A Night to Remember

I am right now in the process of reading "A Night To Remember" LET ME TELL YOU NOW this book is excelent, It is not boring, It is not, Confusing, It is very useful and exciting and wonderful and exact!(sorry it jus makes me excited even thinking about it)haha) I EXTREMLEY RECOMEND THIS BOOK! thanl you!
-0Caroline

Reply Like

Caroline,
I've moved your post into the Walter Lord wing of the ET books forum. As you can see, there's quite a few threads and posts by others who also think ANTR an excellent book.

Reply Like

Thank you FIONA, sorry about that. hehe
-Caroline

Reply Like

"As you can see, there's quite a few threads and posts by others who also think ANTR an excellent book."

And one much-denigrated but decidedly unrepentant detractor.

Noel

Reply Like

Caroline, Noel is not the only detractor. A Night to Remember was a good book for its time and it's still a good read. It's not easy to put it down once you've started. That said, it's now out of date, especially Lord's graphic description of the sinking. There are various other errors, including a number of characters who were never on board. An impostor who called himself Walter Belford even tricked Lord into believing his tale of events in the bakery. I think Noel would join me in attacking the chapter called There Is Your Beautiful Nightdress Gone. In my opinion, it's 90% romantic hot air.

I suggest that The Night Lives On is better researched and better referenced. It contains a good deal of accurate information and intelligent comment. Titanic fans owe a lot to Walter Lord for reviving interest in the ship, but, like many who are first in their field, Lord didn't always get it right.

Reply Like

The Night Lives On is an excellent book, yet it does not have half the lyrical quality of Lord's first book. I have read the sequel once, but I go back and read A Night to Remember over and over again.

I will not disagree that there are flaws in the text of A Night to Remember, but that can pretty much be said of any book on the subject ever printed. plus we have to remember that this was written 50 years ago, when the amount of information available was a fraction of what it is today. at the time he wrote the book, the text was as complete and as accurate as he could make it.

I will be the last one to deify Walter Lord, or any other author for that matter, yet there is no denying the incredible achievement A Night to Remember made to the subject of the Titanic disaster. no other book, before or since has inspired so much popular interest in this subject for casual reader and expert alike and across such a range of age groups for five decades now. and growing! it richly deserves the recognition it has received.

all the best, Michael (TheManInBlack) T

Reply Like

The difference between the books "A Night to Remember" and "The Night Lives On", is that ANTR reads like an exciting novel, or even a movie, if you will. TNLO is more a series of essays about various aspects of the disaster, and does not really have a plotline, as the first does.

That said, I cannot even remember how many times I've read ANTR. Six or seven or more, maybe? TNLO I've read cover to cover twice, but I've went back a number of other times to reread various parts of it.

Reply Like

Ill have to agree w/ bill, A night to remember is definitely the better of the 2 books for a good story, though The night lives on is better for checking the facts, 1 of the few books i use for checking titanic facts.

Reply Like

20 November 1955: Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" is reviewed in the New York Times Book Review. In a piece entitled "The Nightmare of April 14, 1912", reviewer Burke Wilkinson calls ANTR "a stunning book, incomparably the best on its subject and one of the most exciting books of this or any year." To be continued on 11 December. (Source: New York Times Book Review, 20 Nov. 1955.)

Reply Like

Has anybody read other books by Lord? Are they in the same cinematic style as ANTR?

Reply Like

The Dunkirk book is. At least, that's my opinion.

Reply Like

I've read a number of Lord's books: on the Alamo, the War of 1812, and Midway (I'm not at home, so I can't state the real book names). All very worth while, and yes, the same style as ANTR.

And - I am keeping an eye out for Lord's books that I haven't read. What does that tell you?

Reply Like

I am not sure if Walter Lord’s book mentioned by Bill, “Midway, the Incredible Victory” qualifies cinematographically but the publisher’s blurb would seem to indicate that it might.

The blurb reads:
” They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of the war. More than that, they added a new name — Midway — to that small list that inspires men by example — Marathon, the Marne, the Somme, and Rorke’s Drift. Even against the greatest odds there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith and valor that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.”

Reply Like

Lord's book about Pearl Harbor, Day of Infamy, certainly has the same style as ANTR. as with the latter book, Lord rounded up survivors and got their first hand accounts of the event, using that as the basis for the text. although the format is the same, I don't think the book is anywhere near as gripping as his Titanic book.

all the best, Michael (TheManInBlack) T

Reply Like

Thanks, Michael, that one of Lord's I've also read. Good stuff!

Reply Like