A Night to Remember: The Sinking of the Titanic

Walter Lord

Mar 2012 · The Titanic Chronicles Book 1 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

#1 New York Times Bestseller: The definitive book on the sinking of the Titanic, based on interviews with survivors, by the author of The Miracle of Dunkirk.
 At first, no one but the lookout recognized the sound. Passengers described it as the impact of a heavy wave, a scraping noise, or the tearing of a long calico strip. In fact, it was the sound of the world’s most famous ocean liner striking an iceberg, and it served as the death knell for 1,500 souls. In the next two hours and forty minutes, the maiden voyage of the Titanic became one of history’s worst maritime accidents. As the ship’s deck slipped closer to the icy waterline, women pleaded with their husbands to join them on lifeboats. Men changed into their evening clothes to meet death with dignity. And in steerage, hundreds fought bitterly against certain death. At 2:15 a.m. the ship’s band played “Autumn.” Five minutes later, the Titanic was gone. Based on interviews with sixty-three survivors, Lord’s moment-by-moment account is among the finest books written about one of the twentieth century’s bleakest nights.

Ratings and reviews

I just got into this and the way he puts everything together and talks the way of the future makes everything so magical as if it werent real and then it sinks and you start to bawl just thinking of so many widows and orphans and homeless penniles people and all the frantic mothers looking for their long gone children. Definitive. Tear jerking. Heart wrenching. Soul binding. Thats all anyone can say.

A really interesting take on this historic event. It tells the stories of those who lived through the event (and other who did not), not just about the event itself. It covers the sinking, rescue and some of the aftermath. Some of the dated language may make the book more difficult to understand and the book is not the fastest paced, but a good read.

An account by survivors on the Titanic of exactly what happened in first, second, and third class from the beginning until the boat sank. Also, those who were saved and those who weren't, with a complete passenger list included at the end

About the author

DIVWalter Lord (1917–2002) was an acclaimed and bestselling author of literary nonfiction best known for his gripping and meticulously researched accounts of watershed historical events. Born in Baltimore, Lord went to work for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. After the war’s end, Lord joined a New York advertising firm, and began writing nonfiction in his spare time. His first book was The Fremantle Diary (1954), a volume of Civil War diaries that became a surprising success. But it was Lord’s next book, A Night to Remember (1955), that made him famous. The bestseller caused a new flurry of interest in the Titanic and inspired the 1958 film of the same name. Lord went on to use the book’s interview-heavy format as a template for most of his following works, which included detailed reconstructions of the Pearl Harbor attack in Day of Infamy (1957), the battle of Midway in Incredible Victory (1967), and the integration of the University of Mississippi in The Past That Would Not Die (1965). In all, he published a dozen books./div