Les Standiford is the author of twenty-three books, including Last Train to Paradise:  Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean, which is a “One Read” choice of more than a dozen public library systems, and the critically acclaimed Meet You in Hell:  Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America. Standiford is also the author of ten novels, including the acclaimed John Deal mystery series.  He is Distinguished University Professor and Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University in Miami.

Standiford’s new, richly varied, deeply researched work of history is Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago and Rise of the American Xanadu. Writing with a deep understanding of Florida’s past, Standiford vividly recounts the founding of Palm Beach by Henry Flagler, the railroad magnate and co-founder of Standard Oil. In the book, Standiford paints a dramatic portrait of Mar-a-Lago, one of the most storied Palm Beach mansions, which was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1927, and bought by Donald Trump in 1985, which has come to symbolize debauchery and excess. Standiford discusses his new book with Madeleine Blais for The National Book Review.

Q. You started out as a novelist and eventually turned your creative sights toward nonfiction, combining history and biography. What prompted you to switch genres? (Hint: you might want to include the story of driving to Key West and the thoughts inspired by the haunting Druidic site of the abandoned railroad).

A: My turn out of mystery and into history was prompted by the visit of my then-literary agent Scott Waxman to my home Miami during the Christmas holidays some 20 years ago.  Scott said he and his wife were going to Key West the next day and I said I hoped they were going to drive, as it is one of the most spectacular drives on earth.  He took my word for it, cancelled his flight and rented a car.  They returned for New Year's dinner thrilled with the experience, and having learned that the highway down the keys was once the roadbed of the "oversea railway," built over 156 miles of largely open water by Florida pioneering entrepreneur Henry Flagler, a project derided as "Flagler's Folly" when it was announced in 1904, and described as "the eighth wonder of the world" when it was finished in 1912.   Though the railway was wiped out by the ferocious Labor Day hurricane of 1935, the remains of many of the great bridges still stand to this day, evoking comparisons to druidic ruins, seagoing roman aqueducts, and the like.  Scott was not only enamored of his experience but insistent that I write the story up:  "I'm a New Yorker," he said, "and I've never heard a word of any of this."  When I, a novelist with 8 under my belt at the time, was informed that I wouldn't have to spend a year or two writing an entire book before finding out if publishers might be interested, but would only have to come up with a "proposal," I decided to give it a shot.  When two publishers started bidding against each other for the rights to the "book," I decided, maybe there is something to this non-fiction business, after all.  The fact that the book is a New York Times bestseller and is now nearing its 40th printing have only helped to confirm that notion.

Q: Fiction writers often talk about how freeing it is to be able to make things up. Is there any aspect of writing nonfiction that you find freeing in a commensurate way?

A: For one thing as a writer of nonfiction, you don't have to worry about figuring out the end to your story. The Titanic sinks. That frees you up to focus on the process of getting to that ending and making that narrative as interesting as it possibly can be. However, it was something of a learning experience for me to understand that narrative nonfiction can-- or should I say needs-- to have the same narrative drive that fuels an interesting novel. When I first began to write Last Train to Paradise, I had a mountain of notes on my desk and I believe that the first three or four starts consisted of different openings of the longest encyclopedia article in history. I was boring myself to tears and I knew audiences would feel the same way. Finally, it occurred to me: "You're a storyteller, Les.  Just tell the story that's in front of you": In this instance one of the world's richest man undertakes the engineering challenge of the century and the worst storm in history blows it all away. I thought that would be a lot more interesting tale than one about how an investment banker steals all his clients' money and build some self a really big house.  There is one drawback, however. When you are writing fiction and get to a point in your story where you need a fact, you can simply make it up, it is fiction after all. But in narrative nonfiction that is impossible. If you need a fact that you don't have to make your story go, then back to your sources you must you go, and if you cannot find that fact, then you must change your story to fit the facts that you do have. I suppose any journalist worth her salt could have told me this at the beginning, but it was something of a learning experience for me

Q: It would seem that a pitfall of the history/biography genres is that an author could amass new material endlessly. How do you know when to stop researching (i.e. you have enough material to tell a true and compelling story)? Obviously, there is the pesky reality of pressing deadlines, but beyond that, when is enough enough?

 A: As I've said above, one finds one's nonfiction story already basically formed. The true test is to avoid going off down blind alleys when you come across an interesting divergence over the course of research. Quite often, just as when I was writing research papers in school, I will allow myself to go down an interesting looking fork in the road, just to see.   Occasionally, that divergence will turn out to be relevant after all.  And yet, after some time at this I have gotten fairly good at recognizing what is going to fit in a narrative and what will just have to be set aside for another day.  

When I was researching Last Train to Paradise, I came across no end of little nuggets that were interesting in and of themselves, but which seemed aside from the point of a story about a man trying to open up a previously unopened Frontier. I never got many of them out of my mind however and for instance shortly after Donald Trump was elected president, I mentioned to Mitchell Kaplan, my good friend and quintessential independent bookstore owner (Books & Books) that his designation of Mar-A-Lago as his "winter White House" was exactly the use that Marjorie Merriweather Post had proposed for the mansion when she was trying to donate it to the state and then the federal government shortly before her death in the 1970's.  Mitchell perked up, and asked me what else I knew about Mar-A-Lago and Palm Beach and before you know it during that conversation he and I had decided we discovered the subject for my next book, really a kind of sequel to Last Train to Paradise.  The new book is the story of a place, once that explains how Palm Beach grew from nothing to become the favored winter destination for the ultra-privileged.  It's inspired, to a degree, by a book that I enjoyed very much:  Philistines at the Hedgerow, which explains how the Hamptons came to be the favored summer getaway for the rich and famous.

Q: Many journalists I know talk with gratitude about the “rabbis” or “Virgils” who guided them to the heart of their story or to a pivotal interview or to a helpful archive.  Who were your allies in helping you get this story?

A: I believe I've already answered that one. I first met Mitchell in 1981 long before I had published any books and also before he had opened his first store.  We were both recovering law school students with dreams of making a mark in literature and reading somehow. Mitchell certainly has, having played a large part in the formation of the Miami book fair and in turning Miami into a book town over the course of the past 40 or so years. I am not sure what my "mark" is, but I feel quite fortunate to have been able to publish a couple dozen books and spend much of my life in the company of readers and writers.

Q: Did you submit to any restrictions when you visited Mar-a-Lago as part of the research for this book?

A: No, no one asked me to avoid any topics or to tread lightly around any subject.  However, the publisher, Grove Atlantic, in the person of Morgan Entrekin, and my editor there George Gibson, were not interested in a political book or a book that focused on the current famous resident of Mar-A-Lago. That meant that we were on the same page from the outset.

As I’ve said, I am a storyteller at heart. My interest is in investing history with the kind of narrative drive that engages readers to the same extent emotionally that they have while reading a gripping novel, all the while hewing strictly to the facts. It was never my thought nor my purpose to lecture anyone on politics.

Q: One of the most fascinating aspects of Mar-a-Lago’s past is that it was once gifted to the government to be used as a winter White House. Why didn’t that work out?

A: Mrs. Post realized that the expense of keeping up a 17-acre enclave with a matchless mansion on the grounds had come to exceed the means of most individuals. She was fearful that following her death the 126-room mansion would be razed and the property subdivided, a fate that had befallen so many of the larger estates on Palm Beach Island. To forestall that, she hoped that either the state or the federal government would find Mar-A-Lago useful enough as a kind of more luxurious Camp David, and thus to keep it well-maintained into perpetuity.  Eventually, the federal government accepted the gift, intending to use it as something of a museum cum presidential retreat. 

However, Richard Nixon, the first president to consider the use of Mar-A-Lago as a part-time resident had no interest. He already had his own getaway compound on Key Biscayne in Miami, and soon found himself in difficulties that required more urgent attention. When Jimmy Carter the peanut farmer, became president, the very thought of associating his presidency with such ostentatiousness was out of the question.  Carter thought the expense of maintaining the estate to be a waste and ordered it returned to Mrs. Post's heirs, who put it up for sale. 

In the end, the only potential buyer not interested in subdividing the property was Donald Trump. In fact he came to enjoy living there so much that he went to great lengths to hold on to Mar-A-Lago during his financial difficulties of the early 1990s. Ultimately, he came up with the notion of turning it into a club as a way of allowing himself to maintain residency there.

Q: I see that our President is taking action, so he and his wife are now considered legal residents of Florida, presumably for tax purposes.  What would you like to tell them about their adopted home state that they might not know?

A: Some insist that the ghost of Marjorie Merriweather Post still roams the hallways of Mar-A-Lago. It is possible that one-night Donald Trump will awaken in his bedchamber to find her spirit hovering over him, come there for a heart to heart about a few things. 

Q: There is an old saying in writing, “Nothing happens nowhere.” Please address that dictum as regards your new book. What drew you to write about this place and how did you go about capturing its essence?

A:  We tend to take a lot of things for granted from this end of History's telescope. When Henry Flagler discovered Palm Beach 130 years or so ago, he had no certainty as to what it might become. Every developer would like to assume that his new project will become the showplace of show places. But it is a testament to the power of Flagler's vision that he was correct.

I have tried to trace from its very outset the process by which Palm Beach developed into the phenomenon that it is today, and to suggest at least some of the reasons why it yet remains, while so many other fabled resorts have waxed and waned or never developed at all. 

Before Henry Flagler came to Florida, there was no such thing as "a Florida getaway" largely because it was nothing in Florida to get away to. As for the significance of the record of all the getting and spending it took to create Palm Beach, even an age of greater and greater awareness of the injustices of income disparity and the like, I would simply say, isn't it interesting as well as important to know how the Taj Mahal came to be?  At the very least, knowledge is power.  And furthermore if, upon one of the many school trips where children are taken to tour the various historic magnificences of the island, if any one of them were to cast a glance around her and say, "'I'm going to make something of myself," then everything that stands in Palm Beach is worth it.

Q: Are you planning to see that a copy of this book lands in the hands of Donald Trump? What do you imagine his reaction might be and what would you wish it were ideally?

A: Now there's a laugh-out-loud question. I don't think there's any way that I could "see" that this book got into the hands of Donald Trump, but if it did, and if he were to read it, I'd like to think that in his heart of hearts, he would enjoy it, because to tell you the truth, I think there is ample evidence that he does actually have an affection for Palm Beach.  As to the material about him, he'd probably insist that I got more things wrong than the "whistleblower" did, of course.

But here's one untold Trump and Les story. 

When Last Train to Paradise was published, Crown sent it out to a number of businesspeople, hoping for quotes of approval, because they thought there was a lot of business application in the book.  One of the businesspeople who responded with a quote was none other than Donald Trump.  He called the book a fascinating read and ended by saying that he "could not put it down." 

I was still publishing mystery novels at the time, and my publisher for those was a man named Neil Nyren at Putnam who thought I was wasting my time, dabbling in history.  When I read Trump's quote to Nyren, he was unfazed.  "Oh," he sniffed in his matchless Nyren way, "the reason he could not put it down was that his valet was reading it to him at the time." 

Q: Final question is the usual one.  What’s next?

A: The new one I'm working on now is entitled The Rapture of Elephants, and it details the efforts to expand and control the most popular Entertainment form of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the American circus. The subtitle might be "Bailey vs. Barnum versus Ringling" I'm having great fun with those entertainers and the bearded lady and the Lions and the Tigers.

Madeleine Blais is the author of the forthcoming biography Queen of the Court: A Life of Tennis Legend Alice Marble, to be published by Grove Atlantic. As a reporter with the Miami Herald, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. She is also the author of several other books, including the memoirs Uphill Walkers and most recently, To the New Owners.