A chronological, factual history of how the first century Christians, Romans and Jews interacted and influenced each other's destinies.

All God's Children: How the First Christians Challenged the Roman World and Shaped the Next 2000 Years

SNYDER, JAMES D.

Literature & Fiction

Pharos Books

Although nearly 7 million people live along the southeast Florida coast, scarcely three generations ago it was a wild, lawless frontier ruled by bears, snakes and alligators. But when a lighthouse was built at Jupiter Inlet in 1860, it became the hub for hunters, surveyors, Civil War blockade runners, Union gunboats and pioneer farmers. A Light in the Wilderness, with over seventy rare photos, maps and letters, tells how southeast Florida survived the catharsis of the Civil War, how the lighthouse at Jupiter drew the first families into its orbit, and how it became a key link in the steamboat-railroad path that led people to the “Garden of Eden.”

A Light in the Wilderness: The Story of Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & the Southeast Florida Frontier

History

Americas

Life and Death on the Loxahatchee is both the story of a real-life Tarzan and the people who lived downstream along Florida's only federally-designated Wild and Scenic River. Vince Nelson was unique, but also a symbol of all those who fished, trapped, ploughed and hammered out hardscrabble lives on the Jupiter-Tequesta riverfront in the days before it became golf courses and millionaire mansions. 
Who was Trapper Nelson? he was born in 1908, the sickly son of a landless Polish immigrant. Over the next sixty years he would wrest from the wilderness a eleven hundred acres along Florida's most breathtaking jungle river. 
Along his life's journey Nelson became the Legend of the Loxahatchee, with as many faces as the people who claimed to know him. Hobo, trapper, hunter, alligator wrestler, gambler, celebrity host, charmer of snakes and women alike, this modern Tarzan's life ended as mysteriously as he had lived it. On a steamy July day in 1968, a friend found Vince Nelson dead in his jungle paradise, his torso torn open by a shotgun blast. 
Many people had a motive. So did Trapper himself. Draw your own conclusion as you read the opinions of his family, friends and forensic experts.

Life and Death on the Loxahatchee by Snyder, James D. (2002) Paperback

A Visitor’s Guide to Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Travel

Food, Lodging & Transportation

Friends of Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Swashbuckling Pedro Menéndez and his explorers reached South Florida hoping to find gold and silver. They'd also make Christians of docile natives, who would happily mine ore and raise crops for the tables of Europe. Instead, they confronted a fearsome confederation of tribes that had been a nation for longer than Spain itself. An epic story, true to actual dates and events. But it's told through the life of a Calusa Indian boy, from gathering fibers and berries for his single mother to his crucial role in the court of a cruel despot. It also follows the ambitious Menéndez as he persuades a reluctant Spanish king to finance The Enterprise of Florida, then struggles to sustain a chain of forts along its coasts. And scarcely a day passes without clashes of culture, religion, and weapons between two proud peoples. Yes, there's a "winner," but few heroes. NOTE: La Florida is a revised, paperback edition of the book, The Cross and the Mask, which won the Florida Historical Society's Patrick Smith Award in 2014 for best adult fiction.

La Florida: When Spain 'Discovered' Florida and Two Proud Nations Clashed

World

About the Author\nJames D. Snyder, author of A Light in the Wilderness, has won several awards for both histories and historical novels. "The common thread among them," he says, "is an effort to help the reader grasp the essence of a dramatic historical period through the lives of individuals who lived through it." 
Snyder also writes and speaks about the colorful history surrounding his home on the Loxahatchee River in South Florida. Five Thousand Years on the Loxahatchee is a pictorial history of Jupiter-Tequesta, FL while Black Gold and Silver Sands describes the hard-scrabble beginnings of Palm Beach County. A Trip Down the Loxahatchee shows the river's beauty through the eyes of 52 painters and photographers. Life and Death on the Loxahatchee tells the story of a larger-than-life "Tarzan" who fascinated locals until his mysterious death. 
Jim Snyder has been a writer and editor since graduating from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and The George Washington University graduate school of political science. Beginning in the 1970s he founded what would become the largest independent Washington news bureau for business and medical magazines. In 1984 it became Enterprise Communications Inc., with its own magazines and trade shows. 
In 1997, when the company was sold to Thomson-Reuters Corp., Snyder was able to pursue a second career as author-historian. Today he is also active in several organizations to protect the Loxahatchee River and its rich history.\nYou can't miss the red tower when at Jupiter Inlet in Florida. But many passers-by are unaware that it sits atop a hill that marked the confluence of two waterways that was the center of 5,000 years of Indian civilization. It would later draw a succession of Spanish, English, Seminole Indians, and American soldiers. When the lighthouse was built in 1860, it became a hub for builders, surveyors, Civil War blockade runners, pioneer farmers and paddlewheel steamboats. A Light in the Wilderness tells how today's coastal strip of over seven million residents began just a few generations ago when bears, panthers and alligators roamed and ruled.

A Light in the Wilderness: The Story of Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and the Southeast Florida Frontier

Life and Death on the Loxahatchee: The Story of Trapper Nelson

Amelia's Gold: A novel of romance, ruin, resolve and redemption in the American Civil War

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

Independently published

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Books by SNYDER, JAMES D.