New Book Alert Archive 2004.

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November 26, 2004.
RMS Olympic, Titanic’s Sister by Mark Chirnside.
Hot on the heels of the release of his first book, I just received notice that Chirnside's biography of Olympic is now available as well. Chirnside has written the first detailed history of Olympic and here he tells the story of the ship and her time in service at war and in peace. With much previously unpublished information and illustrations, he explains why she was so important in terms of the development of the passenger ship. RMS Olympic simply was the most important ocean liner of her generation.

This is a softcover book, with 336 pages. This title is published by Tempus Publishing. The retail price is £25. It can be ordered directly from the publisher by sending an e-mail to their sales department at [email protected].

October 31, 2004.
The Olympic Class Ships: Olympic, Titanic, Britannic by Mark Chirnside.
Chirnside's much delayed, eagerly awaited first book is finally available. The long wait was worth it. According to the author, the book was expanded from 320 to 350+ pages. There are 10 pages of endnotes and four of bibliography and acknowledgements. The Olympic chapter is 91 pages, Titanic 82 pages (he wanted to cut her down to size) and Britannic 58 pages (there are fewer pictures in this section, but they are rarer, with three unpublished images). Simon Mills’ books did such a good job on the Britannic, that Mark’s focus is on the ship’s last few voyages and sinking, which are covered in detail.

This is a softcover book. To order, here is a link to The Olympic Class Ships on Amazon.com's UK website. The retail price is £25. No word yet on when the American edition will be available, though originally it was due out about now as well.

October 31, 2004.
The Titanic in Myth and Memory. Representations in Visual and Literary Culture by Tim Bergfelder & Sarah Street.
This book offers a comprehensive discussion of the diverse representations of the connections and differences in the way generations of artists and audiences have approached and used the tragedy. In the final section is an in-depth study of James Cameron's blockbuster film. For the complete publisher's press release, check out Bergfelder & Street's Author Page.

This book has about 250 pages, and will be available in both hardcover and softcover editions. The former retails for £47.50, the latter version for £16.95. Here is the link to the hardcover edition on Amazon.com's UK site.

October 31, 2004.
The Sinking of the Titanic, the Mystery Solved by Captain L. Marmaduke Collins.
The Sinking of the Titanic the Mystery Solved is an expanded edition of Collin’s book The Sinking of the Titanic, an Ice Pilot’s Perspective, originally published in 2002. According to the publisher, there are changes and additions to the text which amount to about 10% of the total book. There are also four photographic plates in the Souvenir Press edition that are not found in the first edition.

It is currently available on Amazon.com's UK site. Here is the link for this hardcover edition there. The retail price is £14.99.

October 28, 2004.
Return to Titanic by Dr. Robert Ballard & Michael Sweeney.
In June, 2004, Ballard returned to the Titanic wreck as part of an expedition in collaboration with National Geographic & NOAA to attempt to determine exactly what factors are hastening the deterioration of the ship. Ballard believes a combination of natural forces, and human intrusions are prematurely causing extensive damage that will result in the total collapse of the wreck. The group will attempt to determine from a scientific standpoint how fast the ship is actually deteriorating, and what, if anything, can be done about it.

Return to Titanic, the book, will be the story of this expedition. Originally due out in November, it has made it off the presses a few days early.

It is a hardcover book, and has about 190 pages. It can be ordered on the usual new book sites, and probably can be found at a book retailer near you now, or will be shortly. The list price is $30.00.

October 24, 2004.
She was Deemed. One Person’s Ultimate Gift to the Titanic by Elizabeth LaCroix-Wagaman.
I don't know too much about this book, except that it is a novel based on the author's impressions of the disaster and how James Cameron's movie affected her. The book is a softcover with just over 200 pages.

Autographed copies can be purchased from the author on the Inspiring Books website. The cost is $17.75.

October 12, 2004.
Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy by Senan Molony.
This new work about the Lusitania disaster focuses on the sinking with emphasis on the impact the tragedy had on Queenstown, where the survivors were landed, and where the bodies of the victims were recovered. Since that time Queenstown has been renamed Cobh.

What will be of interest to Titanic readers is that Molony approaches Cobh as the "Halifax" of the Lusitania tragedy. Any Titanophile will know what that means. Since Cobh was the last port of call of the Titanic, there will be much of interest to Titanic enthusiasts in the many spectacular photographs of the port uncovered from 1915. There are references and new facts about the Titanic on pages 15-16, 35, 53, 60-61, 63, 78, 91-93, 104,122, 144, 147-148, 176 and 183.

The book is hardback, 192pp, 8vo with no fewer than 185 illustrations - 160 of them completely new and unpublished, the best being from a batch of glass plate negatives of the tragedy's immediate aftermath which have never seen the light of day. Although the Titanic content is secondary to the main subject of the book, there seems to be enough content to interest readers in either, or both, of these famous disasters.

The book has just been released, and is still a bit difficult to find outside of Ireland. For those of us who live elsewhere, here is a link to order Lusitania, An Irish Tragedy on Amazon.com's UK site.

September 11, 2004.
Titanic Calling by Diana Bristow.
This novel was originally written in 1985. It was first published privately by the author in 1997 in a limited edition with the title Captain’s Karma. It was released publicly in 2001 under the same title. Both those editions were edited for content on the advice of the author’s New York City agent at the time.

Now for the first time, the book is being published as the author originally intended it to be read. Bristow states that this version is more vivid, realistic and sexier than the older one. This edition sports a striking new front cover illustration as well.

This is a softcover book, with 220 pages. Copies signed by the author are for sale on the Titanic Book Store page of this site. Check the Book Store page under Fiction. The book is also available directly from the publisher: send an e-mail to: [email protected]. The price of the book is $14.95.

August 10, 2004.
Every Light was Shining, by The Hampshire Chronicle.
The Hampshire Chronicle is published in Winchester, which is just 12 miles from Southampton. This book covers the sinking of the Titanic as reported in the pages of that newspaper in 1912. Every article is reproduced from the originals, detailing how the disaster impacted the area and it’s people.

I don't have complete details about this publication yet, and am assuming it is in newspaper format. It has 76 pages. Copies can be ordered by snailmail or telephone: The Hampshire Chronicle, 57 High Street, Winchester, SO23 9BY (Tel. 01962 841772). Price is just £3.75 plus 35p for shipping within the UK. I haven't been able to find out what the charge is for overseas shipping yet. Nor have I been able to determine if there is a way to order this on-line.

With thanks to Andrew Williams and Brian Ticehurst for some of the details about this publication.

May 16, 2004.
R.M.S. Titanic First Class Passenger List, by Günter Bäbler.
This is not a book, per se. Rather it is a facsimile reprint of an original first class passenger list. This reprint looks almost exactly like the original, even including the placement of the staples, and the tipped-in special notice page. This insert page advertizes special features available to first class passngers, such as the gymnasium and squash court, plus it also warns passengers of professional card sharks who might be on board.

This edition is limited to 318 copies. It is a short, small booklet with 20 pages, and a color illustrated front cover. The booklet comes with a foldover envelope which includes text by Hermann Söldner describing and updating discrepancies found in the original list.

It can be purchased directly from the author. The cost, including shipping is 22 Euros if shipped to addresses within the European Union; otherwise $26 for shipping to the U.S. and the rest of the world. Bäbler accepts cash payment or PayPal. Here is the address for ordering:

Gunter Babler
Postfach 3913
8021 Zurich
Switzerland

If you need to contact the author, he can be reached at [email protected].

April 15, 2004.
Titanic and Olympic, The Truth Behind the Conspiracy, by Steve Hall & Bruce Beveridge.
This book re-examines the evidence behind Robin Gardiner’s conspiracy theory that Olympic and Titanic were switched, and Olympic sunk on purpose in Titanic’s place. The reason, to collect the insurance money after Olympic had been damaged by her collision with the warship Hawk. Hall & Beveridge explore the switch theory, assess the evidence, and give their conclusion as to which ship really lies on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean today.

This is a softcover book, with roughly 200 pages. The price of the book is $18.95 + $4.50 for shipping. It is being offered through a site called Buy Books on the Web.com, and is apparently only available to those of us who live in the U.S. and Canada. If you live elsewhere, Buy Books recommends ordering the book through Amazon.com. There is a link to purchase the book from Buy Books.com on Hall & Beveridge's website.

It is also available on the Titanic Book Store page of this site. Check the Book Store page under History.

April 14, 2004.
Titanic Astrology. The Grand Design of a Famous Shipwreck, by Eileen Grimes.
The author has been a professional astrologer since 1990. In this book she takes a fresh look at the ship’s builders, and her passengers, as well as some of the major authors and moviemakers whose works retold the Titanic story to later generations. After studying over 1,000 of their birth charts, she claims to have discovered Titanic’s astrological signature, apparently shared by over 80% of the ship’s passengers and crew.

This is a softcover book, with 260 pages. The price of the book is $16.95 + $4.95 for shipping. Autographed copies can be purchased directly from the author by going to the Titanic Astrology page of her website.

March 17, 2004.
Titanic, A Night Remembered, by Stephanie Barczewski.
This one appears to have more of a social commentary angle. It includes biographies of six men who died that night, Captain Smith, Jack Phillips, Wallace Hartley, Thomas Andrews, William Murdoch and John Jacob Astor. The work concludes with chapters on the three towns most affected by the disaster, Belfast, Southampton and Queenstown.

The book is a hardcover, with roughly 400 pages and 16 plates. It can be ordered through Hambledon's website for EU sales, and through Palgrave for U.S. sales. The book is also now available on Amazon.com at both their U.S. and UK sites. Direct links to order from the UK and U.S. distributors are:

UK Sales:
Hambledon & London Ltd., 102 Gloucester Avenue, London NW1 8HX.
020 7586 0817 (T)
020 7586 9970 (F)
Hambledon order link.

March 16, 2004.
The End of Arrogance, by J.C. Morris.
This is a work of historical fiction. I am not too sure how much Titanic related content there actually is. It is a thick paperback, with roughly 500 pages. It was published by one of those print on demand companies, Buy Books. As of this announcement, availability elsewhere is spotty at best, so this is most easily ordered directly from the publisher. Here is the link to End of Arrogance on their site. The price of the book is $21.95.

March 6, 2004.
White Star, A Dog on the Titanic, by Marty Crisp.
This is a children’s book, marketed at the 9 to 12 age group, that tells the story of a fictional Irish Setter who joins the dozen or so dogs that really were on Titanic. It is a hardcover book, with 160 pages. Crisp is the author of quite a number of books for young readers, many of which are dog related. See Marty Crisp’s Author Page for the link to her web site, which has details about all of her books.

The list price for this book is $16.95. It can be found on all the major new U.S. book sites. Some of the British sites also list it, but with a more limited availability. Here is the link to White Star on Amazon.com.

February 29, 2004.
The Story in the Little Brown Suitcase, by Carol Lynn Caswell.
Historical fiction about the Emerick/Astor fortune. There are several chapters concerning the Titanic disaster, including a story involving John Jacob Astor IV and the Titanic that is not generally known. The little brown suitcase noted in the title belonged to the author’s grandmother, and contained family papers from the 1700’s through the 1930’s.

The book is available in both hardcover and softcover versions. Here is the link to the hardcover edition of Story in the Little Brown Suitcase on Barnes & Noble's website.

January 10, 2004.
The Titanic, by Michael Burgan.
A nonfiction retelling of the Titanic story for the 9 to 12 age group. This is a hardcover book with 48 pages. I don't have any further details at this time. The book is available on all the usual U.S. new book sites like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. It is selling in the $16 to $19 range. It doesn't appear to be available on the European sites yet. Here is the link to Michael Burgan's Titanic on Amazon.com.

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