INSIDE THE BOOK

In Ellis Island Interviews, more than 150 immigrants from all over Europe and the Middle East offer their first-hand accounts of the difficult steps that carried them to Ellis Island's legendary "Golden Door".

They describe the lives they left behind and why they emigrated, their often-frightening journey crossing the Atlantic, and what subsequently became of them in their new homeland---America.

Some of the courageous souls who tell their stories include comedian Bob Hope, writer Issac Bashevis Singer,actor Bela Lugosi, and movie directors Otto Preminger and Elia Kazan.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Since published in 1997, the bestselling Ellis Island Interviews: In Their Own Words, has gone on to become the definitive work on Ellis Island and the immigrants who passed through it.

More than ten editions of the book have been printed in both hardcover and paperback. It was chosen as a selection in the History Book Club, Book-of-the-Month Club and a QPB (Quality Paperback Book Club). It also continues to be the bestselling book on Ellis Island itself which draws over 3 million visitors per year.

In 1999, Mr. Coan was honored by his home state of Ohio when Ellis Island Interviews was selected as the "Non-fiction Book of the Year" by the State of Ohio Library Association. Governor Robert Taft presented him with the honor; the fiction award going to Toni Morrison and the career award going to R. L. Stine.

The book has been endorsed by many including former Chrysler chairman and Ellis Island benefactor, Lee Iacocca; former New York City Mayor, Rudolph Guiliani; as well as the esteemed late literary critic and author Leslie Fiedler, who wrote: “We owe a debt of gratitude to Peter M. Coan for having disseminated in their own words the hopes, fears, and subsequent fates of some of our few aging fellow Americans who once entered this country through the now mythic portals of Ellis Island. To have lost them would have impoverished us all. This book is a great achievement.”