The Search for Old Kings Road A first route into Florida British engineers built it before the American Revolution. This remarkable road ran from the Florida border at the St. Mary's river south to what would become the settlement of New Smyrna. It was intended to bring settlers into then almost unpopulated Florida. From 1774 it became the main route into Florida. It existed right up into the 20th century. Here were the battles, the famous men, refugees, the rich plantation economy, a huge slave revolt, and one of our country's worst wars, one that lasted seven years. Florida's Old King's road was important in its rich early history. The early highway has vanished, its stories untold, it is blocked by new construction often now existing in name only. This is William (Bill) Ryan's search for the history of this old highway and some it's stories. They resulted in four other books that tell of events along Old Kings, once called “An American Engineering Treasure.” Some small pieces of the original roadway still exist. They are vanishing unmarked into the Florida brush. By connection of the dots he found on old maps and early accounts a story evolves of this early American roadway along which much of Florida's history occurred. Author William P. (Bill) Ryan is a director of the Flagler County Historical Society. He retired to Florida from a career in high technology photographic equipment, was internet webmaster for Flagler County Public Library's Florida memories group, and is a frequent speaker to Florida history groups. His first person writing style brings history alive. Five Old Kings Road series books include: The Search for Old Kings Road I am Grey Eyes a story of old Florida Osceola His Capture and Seminole Legends Bulow Gold Florida's Door to Time In museums, book stores and Amazon.com

Bulow Gold - a tale of old Florida The discovery of a lost journal of "Aunty Mary" a slave housekeeper to the Bulow famil of Sourth Carolina and Florida will take you to a new, well researched tale of the building and destruction of a great plantation. The courage and planning of Wilhelm Bulow is carried onward by his son John Joachim Bulow as the great works of Bulowville appear. These exist now in the Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park in Flagler County Florida. Author William P. Ryan combines carefully researched facts with the voice of "Aunty Mary" who will tell of a great treasure and Florida historical events from 1812 to the Civil War. This historical fiction combines the building of a great plantation, the life of the slaves, Indian Wars and adventures in Colonial Florida. New untold family legends are combined to explain many of the mysteries that exist in the Bulow plantation remains. The "Aunty Mary" journal draws upon existing original documents, studies and research of the Florida Plantation era until it was destroyed in the Seminole War beginning Christmas eve of 1835. Author William Ryan calls this 'factual historic fiction' relating what he believes actually happned. The mysterious death of young Bulow in St. Augustine is revealed for the first time in any publication. This and many other exciting stories will take you into the days of early Florida guided by "Aunty Mary" and her young ancestor "Lizzie." The Author brings characters alive in a first person style. He is a Director of the Flagler County Historical Society and is noted for his research into the Old Kings Road, the Colonial Era British roadway into Florida. His series of books include: The Search for Old Kings Road I am Grey Eyes a story of old Florida Osceola his capture and Seminole legends Florida's Door to Time All offered on Amazon Kindle books

A VIVID AND FASCINATING LOOK AT AMERICAN HISTORY THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE COUNTRY’S MOST STORIED HIGHWAY, THE BOSTON POST ROAD During its evolution from Indian trails to modern interstates, the Boston Post Road, a system of over-land routes between New York City and Boston, has carried not just travelers and mail but the march of American history itself. Eric Jaffe captures the progress of people and culture along the road through four centuries, from its earliest days as the king of England’s “best highway” to the current era. Centuries before the telephone, radio, or Internet, the Boston Post Road was the primary conduit of America’s prosperity and growth. News, rumor, political intrigue, financial transactions, and personal missives traveled with increasing rapidity, as did people from every walk of life. From post riders bearing the alarms of revolution, to coaches carrying George Washington on his first presidential tour, to railroads transporting soldiers to the Civil War, the Boston Post Road has been essential to the political, economic, and social development of the United States. Continuously raised, improved, rerouted, and widened for faster and heavier traffic, the road played a key role in the advent of newspapers, stagecoach travel, textiles, mass-produced bicycles and guns, commuter railroads, automobiles—even Manhattan’s modern grid. Many famous Americans traveled the highway, and it drew the keen attention of such diverse personages as Benjamin Franklin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, P. T. Barnum, J. P. Morgan, and Robert Moses. Eric Jaffe weaves this entertaining narrative with a historian’s eye for detail and a journalist’s flair for storytelling. A cast of historical figures, celebrated and unknown alike, tells the lost tale of this road. Revolutionary printer William Goddard created a postal network that united the colonies against the throne. General Washington struggled to hold the highway during the battle for Manhattan. Levi Pease convinced Americans to travel by stagecoach until, half a century later, Nathan Hale convinced them to go by train. Abe Lincoln, still a dark-horse candidate in early 1860, embarked on a railroad speaking tour along the route that clinched the presidency. Bomb builder Lester Barlow, inspired by the Post Road’s notorious traffic, nearly sold Congress on a national system of expressways twenty-five years before the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. Based on extensive travels of the highway, interviews with people living up and down the road, and primary sources unearthed from the great libraries between New York City and Boston—including letters, maps, contemporaneous newspapers, and long-forgotten government documents—The King’s Best Highway is a delightful read for American history buffs and lovers of narrative everywhere.

Seen through the eyes of Grey Eyes, a Seminole Indian, historic events are intertwined into a readable story that is partly historic fiction, but mostly fact. A cattle drive from Colerain, Georgia to New Smyrna, Florida, the Minorcan settlers, a terrible Florida war, and a black slave uprising all mix into a little known part of Florida's early history. The little known story of the Black Seminoles is told here along with the events that shaped Florida along Old Kings Road.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates

Introduces the world of Roshar through the experiences of a war-weary royal compelled by visions, a highborn youth condemned to military slavery, and a woman who is desperate to save her impoverished house.