Fire Mountain: How One Man Survived the World's Worst Volcanic Disaster

Fast-moving, journalistically crisp account of the 1902 explosion of Mont Pelee on the Caribbean island of Martinique. The story of the "lone" survivor serves as a framework to anchor the more interesting historical, scientific, and political stories before and after the event. Compare this book to Simon Winchester's Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 which I recently read. This book is better-written and geared more toward a popular audience, in part because the explosion of Mont Pelee was not as historically or scientifically noteworthy as Krakatoa, but also because Morgan is a better writer.

This was a book I could not put down and have read over multiple times. If you like fact based dramas and have an interest in volcanos, then this should be right up your alley. If Hollywood or better yet PBS made a movie based on this book and stayed close to the author's narrative, it would be one of the better movies of all time. And it really happened !

I read this book in two sittings,barely able to put it down. Peter Morgan's description of the ill-fated Saint Pierre painted pictures in my mind. The horror of that fateful day in 1902 I felt was portrayed in an honest yet respectful manner. The only thing I was disapointed with was that there wasn't as much information on Ludger Sylbaris as I had anticipated. Despite this I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in history or volcanoes.

"Science, history and human tragedy collide in a heart-stopping tale of natural catastrophe." - from the dust jacket.Author Peter Morgan makes a canny choice in his book "Fire Mountain" by focusing on the life of the single survivor of the volcanic eruption of Mount Pelee in Martinique in 1902 that completely destroyed the city of Saint-Pierre. By telling the story of the incredible survival of Ludger Sylbaris and his subsequent career as a sideshow oddity in the Barnum & Bailey circus, Morgan warmly humanizes what otherwie would have just been another run-of-the-mill disaster story.Morgan carefully reconstructs the events leading up to the destruction of Saint-Pierre, describing the city and the colorful personalities in what was then a French colonial town. Called the "Paris of the Caribbean," it was caught totally unprepared when Pelee began erupting a few months before the final disaster. The residents convinced themselves that they were far enough away to be safe before the mountain exploded in much the same manner as Mount St. Helens, utterly erasing the city from the map.In the aftermath, resucuers picking over the rubble made a startling discovery. Ludger Sylbaris somehow managed to survive the disaster in a solitary confinement cell in the local jail. Though horribly burned, he became an instant celebrity. When Barnum & Bailey made him a part of the so-called "Greatest Show on Earth," he became the first black man ever to grace the stage of the segregated show.Morgan is an excellent histroian and a good storyteller, and the book contains numerous photographs and illustrations to help the reader. At just over 230 pages of narrative, this is a highly readable and very enjoyable work.