Introducing James D. SnyderJim Snyder has been a writer, editor and publisher since graduating from the Northwestern University School of Journalism in 1958. He soon moved to the nation's capital and became a governmental affairs correspondent for several magazines. In 1984 he founded Enterprise Communications Inc., which produced business magazines and trade shows. When Enterprise was acquired by the Thomson-Reuters news organization in 1997, Jim returned to his first love, writing. His first book, the culmination of 18 years of research "whenever I had the time to travel and study," was All God's Children, a historical novel covering the earliest days of Christianity from A.D. 30 to A.D. 70. "Some people said it was too long," he says, "so I wrote a shorter version of the same story as a straight history. Either way,those 40 years after the crucifixion were probably the most turbulent, dramatic and misunderstood in human history." Adds the author: "Although the first two books involved a lot of travel to places like Rome and Jerusalem, the actual writing took place at our home on the Loxahatchee River in Florida. I love to kayak, and often it leads me up Jonathan Dickinson State Park to the site of Trapper Nelson, its famous 'celebrity-recluse.' The result was a book entitled Life and Death on the Loxahatchee, and it opened my eyes to the wealth of history in South Florida that was waiting to be researched and written." Next came two pictorial histories, Five Thousand Years on the Loxahatchee, the story of Jupiter-Tequesta, and Black Gold and Silver Sands, describing the struggle and success of farming in Palm Beach County. Snyder's fourth book on Florida history is A Light in the Wilderness: The Story of Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and the Southeast Florida Frontier. Jim has been a long-time volunteer at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, most recently serving as Chairman of the Board. He has also served on the board of Friends of Jonathan Dickinson State Park for several years. Recently he was a member of the Florida Historical Commission, which oversees state grants for renovation of historic structures.