Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean
Author: Les Standiford
Last Train to Paradise is acclaimed novelist Les Standiford’s 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 and the true mastermind behind Standard Oil, concocted the dream 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.
“The financiers considered the project and said, Unthinkable. The engineers pondered the problems and from all came one verdict, Impossible. . . .” But build it they did, and the railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for twenty-two years. Once dismissed as “Flagler’s Folly,” it was heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World”—until a will even greater than Flagler’s rose up in opposition. In 1935, a hurricane of exceptional force, which would be dubbed “the Storm of the Century,” swept through the tiny islands, killing some 700 residents and workmen and washing away all but one sixty-foot section of track, on which a 320,000-pound railroad engine stood and “gripped its rails as if the gravity of Jupiter were pressing upon it.” Standiford brings the full force and fury of this storm to terrifying life.
In spinning his saga of the railroad’s construction, Standiford immerses us in the treacherous world of the thousandsof workers who beat their way through infested swamps, lived in fragile tent cities on barges anchored in the midst of daunting stretches of ocean, and suffered from a remarkable succession of three ominous hurricanes that killed many and washed away vast stretches of track. Steadfast through every setback, Flagler inspired a loyalty in his workers so strong that even after a hurricane dislodged one of the railroad’s massive pilings, casting doubt over the viability of the entire project, his engineers refused to be beaten. The question was no longer “Could it be done?” but “Can we make it to Key West on time?” to allow Flagler to ride the rails of his dream.
Last Train to Paradise celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath.
Publishers Weekly
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. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
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 Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
The story of the crazy idea to build a railroad over open ocean in the Florida Keys, its completion, and its complete destruction 22 years later in a hurricane is well told by author and Florida resident Standiford. Though the central protagonist is the oil tycoon Henry Flagler, who was a pivotal figure in the development of Florida's coast, Standiford never loses sight of the experience of the railroad's less well-known engineers and workers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Booknews
The story of the crazy idea to build a railroad over open ocean in the Florida Keys, its completion, and its complete destruction 22 years later in a hurricane is well told by author and Florida resident Standiford. Though the central protagonist is the oil tycoon Henry Flagler, who was a pivotal figure in the development of Florida's coast, Standiford never loses sight of the experience of the railroad's less well-known engineers and workers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Kirkus Reviews
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 clichйs. Atthe 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
New interesting book: India or Travels with Charley
Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World's Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers
Author: Benson Smith
For four decades, The Gallup Organization has been gathering information and offering data-driven advice -- conducting millions of interviews, compiling thousands of statistics, and building a wealth of facts about what really makes people successful (and happy) in their fields. Now Gallup uses its expertise to offer a unique, interactive StrengthsFinder.com Profile that will identify your top five talents -- and help you start getting the most from them in your sales career. Each copy of this book has a special, individualized code that lets you access the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet. The product of a twenty-five-year, multimillion-dollar effort, the StrengthsFinder program interviews you and offers an in-depth, individualized analysis of your predominant strengths and personality traits. Using this book, you can then find out how to put your strengths to work in the real world, how others with similar talents have succeeded or failed, and why you may need to make essential changes in your career. Debunking the most-repeated myths about sales -- from the myth that anyone can sell to the myth that a good salesperson can sell anything. A book that only The Gallup Organization could create, Discover Your Sales Strengths offers you a powerful new knowledge of who you are, what you're good at, and how you work best. And in today's world of sales, that is the most powerful tool of all.
Publishers Weekly
Unlike many how-to-sell books written by motivational gurus and successful salespeople, Smith and Rutigliano s work is backed up by facts and figures gleaned from 40 years of Gallup research. The authors, both Gallup consultants, dissect stereotypes and debunk popular myths about selling to determine that there is no one formula for success, and that training, knowledge and experience cannot make a great salesperson. Instead, they find, great salesmanship stems from exploiting individual talents. Top salespeople succeed by figuring out what they do best and then finding a way and a place to do it. With that argument established, Smith and Rutigliano take an interactive approach to help readers find their own Signature Themes, directing readers to www.strengthsfinder.com (for which they ll need an ID code from a Gallup publication) to gauge whether they fit their current situation by taking a quiz based on a 12-step hierarchy of employee engagement. Since the authors contend that good managers help sales stars shine, they analyze what makes a good sales manager and relay advice from those they deem the world s best. This inventive book should help people with a knack for sales achieve better results. (Feb. 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Soundview Executive Book Summaries
A Winter Sales Career
For 40 years, The Gallup Organization has conducted millions of interviews and compiled thousands of statistics and facts that reveal what makes people successful in the field of sales and selling. The authors of Discover Your Sales Strengths, two effectiveness experts from The Gallup Organization, use the latest statistics and analysis to debunk the most pervasive myths about sales, and help salespeople understand themselves and their top sales talents while showing them which talents they should focus on. Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano also show salespeople how they can use their personal strengths to impact other people and find the right field, company and boss for their talents. In addition, the authors discuss the benefits of a variety of approaches to selling and explain that there is no one right way to sell.
While studying thousands of salespeople and the factors that hinder them from reaching their full potential, the authors discovered many prevalent myths that were debunked by Gallup's extensive research. For example, while exploring the myth that a better-educated sales force is a better sales force, they point out a study that indicates the best performers had not achieved high grade-point averages in college. Dispelling the myth that experience matters a great deal, they write that their research indicates that sales is not the experience-sensitive profession that it has been made out to be. Instead, they write that they rarely find a strong correlation between experience and results.
Assessing Personal Strengths
While discussing the importance of assessing personal strengths, the authors delve into redefining many terms that help them describe world-class performers. When they write about talent, they explain, "It is a pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied." To describe the talents of salespeople, the authors have compiled a list of 34 theme names that describe different traits salespeople can embody, and discuss the benefits of each as a dominant theme in various sales disciplines. These themes include Achiever, Command, Empathy, Fairness, Self-Assurance, and Strategic. By defining a clear vocabulary of sales strengths, leaders, managers and salespeople can talk knowingly about their strengths.
The authors call a salesperson's top five dominant themes his or her Signature Themes, and they write that knowing one's Signature Themes is a key to understanding the areas in which one's talents will allow him or her to outperform others. When a salesperson understands his or her Signature Themes, he or she can focus time and energy on those areas in which he or she naturally excels. To help readers find their own Signature Themes, Gallup researchers have developed a computer-based StrengthsFinder assessment tool that can be accessed on the Internet with an identification number from the book.
Signature Themes
The authors also address ways salespeople can find a job that fits with his or her talents. By aligning a person's daily activities with his or her Signature Themes, a salesperson has a greater chance of finding a good fit. They write that the five critical dimensions of fit for a sales role stem from the patterns of thought, feeling and behavior that explain:
- our motivation
- the way we build relationships
- the way we gain commitments
- the structure we need to get work done
- our ability to understand customer needs
The authors write that the most important dimension is motivation, and research indicates that the best salespeople are much more motivated than most of the population. When key motivation requirements are fed, motivation and fit are maintained.
Discover Your Sales Strengths discusses the importance of good managers, self-reliance, expectations, building customer engagement, and even becoming a sales manager. To help salespeople and managers better understand their roles, the authors have created 12 questions that make up a hierarchy of employee engagement that addresses their needs.
Why We Like This Book
Discover Your Sales Strengths offers sound advice about selling, improving sales performance and managing salespeople that is based on research and statistics but does not get bogged down in mind-numbing numbers and graphs. Instead, the authors turn Gallup's studies into enlightening tales of salespeople who overcame adversity and created strong careers by persevering and focusing on their strengths. Their case studies and examples provide useful insights about salespeople who have used their talents to overcome personal and structural challenges to succeed. Copyright © 2003 Soundview Executive Book Summaries
Table of Contents:
| Acknowledgements | |
| Ch. 1 | The Wizard's Instructions | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | The Great Sales Myths | 20 |
| Ch. 3 | Strengths: A Capacity for Near-Perfect Performance | 46 |
| Ch. 4 | StrengthsFinder | 65 |
| Ch. 5 | From Strengths to Fit | 78 |
| Ch. 6 | The Five Dimensions of Fit | 90 |
| Ch. 7 | The Manager Effect | 112 |
| Ch. 8 | Building Customer Engagement | 140 |
| Ch. 9 | So, You Want to Be a Sales Manager | 157 |
| Ch. 10 | Advice from the World's Best Sales Managers | 172 |
| App | The Thirty-Four Themes of StrengthsFinder | 189 |
