A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Night to Remember is the story of the night in April 1912 when the Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank. This book was originally published in 1955 so the author had the opportunity to talk with more than 60 survivors of the Titanic and also with people from the Carpathia which rescued the survivors.

Walter Lord does an amazing job of presenting almost a minute by minute account of the sinking and the rescue, using the accounts from the survivors as well as some written accounts that were published by survivors. It is a compelling story and well worth the effort to read it. However there are some gaps in the story, as the author points out – there is just not a lot of information about the passengers in Third Class. This mainly because the survival rate of the steerage passengers was not nearly as good as it was for the First and Second Class passengers.

I read this book for the first time when I was in grade school. It is a very easy read – the author has a great sense of the narrative. I highly recommend this book!