Railroaded: The Alice Flagler Story

In America’s Gilded Age, Ida Alice Shourds Flagler was building a legacy alongside her oil-magnate husband, Henry Flagler, until he used his immense power to erase her. Labeled insane and forcibly divorced, Alice was sent to a sanitarium for the final three decades (you read that right) of her life. My historical novel traces her journey from a difficult childhood to a scandalous marriage too hot for New York's high society. Then follows her to St. Augustine, where she successfully serves as a Gilded Age hostess to the rich and famous. When Alice confronts Henry about her suspicions of infidelity, it initiates a downward spiral resulting in her permanent confinement in an upstate New York sanitarium. My novel reimagines those last thirty years.  While the world forgot about her, Alice found a radical sense of peace and autonomy during her confinement, and will lead a satisfying, albeit invisible, life.  My novel restores the voice of a spirited woman long hidden in the shadow of a powerful man’s history.