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. And with them, we gather on the "Titanic" s sloping deck on that cold, starlit night and observe their all-too-human reactions as the disaster unfolds.The Titanic has often been called "An exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era," but until now, her story has not been presented as such. Through them, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own.
Millionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, writer Helen Churchill Candee, movie actress Dorothy Gibson, aristocrat Noelle, the Countess of Rothes, and a host of other travelers on this fateful crossing are also vividly brought to life within these pages. Today, both of these once-famous men are almost forgotten, but their ship-mate Margaret Tobin Brown lives on as the Unsinkable Molly Brown, a name that she was never called during her lifetime. His traveling companion Major Archibald Butt was President Taft s closest aide and was returning home for a grueling fall election campaign that his boss was expected to lose. And here we also experience the rustle of elegant undergarments as first-class ladies proceed down the grand staircase in their soigne evening gowns, some of them designed by Lady Duff Gordon, the celebrated couteriere, who was also on board.Īnother well-known passenger was the artist Frank Millet, who led an astonishing life that seemed to encapsulate America s Gilded Age from serving as a drummer boy in the Civil War to being the man who made Chicago s White City white for the 1893 World Exposition. Yet here too is a convincing evocation of the table talk at the famous Widener dinner party held in the Ritz Restaurant on the last night. 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. 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. The "Titanic" has often been called an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era, but until now, her story has not been presented as such.
The intimate atmosphere onboard history s most famous ship is recreated as never before.
"Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage" takes us behind the paneled doors of the "Titanic" s elegant private suites to present compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers.
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