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| CLASSIC DIVE BOOKS - The loss and discovery of the "Titanic" | ||
| Please note: The books are listed for collectors interest only, and not offered for sale. |
| This is not meant to be
a definite list of books on the Titanic.
The amount of information available on the internet referencing the Titanic is enormous, so somewhere lies a complete bibliography. May as well add a few more bytes to the mass. The books added here are of particular interest to me, and tend to offer something unique. I have a very tenuous link to the Titanic. My grandfather was appointed head chef in the Garden Cafe or Parisien Grill I think it was called. He was a top Swiss chef in London, Dublin, and had worked the liners as well, particularly the Baltic. The Savoy Hotel in London was head-hunting him, but he took the Titanic job. However, the Titanic's initial departure was delayed by some days, during which time the Savoy managed to convince him to jump ship so to speak, which he did, much, I presume, to the annoyance of White Star. The rest is history. But I am sure he woul have survived. Aftr all, he was Swiss! The Titanic was wrecked in the northern Atlantic on 14 April 1912 when it struck an iceberg. Surely you have seen the film? |
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THE WRECK OF THE TITAN
- A Nineteenth Century ProphesyPJS
Morgan Robertson. First published as FUTILITY in the United States, 1898. This edition published Great Britain by Pocket Books, 1998. (An imprint of Simon and Shuster Ltd, London, Sydney. CIP British Library 0-617-01819-1 From the introduction to the book: The Wreck of the Titan was published under the title Futility in 1898. It eerily prefigures the Titanic disaster and reflects many of the themes that make so many people today hungry for details. The author anticipated so many specifics - the watertight compartments, the length of the vessel, the iceberg and even the name of the ship - that some commentators have found it hard to dismiss as weird coincidence. But he also wrote a story of strange intensity that stands up well in its own right. For him, writing at the end of the Victorian era, the unsinkable Titan is a symbol of hubris. It represents the triumph of the mechanical. In one extraordinary episode the protagonist, feverish with despair and alcohol and unknowingly poisoned with hashish (hemp at that time not being illegal) rails against God and the universe. Where, he wonders, in a world controlled by the laws of motion and inhabited by creatures resulting from the blind workings of evolution, is there room for altruism, goodness and God? The author expressed his own preoccupations and those of his time with almost hallucinatory power. However, there is another unappealing way in which he unquestioningly accepted the attitudes that prevailed in many circles at the end of the nineteenth century. His portrait of Meyer is a grotesque anti-Semitic caricature which grates offensively upon the modern sensibility. But an historical document is a product of man, moment and milieu and to edit it for today's values is to tell lies about its nature. It is a blemish on a story that otherwise remains compelling. Morgan Robertson grew up at a time when Britain controlled a quarter of the world. He had a robust Yankee disdain for the imperial British, who are notably shifty. The decision of the British captain not to stop when his huge ship destroys a small sailing vessel - an accident that is emblematic of the tension between mechanical and natural forces - precipitates the whole ghastly tragedy. For late Victorian readers the image of a wind-powered ship being mown down in the fog by the indifferent colossus of the steam age would have been a frightening reminder of how quickly their world was changing. Morgan Robertson was unembarrassed about writing a novel (or, more precisely, a novella) of ideas. Surprisingly, those ideas which underpin the narrative are still just as potent today. The Wreck of the Titan is more than a curiosity; it is a compelling story. As for its uncanny prescience about the Titanic, nobody can say for sure whether that is a bizarre series of coincidences or whether something altogether more mysterious was at work. The story itself was written
by Morgan Robertson and published by M.F. Mansfield in 1898 as Futility.
It was republished in 1912 by McClure' s Magazine and Metropolitan Magazine
of New York and, with obvious reference to the Titanic disaster the same
year, renamed The Wreck of the Titan. As for the author, he was the son
of a Great Lakes captain. Born on 30 September, 1861 in Oswega, New York,
who ran away to serve in the merchant marine at the age of sixteen. He
was soon travelling the world, and by the time he left the sea in 1886,
he had obtained the papers of First Mate. Although Robertson only completed
a high school education, it is clear from this literary work that he was
a man . of intellect. His consideration of nineteenth-century ethics and
inadequate maritime regulations and shipping policies shows foresight in
what was to come. It is strange to consider why a fictional piece of work
such as this fascinates enthusiasts more than any other written on the
Titanic disaster itself. Only the reader can decide whether the story was
a psychic premonition ,or merely Robertson's theory of what could happen
if changes were not made to the antiquated shipping laws and regulations.
Morgan Robertson died on 14 March, 1915 in Atlantic City. It is fitting
to note that he was found in front of an open window, gazing out to sea.
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THE LOSS OF
THE SS. TITANIC
L. Beesley Published by Houghten-Mifflin Co., Boston and New York Riverside Press Camebridge published June 1912 [ps] |
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THE SINKING
OF THE TITANIC
L.T. Myers. Copyright 1912. Hardcover, 350 pages, 32 pages of illustrations.Size 6.5 x 9 inches. [ps] |
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DOWN WITH
THE OLD CANOE -
A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE TITANIC DISASTER Steven Biel. W.W.Norton & Co., New York and London. 1996. ISBN 0-393-03965-X Softcover, 300 pages, mono prints, index. This unique book takes a look at the tragic loss of the a Titanic in 1912. The author looks at how the loss of the Titanic affected our lives, particularly in the way we perceive the disaster, in our sayings and everyday speach, and how authors have written of the tragedy. [ps] |
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FATHER BROWNE'S TITANIC
ALBUM
A Passenger's Photographic and Personal Memoir. E.E.O'Donnell. Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1997. ISBN 0 86327 598 2. Hardcover, dustjacket, 120 pages, large mono prints, index. This is an extremely valuable and wonderful collection as it documents the last photphrpahs of the Titanic before her fateful voyage. The fly tells it all: A unique and major book about the Titanic's tragic inaugural voyage, by one of this century's great photographers. For many historians of the Titanic, Father Browne's importance is due to the fact that he disembarked from the liner in Cork Harbour with the largest extant collection of pictures taken on board. Some of these photographs of the liner and her passengers appeared on the front pages of the world's newspapers reporting the sinking of the ship in 1912, with the loss of over 1,500 lives. However, in the past two decades with the rediscovery of his 42,000 negatives and the publication of ten volumes of his photographs, Father Browne's reputation as a photographer has received a major boost. One commentator states that he is 'one of the greatest photographers of the first half of this century'; another describes him as 'the Irish Cartier-Bresson'. This new book relates the story of his Titanic voyage. It uses the photographs, most of them pre- viously unpublished, from his personal album. Put together by Father Browne himself, the album is an invaluable archival treasure. This book includes facsimile reproductions from that album, enlarge- ments of the photographs of the Titanic and her passengers, and additional photographs relating to the liner and to her departure from Southampton, her voyage to Cherbourg and her arrival at Queenstown (now Cobh) in county Cork, Ireland. Together, these photographs tell the full story of the great ship's voyage up to her departure from her final port of call before disaster struck. In addition, Father Browne's own account of his journey, previously only privately published, is included along with some intriguing memorabilia, including correspondence from the White Star Line and from fellow passengers, plus his fifteen - verse poem, 'In Memoriam', never previously published. Father Browne's menu card, telegrams, and press cuttings add further interest. [ps] Highly recommended. It was still in print in 2003. Wolfhound Press are at 68 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1, Ireland. |
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A NIGHT TO
REMEMBER
Walter Lord First published by Longmans Green & Co.,1956. Illustrated edition (top image), Allen Lane, Penguin Books, London, 1976. ISBN 0 7139 0989 7. Hardcover, dustjacket, 232 pages, many illustrations and photos, index. [ps] Many subsequent publications, including Penguin Books, first edition in 1978. The cover right is from a Penguin paperback. (bottom image). [ps] It is deemed a classic, a best seller, but I personally found it rather boring. To me it is not "a compelling account", as that infers some compassion and excitement in the writing. I did not find it so, and have read many other "shipwreck books" that do indeed capture the moment. But, it is regarded as a "classic bestseller", so whom am I to agrue with commerce - and it has a great title. |
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THE MAIDEN
VOYAGE
Geoffrey Marcus. First published in USA by Manor Books, Inc, 1974. Nell paperback edition (as shown), 1976. Paperback, 287 pages, mono prints, index. Very well written; reads better than Walter Lord. Of its historic accuracy I cannot judge, but appears on the surface to be factual, and no doubt more up-to-date than Lord. |
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TITANIC SURVIVOR
The Memoirs of Violet Jessop - Stewaerdess. Intorudced, edited and annotated by John Maxtone-Graham. First published by Sheridan House Inc., New York, 1997. Published in Australia 1998 by Boronia Press, Campbell, ACT. ISBN 0 646-35277-6. Softcovr, 239 pages, mono prints, index. (Probably initially publisged in hardcover). The author is one of the few people in the world to survive two major shipwrecks - the Titanic, and later, the Britannic. This is truly valuable book in th huge bibliography on th Titanic, offering a first hand account of events, and the life of a truly remarkable woman. |
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VOYAGE OF THE ICEBERG
The Story of the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic. Richard Brown James lomier & Co.,Toronto. 1983. ISBN 0-88862-656-8. Hardcover, dustjacket, 152 pages, mono photographs, drawings. Well, this is a novel approach to the story of the Titanic. It reads as one would of a collision between two ships, the history of each given in detail before that dreadful moment of impact. But in this case, the other 'ship' is of course a block of ice. The author combines a mercifully brief background on the Titanic - after all, it has been done to death - with the 'life' of the iceberg as it break away from the grip of the land and floats into history. Quite a fascinating book. From the fly: There is only one Iceberg that has gripped the imagination of the world, one Iceberg that has humbled the arrogance of men who believe in technology; one Iceberg that tells us of the wonders and dangers of the North Atlantic Ocean. That Iceberg sank the Titanic. This remarkable book tells the story of that Iceberg's journey from the day it was "calved" into Baffin Bay until it crippled the Titanic eighteen months later. Richard Brown's quiet, compelling prose describes the rich natural and human world through which the Iceberg travelled. It is the story of the Sierapaluk, the one surviving band of Inuit in the far northwest corner of Greenland, facing a life so harsh that the elderly simply wander off to die when food runs short; of the last surviving bowhead whale, a sixty-foot giant whose massive tail every whaler in the North Water fears; of men like Osbert Clare Forsyth-Grant, a buccaneering Scot who takes enormous risks with his ship and crew on the arctic ice - and pays for it with his life; and of the outport men who stream to St. John's each winter, pleading for a berth on the sealing ships and a chance to strike it rich on ‘The Main Patch.' Through these lives, and many more, the Iceberg passes on its way to the Grand Banks and its fateful meeting with the Titanic. The two brush past each other on the night of April 14, 1912. The Iceberg drifts on, drawn towards the warm waters of the Gulf Stream where its journey will finally end. The Titanic ends its maiden voyage that night- as it sinks into the icy waters of the North Atlantic, taking fifteen hundred men, women and children to their deaths. As a stunned world struggles to recover from the shock of this unprecedented disaster, another berg breaks off in . Jacobshavn Ice Fiord and drifts out towards Baffin Bay. And so, the voyage of the Iceberg begins again. . . [ps] |
