Finding the Fountain of Youth: Ponce de Leon and Florida's Magical Waters

I really love this book -- it is a well-researched, well-written compilation of little-known and truly fascinating images, events, and facts about Florida's history. Mr. Kilby has done a mammoth job of finding old photographs (including postcards, snapshots, magazine and newspaper articles) and bringing them back to life for us with good reproductions accompanied by text and quotations that put them into historical context. If you love Florida, you'll have a blast with this book. If you think you understand Florida, you'll learn much that you didn't know and gain a much better understanding. If you don't know much about Florida, Kilby's book just might make you fall in love with that marvelous, beautiful, bizarre, and oft-looted and ransacked place.

Every Floridian (born or transplant) should own this book. Read it once for the graphics. Read again for the history. Read a third time for both. This book will encourage all readers to explore. After reading this, I'll never look at a glass of FL OJ the same again! Moving away from the state, it was a nice reminder of home. A good push to take a road trip back and embrace the touristy relics we'd normally avoid. This book captures Florida history in a new and interesting light.

Not as academic as I had expected, - more a picture book, but the old photographs and postcards from Florida Before Disney are fascinating and revealing.

The images are presented in a fresh and appealing style that gives me a new appreciation for the beauty and "kitschiness" of my state. This book has real generational appeal so I look forward to having it on my coffee table for years to come.

Great pgophotostos

Great book. Have really enjoyed the history

Great old pictures.

I found out about this book through a lecture given by the author, Rick Kilby, at the Orange County Library System on the second Saturday of June 2013. The lecture was quite good, and I loved all the incredibly fascinating photos Kilby showed. I knew Ponce de León had quite an impact on Floridian culture, but I never knew how much of a tool for tourism he had been before America came to have a distaste for conquistadors. The myth of his "fountain of youth" is so pervasive throughout Florida's culture that it is actually quite astonishing. This book is not only about "Ponceabilia" as Kilby calls it. It's about the idea of Florida as some sort of age reversing utopia whether by water or even the climate as some ads claimed. Kilby goes in detail about the real history of de León, and Florida's long history of springs and pre-70's water related tourism. The facts are of extreme interest, but the showpiece of the book are the photographs. If you love advertising, ludicrous statements, pre-counter culture idealism, graphic design, popular culture, or old Florida you will love this book. This year is the 500th anniversary of Ponce landing on Florida's shores, and I can't imagine a better way to celebrate than to treat yourself to this wonderful book. It will make you think differently about Florida, whether you've never been here or lived here for over ten years like myself.If you are a fan of Old Florida, Rick has a great facebook page called "Old Florida" that I was a big fan of before I even knew Kilby's name. He posts photographs everyday of things ranging from old cracker houses to the kind of absurd ads that are showcased in Finding the Fountain of Youth. Check it out for a little daily dose of the way Florida used to be.