- Original Article
Novelist Poised To Make History With Titanic Book
June 2009 - Vineland, N.J. - In an ambitious first novel, author W. Mae Kent accomplishes a literary feat that has never been attempted before: she tells the story of the only black passenger traveling on the ill-fated Titanic. While Kent’s novel is historical fiction, her protagonist, Nathan Badeau Legarde is based on a real person. That person, Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche was on the Titanic, a fact that writers, historians and Hollywood has largely ignored for almost 100 years.
Traveling to New Orleans with his white French wife and two children, Legarde attracts the attention of some of the ship’s less tolerant passengers, gets embroiled in increasingly dangerous altercations, and can call on no one when he is marked for murder.
Titanic: The Untold Story is Kent’s second completed novel. The themes and emotions portrayed in the book - love and pride, bigotry and revenge, are universal themes. Everyone can relate to them in some way. Norm Lewis, Historian and Founder of the Canadian Titanic Society says, “This is a work of classical genius which will hold the reader’s interest for the entire reading.”
Kent, a seasoned public speaker and psychotherapist holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from Thomas Edison State College and a Masters degree in Social Work from Rutgers University. She says her twenty years experience as a psychotherapist was invaluable in helping her craft interesting, believable characters. “Of course, I did a lot of research too. It was an eye-opening experience to learn about Mr. Laroche and other lesser known passengers who were on the Titanic.