAAAAmM/o7IWgSSCTxk/s320/flagler+first+train.jpg" width="320" yda="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Henry and Mary Lily Flagler arrive in Key West<br />
on the First Train, Jan. 22, 1912.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-07rpIbD4Ehw/Tz_TtTbqPuI/AAAAAAAAAmE/tzUO6CUMOP0/s1600/first+train+arrival.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-07rpIbD4Ehw/Tz_TtTbqPuI/AAAAAAAAAmE/tzUO6CUMOP0/s320/first+train+arrival.jpg" width="320" yda="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Huge crowds turned out to greet Flagler<br />
when he rode his own iron to Key West.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Wj7o2ooJMg/Tz_cFfov0xI/AAAAAAAAAms/2Ga86zaLJ1A/s1600/railroad+hurricane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Wj7o2ooJMg/Tz_cFfov0xI/AAAAAAAAAms/2Ga86zaLJ1A/s320/railroad+hurricane.jpg" width="320" yda="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The remains of Long Key station in February 1936.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QDZpqXGxALY/Tz_cC7f8rQI/AAAAAAAAAmk/Tv7tZsaJazY/s1600/railroad+hurricane+aftermath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QDZpqXGxALY/Tz_cC7f8rQI/AAAAAAAAAmk/Tv7tZsaJazY/s320/railroad+hurricane+aftermath.jpg" width="320" yda="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Federal Emergency Relief Administration sent a rescue train<br />
-- but it was too late to save the people in Islamorada.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-23016176013797202852012-02-13T13:34:00.003-05:002012-02-13T17:00:21.763-05:00Last Train to Paradise Readalong: Week 4<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G_epUsRI8gY/TzlXriEhkmI/AAAAAAAAAl8/mjwhsohMy1A/s1600/bridges+postcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" sda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G_epUsRI8gY/TzlXriEhkmI/AAAAAAAAAl8/mjwhsohMy1A/s320/bridges+postcard.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from the Monroe County Public Library collection.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>In chapters 15-19 we reached the Big Kahunas of the Over-Sea Railroad construction, its iconic bridges: the Long Key Viaduct, the Seven Mile and the Bahia Honda. I rarely drive up and down the Overseas Highway any more but in previous years I did so often for work and the sight of those three bridges never failed to affect me.<br />
Long Key, with its graceful arches, is perhaps the prettiest bridge on the line from a purely aesthetic standpoint -- according to the book, it was Henry Flagler's favorite. The Seven Mile is impressive in its sheer scale (my favorite moment of the drive was usually when I was heading home and the car came over the top of the Moser Channel arch in the new bridge -- the whole seascape spreads out before you, including old and new bridges -- how incredible that we get to live here???). And Bahia Honda, with its superstructure unique in the Keys, is a beautiful sight, especially at sunrise. Though I am scared of heights so I am always thankful I never had to drive on top of it.<br />
I was particularly struck in this week's reading by the numbers. When I was a newspaper reporter, editors adored details like these and you can see why. The Long Key Viaduct, for example, took 286,000 barrels of cement, 177,000 cubic yards of crushed rock, 106,000 cubic yards of sand, 612,000 feet of pilings, 5000 tons of steel -- and 2.5 million feet of timber for the forms.<br />
Wow.<br />
Almost as much as the scale of the project, I was struck by the speed -- once the crews reached the Seven Mile, they clearly had it down so they could build four support piers in a single week. You have to wonder whether modern-day crews, even with all their technological advantages, could match that pace.<br />
And I was struck by the persistence and determination of everyone involved in the project, from Flagler on down, as they contended with two more devastating hurricanes, in 1909 and 1910. I loved Flagler's quote: "My recommendation is to hoist Key West's flag high, keep it waving and let it bear the inscription 'Nil Desparandum.'" (I checked with our resident classicist, Library Assistant Marcos Gonzales, and that does indeed mean "never despair.")<br />
Selfishly, I was also glad that Flagler pushed ahead and dredged Key West Harbor to create Trumbo Point, ensuring the rail would reach the island city. It did make me wonder, though, what our lives and history would be like if he had quit and set up his major port in Marathon.<br />
<br />
What's your favorite bridge in the Keys and why? Do you ever wonder why these guys kept going, even after major destruction and loss of life from hurricanes? What do you think Key West would be like today if Flagler had failed to dredge a terminal in Key West and had stopped in the Middle Keys?Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-77553135086160976832012-02-05T14:25:00.002-05:002012-02-13T13:44:06.816-05:00Last Train to Paradise Readalong: Week 3<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qwdxs9sOXb0/Ty7XbzuaqoI/AAAAAAAAAlo/k54pu7LeU0s/s1600/quarterboat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qwdxs9sOXb0/Ty7XbzuaqoI/AAAAAAAAAlo/k54pu7LeU0s/s320/quarterboat.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A quarterboat, which housed railroad workers until the<br />
disastrous 1907 hurricane. Photo from the Monroe County<br />
Public Library collection.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>"It is perfectly simple. All you have to do is build one concrete arch, and then another, and pretty soon you will find yourself in Key West." -- Henry Flagler<br />
<br />
<div>Perfectly simple? Not exactly.</div><div>In this week's section of the readalong, as construction begins on the Over-Sea Railroad, Flagler, his supervisors and his crews discover what they're really up against in the project.</div><div>Mosquitoes, for one. Anyone who's gotten out of a car in the Everglades or North Key Largo on a still July day can imagine how it felt to Flagler and an engineer researching a newspaper story, who accompanied him on an inspection tour to Key Largo in 1905: "The mosquitoes on this key are almost unbearable, and the problem is to persuade the laborers not to run away, for it means certain death as there is no possible outlet to the mainland," Russell Smith wrote.</div><div>The crews also encountered a whole body of water they didn't expect, just where the Everglades reach Key Largo. They named it Lake Surprise and they built an embankment across it (creating the divide that altered the ecology of Florida Bay and North Key Largo, and that was partially rectified in the recent 18 Mile Stretch project).</div><div>Another problem was labor. I can hardly imagine living in the Keys before air conditioning, mosquito control, even simple electricity to power a ceiling fan. But the crews were dealing with all of that, while doing backbreaking labor in our climate. No wonder many of them jumped off the trains from New York before they even reached the Keys -- and spread tales of harsh practices. The FEC and a New York labor recruiter were actually indicted in New York for violating an anti-slavery law -- though the witnesses proved unreliable and the charges didn't stick.</div><div>And there was the issue of freshwater, needed for thirsty men to drink, needed to mix concrete, none of it available in the Keys, where to this day we pipe all of our water in from the mainland. "By the time the line was nearing its latter stages, water was being hauled well over one hundred miles to men surrounded by a sparkling blue ocean that might as well have been an endless stretch of desert sand," Standiford writes.</div><div>But the biggest challenge of all was the most ominous to us, both because of the loss of life and because it is the same challenge that ultimately proved the railroad's doom: hurricanes. At the beginning of the project, many of the crews were housed on quarterboats, or floating dormitories. In October 1906, a strong hurricane struck the project (possibly a Category 3, according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_Florida_Keys_hurricane" target="_blank">this account on Wikipedia</a>), destroying at least one quarterboat and killing at least 125 railroad workers.</div><div>One of my favorite details in the book so far is where some of the survivors wound up, after they were picked up by ships that continued on to their destinations. So a guy goes to sleep one night on a boat off Long Key and winds up in Savannah, Mobile, Galveston, New York -- even Liverpool, London and Buenos Aires. Goes to show that globalism has been going on for awhile, if at a slower pace.</div><div>This wouldn't be the last hurricane to strike the project during its construction, as I'm sure we'll see in future chapters. And that will lead to more changes -- like changes to the initial surveys that predicted the project would need only six miles of bridges and the rest could be covered by causeways. "In fact one of the preliminary studies suggested that the entire route could be constructed atop a solid rampart that could wind its way down the line of the Keys like a version of the Great Wall of China," Standiford writes.</div><div>Now there's an image for you.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Have you ever tried imagining what it was like to live here before all the modern conveniences we take for granted today -- the Overseas Highway, for one thing, along with electric power, sewers, water and mosquito control? Why do you think any one would have agreed to work on this project under these conditions? Do you think, after reading this section, that Flagler's company treated its workers fairly? Do you think surprises were inevitable or, given how long people had lived in the Keys (since at least the 1820s), they should have had a better idea what challenges they would be facing?</div><div><br />
</div><div>As always: These questions are just suggestions. Feel free to comment on whatever aspect you wish.</div>Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-2276374500196936352012-01-30T09:29:00.002-05:002012-02-01T13:41:36.397-05:00Last Train to Paradise Readalong: Week 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d7yvU3_XCjA/TyRIWeSdL-I/AAAAAAAAAlg/WE3y9bd_cKU/s1600/steam+and+rail+connections.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d7yvU3_XCjA/TyRIWeSdL-I/AAAAAAAAAlg/WE3y9bd_cKU/s320/steam+and+rail+connections.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>While reading chapters 5-9 of Last Train to Paradise, two concepts kept running through my head: momentum and context. This section of the book describes Flagler's progress down the Atlantic coast of Florida, building hotels and extending his railroad. Then it moves to his momentous decision: to extend the line all the way to the end.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><strong>Momentum</strong></span><br />
When you look at a map of Florida, you can't help but feel like the state runs downhill, all the way to the end (that's not a moral judgment by the way). Reading about the march down the coast, from St. Augustine to Daytona, Palm Beach to Miami, I felt the force of inevitability. This comes, of course, with historical hindsight -- we know Flagler is going to push on all the way to Key West but did he?<br />
According to Standiford, Flagler's primary interest, besides finding nice warm places to build hotels, was linking his railroad with a deepwater port and thus connecting to profitable shipping concerns throughout the Caribbean and Central America. So if he had successfully gained permission to dredge Biscayne Bay, he might have stopped at Miami.<br />
Fortunately for early 20th century Key West, he didn't. As early as 1895 -- before the line even reached Miami -- he was making plans to continue to Key West.<br />
Three years later, the Spanish-American War cemented U.S. influence in the Caribbean, expelling the Spanish from their last, lucrative colony in Cuba. While Flagler didn't officially announce to the public his plans for the Key West extension until 1905, "it seems clear that he had been destined to make the attempt from the midsummer of 1898, at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War," Standiford writes.<br />
Meanwhile, the French had been working on a canal to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at the Panamanian isthmus since 1880 -- not successfully, but the momentum was strong for a shipping route that would bypass the long and dangerous voyage around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. The U.S. bought the French canal concession and the rights to run the canal from the new country of Panama in 1904, a year before Flagler announced his plans for the Key West extension.<br />
Even though the Key West Extension was the logical final step in a railroad connecting all of Florida's Atlantic coastline it also served a different purpose. On Flagler's previous stops, he had essentially created the communities with his hotels and railroad. Key West was already a prosperous, populated place with 20,000 residents and a thriving cigar industry. "His new rail project would serve not merely to connect one pleasure palace to the next, but to forge economic links between the United States and virtually all other nations," Standiford writes.<br />
<br />
Do you feel the weight of inevitability when you read about Flagler's march down the Florida east coast -- and about the other events of the time, such as the Spanish-American War and the building of the Panama Canal? What do you think would have happened if Flagler had won permission to dredge Biscayne Bay, creating a deepwater port in Miami -- or if he had simply decided to stop there and enjoy retirement at Whitehall, his Palm Beach mansion, with his third wife, Mary Lily?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Context</strong></span><br />
Besides the force of momentum pushing Flagler's railroad toward Key West, I also found myself thinking a lot about what other technological wonders were taking place at the same time. The Panama Canal is an obvious one; the U.S. succeeded where the French, builders of the Suez canal, had failed.<br />
The best-known technological wonder that was completed in the same year as the railroad is the Titanic -- always associated in my mind not only through the accident of timing but also because when you read about its construction you have a similar sense of impending doom, although the mighty ship met its end much sooner, and with greater loss of life.<br />
These projects were the culmination of the Industrial Revolution. Within a few decades, people were suddenly harnessing mechanical power to produce projects and travel distances at speeds unimaginable in all prior human history. "It was a time in history when men were tempted no longer to regard themselves as at the mercy of the fates, but as masters of their environment," Standiford writes.<br />
I found myself looking up timelines of inventions from the period before and during the railroad construction, just to imagine how it would have felt to be living in a time of such technological change. (OK, we know what it's like to live in a time of sweeping technological change -- even if our own revolution is measured in bits, not tons and watts.)<br />
Henry Flagler was born in 1830 -- and played a significant role in furthering the Industrial Revolution himself, by creating the empire known as Standard Oil. Here are a couple of notable inventions and achievements that came along during his adulthood: The internal combustion engine (1858), dynamite (1866), the transcontinental railroad (1869), the telephone (1876), the Brooklyn Bridge (1883), the Eiffel Tower (1889), the radio receiver (1901), the airplane (1903).<br />
<br />
What do you think it was like to live in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially regarding technological changes and achievements? Do you see parallels to our own time and the digital revolution we're undergoing? Do you think hubris applies -- that despite humans thinking we are controlling the fates, disasters like the Titanic -- and eventually, the destruction of the railroad -- are inevitable? <br />
<br />
Once again, these are only proposed questions to start the discussion -- feel free to comment on anything that strikes you.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-69829206551325886652012-01-28T12:07:00.005-05:002012-02-01T13:40:31.488-05:00Jefferson B. Browne: The work is done! Let it speak for itself, now and forever!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HBtwQ1sE8AI/TyQf81phm9I/AAAAAAAAAlY/qlXOrhJY6ic/s1600/browne+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HBtwQ1sE8AI/TyQf81phm9I/AAAAAAAAAlY/qlXOrhJY6ic/s200/browne+pic.jpg" width="153" /></a></div>When we read or talk about the Over-Sea Railroad we are naturally interested in Henry Flagler -- a remarkable figure in the history of the country and especially of Florida.<br />
But from a Key West perspective, another important figure keeps popping up: Jefferson Browne.<br />
Browne was born in Key West in 1857, the son of a prosperous businessman and politician. After attending law school in Iowa, he returned home and quickly held a succession of public offices, including city and county attorney, postmaster, and collector of customs. He was elected to the state Senate in 1890 -- and became president of the Senate at its first session in April, 1891. He he was elected chairman of the Florida Railroad Commission in 1904 (a key year in Keys railroad history). In 1916, he was elected to the Florida Supreme Court -- and immediately chosen as Chief Justice. In 1925, at the age of 68, he returned home to Key West but he did not retire. He worked as a Circuit Judge until his death in 1937.<br />
Despite all these titles and achievements, we know Browne best today for his writing -- he is the author of "Key West: The Old and the New," a book published in 1912 as Flagler's railroad was expected to launch the island into a new era of prominence and prosperity.<br />
Browne had long been one of Key West's boosters who believed a railroad was necessary and inevitable -- and he did his part to promote it. As early as 1891, before Flagler had even reached Palm Beach in his march down the Atlantic coast, he and Browne were discussing the need to connect a Florida railroad to a deepwater port that could handle shipping from the Caribbean.<br />
In 1896, when Browne was collector of customs, he wrote a piece for The National Geographic Magazine called "Across the Gulf by Rail to Key West." He unashamedly trumpets his hometown: "It is not too much to say that upon the completion of the Nicaragua canal, Key West will become the most important city in the South," Browne wrote.<br />
And he makes the actual construction sound ... a little easier than it turned out to be. ""When cleared of a few inches of vegetable mold and loose stones, the surface of the islands is as level and smooth as a ballroom floor," Browne wrote. He also discounted the possibility of damage from hurricanes, pointing out that the lighthouses on the reefs had withstood decades of storms and said the reef itself formed "a continuous breakwater from Fowey Rocks to Key West, protecting the road from high seas even in the severest hurricane."<br />
Key West, Browne proclaimed, "is destined to become the Newport of the South." And Henry Flagler, he said, was just the man to build the railroad that would allow Key West to fulfill her destiny.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
In "Key West: The Old and the New," Browne incorporated Walter Maloney's Sketch of the History of Key West, from 1876, and updated it with all the events and facts in the island's history since. The penultimate chapter is called "Florida East Coast Railway." Browne refers to himself in the third person, as "Senator Browne, of Monroe county," who introduced a bill in 1893 granting the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River Railway Company (ie, Flagler) a charter to build a railroad down the Keys. He then refers to and quotes from the National Geographic article -- without mentioning that he wrote it -- and calls it "a fairly accurate forecast of this great work."<br />
Then he really lets himself go in praise of Flagler: "The writer of that article in hazarding the opinion that the intervening channels would be crossed by bridges constructed of steel piling such as are used in the light-houses on the Florida Reef, underestimated the magnificent genius and Roman courage of Henry M. Flagler, who in building this road has made use of a construction rivalling that of the aqueducts of ancient Rome, which will last long after the accretions of centuries shall have filled the space between the islands, and in the aeons to come, the archeologist will marvel as he uncovers these remains of a vanished and forgotten civilization."<br />
Browne seems to be obsessed with comparisons to Rome. "Where the Romans built one arch, he constructed a score; where they crossed streams, he bridged arms of the ocean; where they went over valleys, he covered surging waters; where they encountered hills, he found channels; where they met with barreirs, he came to quicksands; where the precipice halted them, the quagmire threatened him; they cut through rocks, he filled chasms; the obstacles that barred their way they gribbed with iron claws, and made them do the work of the master; his obstacles -- the bog, the quagmire, the quicksands -- evaded, eluded, shifted, swallowed up tons of concrete with their capacious maws and ravenous stomachs." ...<br />
"Why attempt to give in detail the history of the building of this road?" Browne writes. "Only in an epic poem may it be adequately described. The Greeks before Troy suffered no greater hardships, exhibited no greater heroism, practiced no greater self-denial, endured no more discomforts, met no greater terrors, experienced no more annoyances, bore no greater burdens, showed no greater courage, than the men who build this road."<br />
And while he praises those men, and notes that a good number were drowned or blown up during construction, he leaves no doubt about who is the real hero:<br />
"Every pile that was driven, every foot of water covered, every concrete column that reared its head from its coral foundation forty feet below the sea, obeyed the will of one man, who was thinking only of how mankind was to be benefited, and his country saved in some great foreign war, through his achievement.<br />
"He was humanity crystallized, patriotism embodied! As Henry M. Flagler was the brain, Joseph R. Parrott was the arm, Meredith the hand, and Krome, Wilson, Coe, Cotten, Smiley and Cook the fingers, that did the work the brain conceived.<br />
"The work is done! Let it speak for itself, now and forever!"Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-48742606951660873862012-01-22T10:01:00.001-05:002012-02-01T13:40:59.079-05:00Last Train to Paradise Readalong: Week 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-StO0sQiveug/TxscVwQ5QJI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/47mSJu9DqVc/s1600/train+postcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" nfa="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-StO0sQiveug/TxscVwQ5QJI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/47mSJu9DqVc/s320/train+postcard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>And we're off -- welcome to the first week of our first ever One Island One Book readalong!<br />
<br />
This week, we're reading Chapters 1-4 of Last Train to Paradise, Les Standiford's account of the building and destruction of the Oversea Railroad. The railroad, you may have heard, was officially opened 100 years ago <strong>TODAY</strong>.<br />
<br />
Re-reading the first four chapters of Last Train to Paradise, especially in light of the Centennial of the opening of the Over-Sea Railroad, I was struck by three things:<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Beginning at the end</span></strong><br />
<br />
Author Les Standiford starts the book in 1935, with the approach of the Labor Day Hurricane that would kill more than 400 people and destroy the Over-Sea Railroad, washing out enough of the tracks that it wasn’t worth rebuilding for the bankrupt Florida East Coast Railroad.<br />
<br />
It made sense to me, because you can’t really consider that railroad without thinking about its tragically brief history and catastrophic end. In Chapter 2, Standiford calls the story of the railroad’s building and its destruction “tragedy incarnate.” He also calls its construction “an undertaking that marked the closing of the American frontier” (an idea most of us associate more with building railroads to the West and the homesteading that accompanied the lines).<br />
<br />
Do you think of the story of the Over-Sea Railroad as a tragedy or a triumph – or both? Do you find yourself thinking about the Labor Day Hurricane even as we celebrate the Centennial of the completion of the line?<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Our lifeline -- and the bane of our existence</span></strong><br />
<br />
In Chapter 2, The Road to Paradise, Standiford takes the readers on a drive down the Overseas Highway in the present day (the book was first published 10 years ago). I tried, but it’s impossible for me at this point to imagine reading this as someone who has never driven U.S. 1 to Key West. It did, however, make me think about how being so accustomed to that road – and viewing it as a necessary and inescapable endurance event anytime you want to leave or return to the Keys by car – inures you to its splendors. It is a remarkable thing, a highway that crosses tiny islands and long stretches of water. Even more remarkable are the original Over-Sea Railroad Bridges, still standing alongside their 1980s-era replacements. Looking at the old Seven Mile Bridge or the old Bahia Honda bridge is like walking over the Brooklyn Bridge or another major monument to American ambition. <br />
<br />
If you live in the Keys, do you find yourself thinking about the railroad when you drive the Overseas Highway – or do you just count down the mile markers till you get home? If you don’t live here, did this chapter make you imagine driving down an island chain, alongside the remains of the railroad?<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Why on earth would Henry Flagler (or anyone) do this?</span></strong><br />
<br />
Key West was one of Florida’s wealthiest and most populous cities in the 19th century, with a natural deepwater harbor and a location strategic to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the Straits of Florida. People had been talking about running a rail line there as early as the 1830s and a route was first surveyed in 1866. But it took the building of the Panama Canal – completed in 1914, two years after the railroad – and the money and determination of Henry Flagler, who made his fortune as one of the founding partners of Standard Oil, to make the project a reality. Flagler began building hotels in Florida in 1883, with the Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine, and entered the railroad business as a way to move people, and freight, south to warmer settlements where he built more hotels – Daytona Beach, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami. When Flagler built the Ponce de Leon, Standiford writes, “In a small way, he had become a creator instead of an accumulator, and had found a more substantive sort of satisfaction in such accomplishments.”<br />
<br />
Still, I always find myself wondering why anyone would take on such a project – especially someone who was 74 years old in 1904, when he decided to build the Key West Extension. “Flagler’s railroad across the ocean never earned a dime of profit and it is difficult to imagine how a businessman as bright as he was ever thought it would,” Standiford writes. Perhaps he saw it as his ultimate legacy. “Certainly the drive to make money had little to do with his decisions in those days, even if money, or the lack of it, had been the central force in the first part of his life,” Standiford writes.<br />
<br />
Why do you think Flagler took on this project? Was it totally crazy of him to do so or did it make sense in that time and place, both in the nation’s history and his life?<br />
<br />
These questions are meant simply as starting points – if you had other thoughts, questions or comments about the first four chapters of Last Train to Paradise, please feel free to share them – and don’t forget to tell your friends!Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-91125293797309860772012-01-11T18:43:00.003-05:002012-01-13T14:26:01.840-05:00What the heck is an online readalong anyway?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fewPkJ4-X2A/Tw4cThcwHlI/AAAAAAAAAlI/-gyI4cNZxv4/s1600/computer_%2526_books.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" kba="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fewPkJ4-X2A/Tw4cThcwHlI/AAAAAAAAAlI/-gyI4cNZxv4/s320/computer_%2526_books.gif" width="320" /></a></div>We hope by now you've heard that this year will feature One Island One Book's first online readalong.<br />
Perhaps you are wondering what, exactly, that means.<br />
It does NOT mean you must read the book online, although you are welcome to do so -- we even have a copy <a href="http://keyslibraries.lib.overdrive.com/9F4EC3B2-C4E3-4B37-A15B-D749972281F8/10/889/en/SearchResults.htm?SearchID=594276s" target="_blank">in our digital collection</a>, accessible via Overdrive.<br />
But what it means is that we have created a schedule for reading the book, at about 50 pages a week, and that we hope to host an online conversation. That means you can chime in from wherever you are, whenever you like.<br />
If you want to see a couple examples of how this works, check out the <a href="http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/11/28/their-eyes-were-watching-god-readalong-chapters-1-6/" target="_blank">online readalong for Their Eyes Were Watching God</a>, hosted by <a href="http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/" target="_blank">The Heroine's Bookshelf</a> website, or the online readalong for <a href="http://theheroinesbookshelf.com/2011/07/31/the-great-gone-with-the-wind-readalong-part-1-chapters-1-7/" target="_blank">Gone With the Wind</a>, hosted by the same website.<br />
No promises that we'll reach the same level of technical and web design expertise as Erin has -- this is our first try at this! -- but we'll do our best and hope that you, the readers, will take part and let us know what you'd like to see in future years.<br />
Remember, the readalong schedule is posted at the upper righthand corner of this blog. We start the week of the Centennial itself and finish right before Les Standiford joins us for book signings and a discussion. Thanks for checking it out and hope to see you back here for the readalong!Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-88574746482026771652012-01-04T16:27:00.006-05:002012-02-01T13:42:10.326-05:00Interview with the Author<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QSIF-A-BNHQ/TwTCmMfY00I/AAAAAAAAAlA/A9WJmiIIEQo/s1600/les+standiford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QSIF-A-BNHQ/TwTCmMfY00I/AAAAAAAAAlA/A9WJmiIIEQo/s320/les+standiford.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>As we get closer to One Island One Book, we had some questions for the author of Last Train to Paradise, this year's selection. And Les Standiford graciously agreed to answer them. We hope this interview whets your appetite for this year's One Island One Book. Remember, the Readalong begins the week of Jan. 22 -- we'll be posting about Chapters 1-4 here at the blog, and hope you'll chime in with comments and questions -- and Les will be in Key West Feb. 26 and 27.<br />
<br />
<strong>Why and how did you choose to write this book?</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
Actually, I wrote the book after a talk with my agent from New York who drove the Overseas Highway at my suggestion and found the story of the railroad and the hurricane that destroyed it fascinating. I had written 9 novels by then, but LTTP was my first stab at book length non-fiction. I was stymied for a while after doing all the research, wondering what I was going to do with all those factoids. Finally, I decided to do what I had been trained to do: tell a story. The only difference was that this one is true. <br />
<br />
<strong>How did writing a work of nonfiction differ from your earlier writing experience?</strong><br />
<br />
When you get to a point in your novel where you need a fact, as I am fond of telling my students, you can just make it up. However, if you get to a point where you don't have a fact to support the non-fiction story narrative you are trying to construct, you have to go back to your sources and find it, or you have to change your story to fit the facts you have. Of course, if one were just listing facts about a subject instead of trying to tell a story about a subject, it would be a lot easier, but that is encyclopedia writing, not narrative non-fiction.<br />
<br />
<strong>What kind of research did you undertake for the book? How long did it take you?</strong><br />
<br />
I read the few pamphlet-styled books about the building of the railroad and the three biographies of any consequence about Flagler. The rest came from contemporary newspaper and journal accounts of the building and destruction of the Oversea Railroad as well as interviews with local historians and a very few people who had endured the hurricane. And of course I drove the highway many times and simply poked around. This all went on for about a year before I began the writing itself, which took about another year.<br />
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<strong>Why would Henry Flagler, who must have realized he was an old man, take on this project?</strong><br />
<br />
His purported justification was the approval of the Panama Canal by Congress. The Oversea RR was to connect with a deep water port in Key West also proposed by Flagler which would be by far the closest to the eastern terminus of the Canal. However, I think that was just an excuse for his deciding to do something that everyone else thought was impossible. He'd been in railroading in Florida for almost 25 years when he announced he was extending his line to Key West, and he well knew how difficult it was to make any money at the endeavor. But he was forging the trail through the last American frontier, and I believe he simply found such a project interesting. The port was never built, incidentally, due to the US Navy's objection.<br />
<br />
<strong>Is this a story of triumph (finishing this project against the odds) or of tragedy (because of the destruction by the hurricane – or because it took away the Keys’ identity as true islands)?</strong><br />
<br />
I think that someone would have built a road--if not a railroad--down the Keys to "The Rock" sooner or later. Key West was after all the largest and most important city in Florida at the time Flagler began his project. So I don't see this undertaking as any more tragic than the building of the Interstate Highway system, which essentially erased the character of small town America, for instance. Whatever one thinks about change, it seems to be inevitable. Given the geography, the limitations of existing infrastructure and the lack of any previous model for such an undertaking, however, Flagler's accomplishment in building the railroad at the time that he did is truly remarkable.<br />
<br />
<strong>Where do you think the railroad is most visible in the Keys today?</strong><br />
<br />
In the vestiges of the original broad channel bridges: Long Key, Seven Mile (never referred to as such by the railroad builders), and especially at Bahia Honda. They appear to me like bits of some modern day Stonehenge jutting up out of the sea.<br />
<br />
<strong>How did the Over-Sea Railroad change the Florida Keys and South Florida in general?</strong><br />
<br />
Well, the railway that was touted as a boon to Key West--supposed to bring even more development to an already burgeoning economy--turned out in the end to provide an escape route for thousands eager to leave the island and travel to a part of the state where lands were available for expansion of business, for homesteading, etc. By the time the hurricane blew the railroad away in 1935, the population of Key West was about half what it was when the project was announced. A number of factors had to do with Key West's economic decline, of course, but the Oversea RR never turned a dime's profit. Passenger traffic (never profitable outside the urban corridors) was brisk and helped popularize Key West as a tourist destination, however.<br />
<br />
<strong>Do you have any other recommended reading for people who are interested in Henry Flagler, South Florida or Keys history or the Over-Sea Railroad?</strong><br />
<br />
I'd recommend Seth Bramson's Speedway to Sunshine as a compendium for those interested in the development of the entire Florida East Coast rail system and Michael Grunwald's The Swamp for an excellent and exhaustive treatment of the Everglades and their historical and ecological importance to this region. There are many wonderful books about the Keys, far more than I can name, including Willie Drye's Storm of the Century, Joy William's lovely guidebook, and all the delightful mysteries that so adroitly mine Keys geography and culture, including those by James W. Hall, Lawrence Shames, John Leslie, and Tom Corcoran.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-28928458161776112262011-10-04T11:25:00.005-04:002012-02-01T13:42:35.451-05:00The journey begins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_yyYF_R0DMw/TosiBAagbZI/AAAAAAAAAkE/Tl9OoiZJzGM/s1600/last+train+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kca="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_yyYF_R0DMw/TosiBAagbZI/AAAAAAAAAkE/Tl9OoiZJzGM/s1600/last+train+cover.jpg" /></a></div>It's official: Our selection for One Island One Book 2012 was chosen to commemorate the Centennial of the Overseas Railway. We'll be reading "Last Train to Paradise" by Les Standiford.<br />
<br />
The book tells the tale of the epic effort to extend Flagler's East Coast Railway to Key West, which was then a prosperous shipping and cigar manufacturing center. The construction was comparable with the enormous engineering feats of the time, like the Panama Canal.<br />
<br />
And the book continues to the railroad's tragic end -- the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 which swept across Islamorada as a Category 5 and destroyed the tracks.<br />
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Standiford will be in Key West in late February to discuss the book but there's plenty to do ahead of time to prepare. You can read the book, which is in the Library collection <a href="http://keyslibraries.polarislibrary.com/polaris/search/searchresults.aspx?ctx=1.1033.0.0.6&type=Advanced&term=last%20train%20to%20paradise&relation=ALL&by=TI&term2=standiford&relation2=ALL&by2=AU&bool1=AND&bool4=AND&limit=TOM=bks&sort=RELEVANCE&page=0#__pos2">in print and audio</a> -- and as an <a href="http://keyslibraries.lib.overdrive.com/8B3669A7-D909-48A3-ABC2-DE8BC1F5E774/10/889/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=5798DC45-F1D3-49D4-8A01-C94ECC830050">ebook through our new digital collection</a>.<br />
<br />
You can also learn more about the railroad by visiting <a href="http://www.kwahs.com/flagler-exhibit.html">"Flagler's Speedway to Sunshine,"</a> the current exhibit at the Custom House Museum of the Key West Art & Historical Society. Other Centennial events are listed on the <a href="http://www.flaglerkeys100.com/">Centennial Committee's website</a>. And don't forget to check out the Library's own <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/collections/72157624592933453/">astounding collection of images</a> from the construction and operation of the railroad, available on our Flickr page.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-78924688493724903552011-03-05T11:40:00.001-05:002012-02-01T13:42:59.396-05:00Counting down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bZCsyygXEmc/TXJk8_vjWXI/AAAAAAAAAj4/1RhZQB-A1bY/s1600/hourglass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" l6="true" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bZCsyygXEmc/TXJk8_vjWXI/AAAAAAAAAj4/1RhZQB-A1bY/s320/hourglass.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>It's almost here -- next week One Island One Book, featuring The Last Resort by Alison Lurie, begins with a talk by Cynthia Crossen, a Key West resident who writes the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=dear%20book%20lover">"Dear Book Lover" column for the Wall Street Journal</a> -- and is vice president of the <a href="http://friendsofthekeywestlibrary.org/">Friends of the Key West Library</a>. Cynthia's talk will be at 6 p.m. in the Library Auditorium -- should be very interesting.<br />
<br />
The Book Bites reading group will meet twice next week to discuss the book. All are welcome to attend; you do not need to be a Monroe County Library cardholder or to have attended a Book Bites session before. Those meetings are at 4:30 on Thursday, March 10, and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 12. Both of those meetings will take place in the Conference Room, off the Reference Department (where it is usually very chilly so bring a sweater no matter the temperature outside).<br />
If you haven't yet read the book it may be too late to get a library copy before next week -- but they have them for sale at <a href="http://keywestislandbooks.com/">Key West Island Books</a>, 513 Fleming St., for $5.98.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-45568174881885408922011-02-23T19:24:00.001-05:002012-02-01T13:43:11.901-05:00Front page, baby!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0K043Nmn3IM/TWWi1OVaJ8I/AAAAAAAAAj0/l_-z_Xp72DA/s1600/0222+OneBookLurie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0K043Nmn3IM/TWWi1OVaJ8I/AAAAAAAAAj0/l_-z_Xp72DA/s320/0222+OneBookLurie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alison Lurie in her Key West backyard. Photo by Rob O'Neal.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>We were delighted to open the Key West Citizen Tuesday and see a <a href="http://keysnews.com/node/30027">front page story</a> about this year's One Island One Book -- thanks, Mandy! -- with a delightful photo of the author -- thanks, Rob!<br />
<br />
We were especially delighted to see Lurie's kind references to the Library. And we're even more excited now to hear Cynthia Crossen's discussion, a bunch of Book Bites meetings and finally the Cafe con Libros where we get to hear from Lurie herself.<br />
<br />
We have 18 copies of The Last Resort in our collection but they are all, as of this writing, checked out. And there's a waiting list. Do not despair, though! They are being returned -- it's a pretty quick read -- and if you don't want to wait or you don't have a Monroe County Library card (everyone is welcome to attend the programs), they have a good supply of books at <a href="http://keywestislandbooks.com/">Key West Island Books</a> -- for the excellent price of $5.98. They're at 513 Fleming Street -- just up the street from the library.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-52494910057584712492011-02-05T07:49:00.001-05:002012-02-01T13:43:30.678-05:00Volume Two<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/TU1FtTdh2hI/AAAAAAAAAjw/DGLSAawq7nQ/s1600/last+resort+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/TU1FtTdh2hI/AAAAAAAAAjw/DGLSAawq7nQ/s320/last+resort+cover.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>It's that time of year again -- after all the fun we had last year with our first One Island One Book program, we're going to do it all over again.<br />
<br />
With a different book, naturally. This year, our selection is once again a novel and once again one set in Key West -- but it's more contemporary and, to our delight, the author has agreed to take part in our program.<br />
<br />
Alison Lurie's The Last Resort tells the story of Jenny Walker, the much-younger wife of a famous writer and naturalist who has, for years, devoted her life to serving his. When he becomes depressed and withdrawn one winter, she suggests they repair to Key West -- where all kinds of unexpected things happen. Like they tend to do around here.<br />
<br />
The events for this year's One Island One Book will kick off with a talk by Wall Street Journal "Dear Book Lover" columnist Cynthia Crossen -- also a Key West resident and vice president of the Friends of the Key West Library. There will be several different meeting times for the Book Bites Reading Group, so you can attend whichever suits your schedule. And the finale will be when we hear from Lurie herself, a Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime Key Wester.<br />
<br />
The Library has lots of copies of the book available for check-out so tell your friends, alert your book club and get ready to enjoy a great read from a great writer. For more information about Lurie, <a href="http://www.alisonlurie.com/">check out her website</a>. Stay tuned here or on Facebook for updates.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-44563292886600193652010-03-14T20:03:00.001-04:002012-02-01T13:43:58.218-05:00It's official!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/S513-SCYrSI/AAAAAAAAAio/NF1LI2kwpCo/s1600-h/les+talks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/S513-SCYrSI/AAAAAAAAAio/NF1LI2kwpCo/s320/les+talks.jpg" /></a>The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum is now a Literary Landmark -- the dedication ceremony today was a great success. Thanks to all who attended this and other One Island One Book events -- see you next year! Above, writer Les Standiford speaks at the dedication. Middle, Mike Morawski and Circulation Librarian Kris Neihouse hold the plaque while it's installed. Bottom, the plaque in its place of honor, right next to the front door.</div><br />
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</span></span></div>Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-79441276043949666922010-03-11T16:28:00.001-05:002012-02-01T13:44:18.584-05:00The big finale<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/S5lewJsBzvI/AAAAAAAAAig/98onUy4k5sc/s1600-h/hemingway-house1%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/S5lewJsBzvI/AAAAAAAAAig/98onUy4k5sc/s200/hemingway-house1%5B1%5D.jpg" vt="true" width="200" /></a></div>We're on the homestretch of One Island One Book and it's been a great ride -- book groups, documentaries, and just this morning a great talk from Key West Library's own historian Tom Hambright about Key West in the 1930s, when Ernest Hemingway lived here and the Works Progress Administration changed the face of the island (they had this wacky idea that tourism was the future for Key West). We'll finish it all off on Sunday with the dedication of the <a href="http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/main_menu.html">Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum</a>, 907 Whitehead Street, as a <a href="http://staging.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/altaff/outreach/literarylandmarks/index.cfm">National Literary Landmark</a>. This designation, which comes from the <a href="http://staging.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/altaff/about/index.cfm">Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF)</a> with our own Friends of the Library as co-sponsors, is long overdue -- it will be the eighth literary landmark on our little island alone, and the second honoring Hemingway (the first is his birthplace in Oak Park, Illinois). Anyone with a local photo I.D. gets free admission to the Hemingway Home; writer Les Standiford will speak and we'll be serving refreshments. Hope you can join us!Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48761619742713573.post-66007182669374846072010-03-07T18:02:00.001-05:002012-02-01T13:44:31.611-05:00Week Two Begins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/S5Qug-e5avI/AAAAAAAAAiY/WlFeq35MSLU/s1600-h/Dornbush+Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Se2CEhZjQyo/S5Qug-e5avI/AAAAAAAAAiY/WlFeq35MSLU/s200/Dornbush+Map.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The first week of One Island One Book was a smashing success -- big crowds for the movies and a good turnout for the special Saturday morning book discussion -- but if you missed it, don't worry -- there's more to come this week.<br />
On Monday, we make it Two Islands One Book when the Book Bites book group holds a special meeting at 3 p.m. Monday at the <a href="http://www.fkcc.edu/current-students/library-information.da">Florida Keys Community College Library</a> on Stock Island. All are welcome; if you've never been to the library it's worth the trip just to check out the place -- great collection, fabulous views and smart and wonderful staff. The Library is upstairs at Building A -- the blue building. On Wednesday, Book Bites meets again at its usual time, 5:30 p.m., at the Key West Library, 700 Fleming St. Once again, all are welcome -- you don't have to be a "member" of the group or even hold a Monroe County library card. On Thursday at 10 a.m. historian Tom Hambright will talk about the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in Key West -- that's the New Deal program that Hemingway described unflatteringly in several places, including "To Have and Have Not." (The head of the arts program, Al Dornbush, painted the map above left, one of the images in this year's Friends of the Library calendar.) On Friday at 5 p.m., we go back to the college for a talk by FKCC professors Sharon Farrell and Pat Silcox, followed by a viewing of <a href="http://www.american-voices.net/">"Soul of a People,"</a> the documentary about the Federal Writers Project. And it all wraps up on Sunday at 2 p.m. with the dedication of the <a href="http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/main_menu.html">Hemingway House</a> as a Literary Landmark. If you have questions, call us at 305-292-3595.Nancy Klingenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16325228975944130602noreply@blogger.com0