Here are some intriguing facts and figures about Titanic books:

Number of books printed in 1912, the year the disaster occurred: 34 (probably double, or even triple that number if you count all the poetic and religious booklets that also came out that year).

The most Titanic related books ever printed in a single year: 1998, with an amazing 90 different titles. (James Cameron’s movie came out in 1997, of course).

The book with the largest number of copies ever printed. Walter Lord’s classic book A Night to Remember has to be the reigning champion as far as total number of copies printed. According to a January 12, 1998 article in Publishers Weekly, (The Tip of the Iceberg, by Daisy Maryles) it states that there were at that time 2,777,000 copies of this book printed, after 71 trips to the press (With thanks to Jennifer Hooper McCarty for that statistic).

The book with the smallest number of copies ever printed: Howard Chapin’s The Titanic Disaster, limited to just 20 copies.

The first Titanic book ever printed: 1898, if you include Morgan Robertson’s novella Futility, which predicted a Titanic like disaster. He even named his fictional ship The Titan.

Otherwise the first book printed that was actually about the real ship was one of two books printed in 1911 (I don’t know which was published first). It was either A Day in a Shipyard by Arthur Cooke, or The Shipbuilder book The White Star Triple-Screw Atlantic Liners Olympic and Titanic .

Number of authors who have actually visited the wreck: 10. They are (in order of earliest to most recent dives):

Dr. Bob Ballard, 1985 (again in 1986).
Charles Pellegrino, 1986 (again in 2001).
Jennifer Carter, 1987.
Dr. Joseph MacInnis, 1987 (again in 1991).
John Eaton, 1993.
James Cameron, 1995 (again in 2001).
Charles Haas, 1996.
Roger Bansemer, 2000.
Don Lynch, 2001.
Ken Marschall, 2001.

The author who has written the most Titanic books: Dr. Bob Ballard has the most titles attributed to him with eight, but he has had a lot of help from co-authors. Otherwise, Senan Molony takes most prolific honors, with seven titles.

The artist who has illustrated the most Titanic books: Ken Marschall, with 13 (actually a few more, if you count book covers). No-one else even comes close.

The largest number of books about someone who traveled on Titanic: Margaret "Molly" Brown, at 12 titles.

Biggest Titanic Book: The Wall Chart of the Titanic by Tom McCluskie (18 x 12 inches).
Tiniest Titanic Book: The Titanic, by Patricia Cronin Marcello (3-3/4 x 3-1/4 inches).
Longest Titanic Book: Senate Report, U.S. Congress, Titanic Disaster Hearings - 1163 pages. (The British Enquiry comes in a close second, with 1046 pages).

As of this writing, the grand total number of books about the Titanic or that have at least one chapter on the Titanic: 645.

Of those books, the number that have ‘Titanic’ in the title: 447.

Number of books that don’t have the name of the ship in the title: 198 (The most famous, of course, being Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember).

Number of books that are just called 'Titanic': 33. (So much for originality!)

Total number of books with Titanic in the title that have absolutely nothing whatever to do with the ship or the disaster: 20 (at least, I have probably missed some). The Other Titanic, for example is actually about salvaging the Oceanic.

Total number of children’s books on the subject: 110.

The most common letter for a Titanic title to start with: 'T' (obviously, not including titles that start with 'The'). There are 254 titles that start with a ‘T”.

Number of letters for which there are no Titanic titles: 3. There are no Titanic titles that start with Q, X, or Z.

Of the letters that do start Titanic titles, the letter used the least: K. There are just two titles that start with a 'K'.

The number of books there would be about the Titanic if it had not sunk on its maiden voyage with the loss of over 1500 lives: Okay I’m extrapolating here, but by comparing it to books about other ocean liners that never had a major disaster strike, probably no more than five.

Who said statistics ain’t fun?!?!?!?

I originally posted a shorter version of this article on May 20, 2001 on Jeff Newman’s Mail List.