As any good reader can tell you there are bad books and good books, and then there are classics. A Night to Remember is simply one of the most historic and definitive classics of our time. No one does historical accounts like Walter Lord and it’s possible that no one ever will.

Books like A Night to Remember and Day of Infamy allow the reader to slip into the book as the events unfold. The things you will read are true and you are unable to let go as the pages and the moments pass by, both in the book and in real time.

A Night to Remember was written in 1955 and later revisited in 2005. There have been other books written about the amazing unsinkable ship, the Titanic. In fact, there have probably been thousands that have been written.

There have also been movies, the most popular probably being the 1997 version, Titanic by James Cameron. However, as powerful as these other stories of the Titanic may have been, none truly hold a candle to Walter Lord’s, A Night to Remember.

To prepare the world (and his manuscript) for the perfect account on the sinking of the Titanic, Lord interviewed 60 survivors to ensure that all the facts were represented. Surprisingly enough, this book was one of the first to come out on the subject despite many years passing before it was available on the shelves. It is obvious that the interviews did wonders to help a person that was not on the Titanic relate to people that were.

You are able to see the jovial nature of the people who were so sure that the Titanic wouldn’t sink that they went on with their evening, playing cards, drinking cocktails, and playing with chunks of iceberg that would soon lead to their demise. Later in the book you learn of the devastating class structure of the boat that caused many unnecessary deaths. While no children died in the upper decks, in steerage, 53 of the 76 children were unable to make it out alive.

You are quickly able to learn that on the Titanic, the women and children first rule only worked if you were in upper class rooms. The steerage women and children were better off to wait for the first class men. After all, in those days, and on that boat, a few less steerage passengers were not going to be a big loss to society.

At the end of this magnificent book you are able to view a list of passengers despite their ranking on the ship.

There are famous names such as John Jacob Astor next to steerage passengers, such as the Rice children (Albert, George, Eric, Arthur, and Eugene) who died with their mother Margaret. While none of these listed passengers made it out alive, there were some that were able to, such as Mrs. JJ Brown (Margaret Tobin Brown) who was an inspiration to those going through this horrible ordeal. All of the surviving passengers are noted by italicized print.

The only logical complaint that can be made about A Night to Remember is the lack of background story. As you begin to turn the pages you are introduced to a boat that is about to hit an iceberg. There is nothing to tell us about the Titanic while it was in its glory and was sailing through the waters before the disaster struck.

However, despite lack of background this story is still a heart-wrenching and riveting read. If you are a lover of history or the Titanic and have not read this book then I highly recommend you look into reading A Night to Remember. Of course, if you have read this book you might want to look up other Walter Lord classics. If you are interested in novels of true and devastating situations, no one did it better than him.

     If you like this site, Donate to help keep us going!