LAKELAND, Fla. (Jan. 17, 2008) — Florida Southern College’s Center for Florida History welcomes author Les Standiford to the Florida Lecture Series on Jan. 31. Standiford will discuss “Henry Flagler: Last Train to Paradise.” The lecture will start at 7 p.m. in the William M. Hollis Seminar Room of the Thad Buckner Building on the FSC campus. The event is free and open to the public. A book signing follows the lecture.

“We are delighted to have Les Standiford with us,” said James Denham, professor of history and director of FSC’s Center for Florida History. “Standiford is one of Florida’s great writers. His action-packed, non-fiction saga of Henry Flagler’s exploits in Florida reads like a novel.”

Standiford is the best-selling author of 14 books, including the novels “Bone Key” and “Havana Run.” He has also authored critically acclaimed works of non-fiction, “Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean” and “Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America.” He has received the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and the Frank O’Conner Award for Short Fiction, and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. “Last Train to Paradise” was read coast to coast on NPR by Dick Estell, the Radio Reader, and was one of the History Channel’s “top ten” picks. “Meet you in Hell” was Crown publisher’s 2005 nominee for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. A native Ohioan, Standiford is a graduate of Muskingum College and earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Utah. He is professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University in Miami.