D
Don Bolling
Guest
There are copies of Lady Lucy Duff Gordon's autobiography DISCRETIONS AND INDISCRETIONS at BookFinder.com. These are $185 to well over $200. There are 3 chapters devoted to the Titanic disaster. The copy I have is battered up w/ photos missing but at least it only cost $10.00 at a public book sale. I just thought if there were those out there better-heeled than I & wanted a copy of this interesting book I'd pass on the word. I don't know how rare it is, though. I'd think it sold well in its day since Lady Gordon seems to have been very famous - apart from the Titanic.
The book is medium sized, 5 by 8 in., light grey cloth w/ decorative red lettering, is 333 pages, 23 chapters (Titanic chapters are chapters 13-15), has 20 photos (or should, including a great frontispiece pic of Lady Duff Gordon behind a clear protective sheet).
The 1st chapter re: Titanic relates to her experiences during the sinking, the 2nd on the rescue, & the 3rd on the hearings of the Board of Trade.
I found the account very revealing & got a different - more favorable -impression of the Duff Gordons on reading it. Lady Duff Gordon writes quite well & there are points that are very emotional.
Here's an especially moving excerpt:
"Many years ago I promised my husband that one day I would tell the true story of the most tragic chapter in our lives & vindicate his honor, yet it is only now, after his death, that I am able to do so. For myself I would have been content enough to let it rest, for I do not altogether believe in uncovering old hurts, but he would have wished me to do it, and I owe it to the memory of one who was in every respect the bravest and most honorable of men...I suppose the most terrible thing that can happen to a man is for him to be accused of cowardice for however unjust the accusation may have been it leaves a stain which can never be wiped out, at least not in his lifetime, for we are more charitable in our judgement of the dead...Now a man can be accused of all sorts of things and get away with them, and without losing the respect of other men, but call him a coward and you get back to something primitive, and his own kind will turn on him and make him feel it for the rest of his life. At least that is what happened in my husband's case. He never lived down the shame of the charges that were brought against him, and from that time he became a changed man. He never spoke much about it, but I know his heart was broken..."
The book is medium sized, 5 by 8 in., light grey cloth w/ decorative red lettering, is 333 pages, 23 chapters (Titanic chapters are chapters 13-15), has 20 photos (or should, including a great frontispiece pic of Lady Duff Gordon behind a clear protective sheet).
The 1st chapter re: Titanic relates to her experiences during the sinking, the 2nd on the rescue, & the 3rd on the hearings of the Board of Trade.
I found the account very revealing & got a different - more favorable -impression of the Duff Gordons on reading it. Lady Duff Gordon writes quite well & there are points that are very emotional.
Here's an especially moving excerpt:
"Many years ago I promised my husband that one day I would tell the true story of the most tragic chapter in our lives & vindicate his honor, yet it is only now, after his death, that I am able to do so. For myself I would have been content enough to let it rest, for I do not altogether believe in uncovering old hurts, but he would have wished me to do it, and I owe it to the memory of one who was in every respect the bravest and most honorable of men...I suppose the most terrible thing that can happen to a man is for him to be accused of cowardice for however unjust the accusation may have been it leaves a stain which can never be wiped out, at least not in his lifetime, for we are more charitable in our judgement of the dead...Now a man can be accused of all sorts of things and get away with them, and without losing the respect of other men, but call him a coward and you get back to something primitive, and his own kind will turn on him and make him feel it for the rest of his life. At least that is what happened in my husband's case. He never lived down the shame of the charges that were brought against him, and from that time he became a changed man. He never spoke much about it, but I know his heart was broken..."
