Selected Books about Titanic's Passengers and Crew

Wednesday will mark the 103rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The first and last voyage of the famous liner has captivated the minds of the public since the moment the news of its sinking reached the shore. For the past century, everything from films, history books, novels, plays, and even merchandise have found their way into the hearts and homes of those with a fascination for the doomed ship--whether they are interested in its its structure and mechanics, its role in maritime history, the miniature display of Edwardian society that filled its decks, or the lives and deaths of the passengers and crew.

The men and women who survived or died during the tragedy have left varied legacies. But regardless of where life took them after the tragedy--back to the sea, in the case of most crew members, or onward through the 20th century--there is no denying that history wants to remember them.

There are countless numbers of books about the Titanic--from broad histories to 21st century retrospectives and everything in between. Some of these books have even been written by the survivors of the disaster, including the works by Lawrence Beesley and Archibald Gracie, which are arguably the most often quoted books written by survivors.

But the passengers and crew haven't been ignored by historians, either. In addition to firsthand accounts, biographies and histories focusing on the people who survived, and the people who were lost that night, have been published since shortly after the ship sank.

The following are some selected books about the Titanic's passengers and crew. It is by no means comprehensive!

Memoirs/Firsthand Accounts

Titanic Survivor by Violet Jessop
Shadow of the Titanic: A Survivor's Story, a Biography of Miss Eva Hart by Eva Hart
The Truth About the Titanic by Archibald Gracie
The Loss of the SS Titanic by Lawrence Beesley 
Titanic: A Survivor's Story by Jack Thayer


Biographies

Thomas Andrews, Voyage into History : Titanic Secrets Revealed Through the Eyes of Her Builder by William C. Barnes
How to Survive the Titanic: or, The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay by Frances Wilson
The Man Who Sank Titanic: The Troubled Life of Quartermaster Robert Hichens by Sally Nilsson
Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth by Kristen Iversen
The Band That Played on: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic by Steve Turner
And the Band Played On: The Titanic Violinist & the Glovemaker: A True Story of Love, Loss & Betrayal by Christopher Ward

Other

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and their World by Hugh Brewster
Titanic: Women and Children First by Judith B. Geller
The Story of the Titanic As Told by Its Survivors by Jack Winocour
Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived by Andre Wilson 
Titanic Voices by Hannah Holman

Review: Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage by Hugh Brewster

[A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher upon my request.]

It has been almost 100 years since the Titanic's ill-fated maiden voyage that took the lives of over 1,500 people. Since that fateful night, the story of the Titanic has been told again and again (and again) through books and film and even a successful Broadway musical. The question on many people's minds as the anniversary of the Titanic disaster looms is: Do we really need more books about Titanic?

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster answers this question with a resounding "yes." Although hundreds of studies have been published on the Titanic disaster, Hugh Brewster's newest book is not a rehashing of the same old "Titanic" story that we have heard time and time again. In many books, the story of the Titanic is the story of the ship itself: how big she was, how many people were aboard her, how she struck the iceberg and ultimately, how she sank. Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage avoids making the Titanic center stage and instead thrusts the reader into the world of the most famous and noteworthy of Titanic's passengers. The story of the Titanic presented here is not a cold tally of the dead or a countdown of her lifeboats, but a human story about real people who lived and died and made human decisions that night, allowing the reader to "... place ourselves on that sloping deck and ask, 'What would we do?'"

It's clear from the outset that Brewster has done his research, not only on the Titanic (he has published previous works about the ship) but on the world of its first-class passengers and most remarkably, their personal lives. After all, it is one thing to read about the disaster and see an offhand remark about "Lucile Duff Gordan, a popular designer," or "Frank Millet, a popular artist and writer," who survived and did not survive the disaster, respectively. It is quite another to be presented a history of their lives--their loves, their losses, their passions and their personality--while eventually learning of their actions during the voyage and the impact that their life or death had on their world. Some readers may notice that Brewster sometimes has to rely on speculation, such as remarking that perhaps Lucille Duff Gordon wore a certain dress on a particular evening. Most of his speculations are based on research (in the previous example, Brewster is referring to a dress which was included in Lucille's cargo inventory) and, in my opinion, are simply a necessity of writing about what is ultimately a human story.

Brewster's writing is always engaging, always clear, and a pleasure to read. There are black and white photos related to the narrative included throughout the book, including some more uncommon photos of the passengers and first-class rooms. Included in the postscript of the book is a concise guide to the passengers mentioned in the book, with basic information about their lives, whether or not they survived the sinking, and (when applicable) their fate after the Titanic disaster.

I highly recommended Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage to anyone who has an interest in the Titanic, whether they are picking up their very first books about the incident or have been studying the ship for years. It is definitely a worthy addition to the long list of Titanic studies, and I would say it's one of the most interesting and important newer Titanic books to come out in recent years. I would also recommend this to anyone with an interest in the end of the Edwardian age, especially early 20th century American politics, Edwardian fashion and social history.

History Book Finds: 2012 Titanic Book Releases

With the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking nearly upon us (and a Titanic book review on the way!) I thought it would be the perfect time to share just some of the more interesting and unique new Titanic books released/set for release in 2012... though I did let one 2011 release sneak its way in!

The book descriptions are taken from Amazon.com.

How to Survive the Titanic: The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay by Frances Wilson [October 11, 2011]

A brilliantly original and gripping new look at the sinking of the Titanic through the prism of the life and lost honor of J. Bruce Ismay, the ship’s owner ... Accused of cowardice and of dictating the Titanic’s excessive speed, Ismay became, according to one headline, “The Most Talked-of Man in the World.” The first victim of a press hate campaign, he never recovered from the damage to his reputation, and while the other survivors pieced together their accounts of the night, Ismay never spoke of his beloved ship again. ... Using never-before-seen letters written by Ismay to the beautiful Marion Thayer, a first-class passenger with whom he had fallen in love during the voyage, Frances Wilson explores Ismay’s desperate need to tell his story, to make sense of the horror of it all, and to find a way of living with the consciousness of lost honor. For those who survived the Titanic, the world was never the same. But as Wilson superbly demonstrates, we all have our own Titanics, and we all need to find ways of surviving them.

Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived by Andrew Wilson [March 6, 2012]

Although we think we know the story of Titanic—the famously luxurious and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America—very little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did they cope in the aftermath of this horrific event? How did they come to remember that night, a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town?

Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, and diaries as well as interviews with survivors’ family members, award-winning journalist and author Andrew Wilson reveals how some used their experience to propel themselves on to fame, while others were so racked with guilt they spent the rest of their lives under the Titanic’s shadow. Some reputations were destroyed, and some survivors were so psychologically damaged that they took their own lives in the years that followed.

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster [March 27, 2012]

The Titanic has often been called “an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,” but until now, her story has not been presented as such. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, historian Hugh Brewster seamlessly interweaves personal narratives of the lost liner’s most fascinating people with a haunting account of the fateful maiden crossing. Employing scrupulous research and featuring 100 rarely-seen photographs, he accurately depicts the ship’s brief life and tragic denouement, presenting the very latest thinking on everything from when and how the lifeboats were loaded to the last tune played by the orchestra.

And the Band Played On: The Enthralling Account of What Happened After the Titanic Sank by Christopher Ward [April 1, 2012]

On 14th April 1912, when the Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank, 1,500 passengers and crew lost their lives. As the order to abandon ship was given, the orchestra took their instruments on deck and continued to play as the ship went down. The violinist, 21 year-old Jock Hume, knew that his fiancée, Mary, was expecting their first child, the author's mother. A century later, Christopher Ward reveals a dramatic story of love, loss, and betrayal, and the catastrophic impact of Jock's death on two very different Scottish families. He paints a vivid portrait of an age in which class determined the way you lived—and died. This outstanding piece of historical detective work is also a moving account of how the author's quest to learn more about his grandfather revealed the shocking truth about a family he thought he knew, a truth that had been hidden for nearly 100 years.

A Girl Aboard the Titanic: A Survivor's Story by Eva Hart [May, 2012]

'We went on the day on the boat train... I was 7, I had never seen a ship before... it looked very big... everybody was very excited, we went down to the cabin and that's when my mother said to my father that she had made up her mind quite firmly that she would not go to bed in that ship, she would sit up at night... she decided that she wouldn't go to bed at night, and she didn't!'

This is the amazing story of how Eva survived the sinking of the Titanic, how her father perished and the affect it had on her life following the tragedy. The events of a few hours in her childhood remained with her so vividly throughout her life that it took Eva nearly forty years before she could talk openly about the tragedy. A Girl Aboard the Titanic is the only child eyewitness description we have of most famous maritime disaster.