Appetite for America Lunchtime History Talk
Friday, April 9

As railroads became increasingly popular for Americans during the late 19th century, travelers found it difficult to find a good meal. Fred Harvey found a cure for these ills inside dozens of depots from Kansas City westward, called The Fred Harvey House. Explore the life of this amazing entrepreneur through the book Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West with author Stephen Fried Friday, April 9, at Union Station.

Fried will tour Union Station’s KC Rail Experience with guests from 11 a.m.-11:45 a.m. From noon to 1 p.m. Fried will read excerpts of his book and discuss the creation of Harvey’s railroad hospitality business along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad lines in Union Station’s Arthur Stilwell Room. An autograph session will follow from 1 p.m.-1:30 p.m. This presentation is presented with the National Archives at Kansas City.

When: Friday, April 9

Where: Union Station’s Arthur Stilwell Room

Hours: 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Admission: $25 for a boxed lunch and admission; $50 for a boxed lunch, admission and Tour of KC Rail Experience with Stephen Fried; $75 for a boxed lunch, admission, Tour of KC Rail Experience with the author and an autographed copy of the book.

Address: 30 W. Pershing Rd., Kansas City, MO 64108

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About the Book:

As much an American success story as a story about America itself, the saga of Fred Harvey—told here, in-depth, for the first time ever--is a captivating tale of a man whose life, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, hard work, and resilience have become the stuff of legend. He and his family business left an indelible mark on our nation’s culture and history; to a surprising degree, we still live in an America of Fred Harvey’s making. But just who was Fred Harvey?

To answer that question, award-winning journalist Stephen Fried has recreated a life that reads like a Horatio Alger rags-to-riches story. He also brings a fresh eye to America’s expansion into the “wild west” of Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid--the great days of the railroads, a time when a deal could still be made with a handshake—and follows the country and the company as they grew up together through the early days of autos and planes.


This is the drama of a young Londoner who arrived in America virtually penniless and literally worked his way up from dishwasher to become a household name. He was Ray Kroc before McDonald’s; Jan Marriot before Marriott Hotels; Howard Schultz before Starbucks; and the restaurant/hotels he and his equally brilliant son, Ford, built along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe rail line would be celebrated by princes and presidents, as well as countless ordinary travelers who simply wanted the best cup of coffee in the country. Courtesy www.stephenfried.com.

About the Author:

Stephen Fried is an award-winning investigative journalist and essayist, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University's graduate school of journalism. He is the author of the highly praised books Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia, Bitter Pills: Inside the Hazardous World of Legal Drugs, The New Rabbi, and Husbandry: Sex, Love & Dirty Laundry—Inside the Minds of Married Men.

A two-time winner of the National Magazine Award--the Pulitzer Prize of magazine writing--Fried has been a prolific writer of feature stories and personal essays for Vanity Fair, The Washington Post Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, Glamour, Ladies' Home Journal and Philadelphia magazine (where he also served for two years as editor-in-chief.) He also lectures widely on the subjects of his books and magazine pieces.

Fried, 52, lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Diane Ayres, author of Other Girls. He grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, not far (enough) from Three Mile Island, and is a 1979 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he did his first magazine work at the campus weekly 34th Street and was mentored by Penn's one-woman journalism school, Nora Magid. (He co-chairs an annual award in her memory, the Nora Magid Mentorship Prize. In his free time, he serves as commissioner of the Sunday Morning Invitational half-court basketball game, fishes badly, plays poker with his nieces and nephews and, once a year, bowls. Courtesy of www.stephenfried.com.

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