100 Years of Coral Gables with Les Standiford, Chip Withers, & Bill Kerdyk

Presented by Books & Books in partnership with the Coral Gables Museum.

“The Gables” is not merely a highly desirable bedroom community or a sprawling city with features of the City Beautiful movement scattered here and there. The brainchild of George Merrick, a visionary congregational minister’s son with a poetic bent, Coral Gables is a planned city, home to of some of the nation’s most valuable real estate, a world-renowned hotel in the Biltmore, headquarters to 120 multinational firms, a major research university and a top-ten botanical garden. The story of how Merrick’s intricate design took shape―while most developments born during the so-called Florida Boom crashed and burned―and the rise of the preservationist movement that maintains it is a testament to the power of a vision. Author Les Standiford details the amazing rise of an iconic place."

Les Standiford is the author of 25 critically acclaimed books, including 10 novels and the New York Times best-selling non-fiction Last Train to Paradise, now in its 40th printing. His novel Spill and his non-fiction work The Man Who Invented Christmas, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, were made into feature films. The latter starred Christopher Plummer and Dan Stevens and was reviewed on MSNBC in 2024 as “the most underrated Christmas film of the 21st Century,” and has been listed by numerous publications, including Good Housekeeping and The San Francisco Chronicle, as among the Top Ten Christmas films of all time. He is Distinguished University Professor of English and Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at FIU and holds the MA and PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Utah. In Spring 2024 he was named a “Florida Icon” by Florida Trend magazine. His book Battle for the Big Top, which examines the cultural influence of the American Circus, received the 2022 Gold Medal for General Interest Non-Fiction from the Florida Book Awards. His most recent book is CORAL GABLES: FROM BANKRUPTCY TO BEAUTY—an account of the iconic city’s creation and the preservation movement to save it.

Refreshments available prior to the event!

Ticket Guidelines

• This event is open to all! Tickets are FREE and do NOT include a book. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Please RSVP only if you intend to join us.

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