Quinn, Paul J. Dusk to Dawn. 1st printing. Hollis, NH: Fantail. November, 1999. hardcover. color illustrated with paintings by the author. The subtitle on dust jacket is ‘Survivor Accounts of the Last Night on the Titanic’. isbn: 0965520994. scarcity: scarce.

In his second book on the subject, Quinn expands the story to include the entire final night of Titanic’s maiden voyage, from dusk to dawn. This gives him the ability to include a lot more information than in his first work, but it also dilutes the power of the story as well. Titanic at Two benefited strongly from focusing on the last 20 minutes before the ship sank. This focus is lacking in the sequel.

A disappointment for me is that there seems to be far fewer of the author’s paintings in this sequel. He depends much more on traditional photographic shots to highlight the action. Also, the images he chooses to paint are not as strong as his art from the first book, although there are a few gorgeous exceptions. One strength in the art is his depictions of how the darkness limited people’s perceptions of what was happening. Unfortunately, many of these shots are reduced almost to the size of captions, making them much less effective.

One of the genuine strengths of his first book is the accurate recreation of events as expressed in the survivors’ own words. In this area, the sequel is just as strong as its predecessor. Once again, Quinn has sifted through hundreds of pages of testimony, and sorted them into a cohesive whole; an awesome accomplishment. Sure, there are plenty of books which base their text on survivor testimony, but no-one has so successfully organized all this testimony into a coherent timeline as well as Quinn has done. The book is worth a place in your library for this fact alone.

Quinn, Paul J. Titanic at Two A.M. 1st printing. Saco, ME: Fantail. January, 1997. hardcover. color illustrated with paintings by the author. isbn: 0965520935. scarcity: scarce.

The author has written a compelling forensic account of Titanic’s last moments afloat. And by ‘forensic’ I don’t mean a dry statistical account, but rather a powerful, detailed examination of the liner’s final 20 minutes. The result is a gripping analysis, which makes for fascinating reading.

This is a particular accomplishment considering the chaotic atmosphere rampant on the ship this late in the sinking. Quinn’s depictions are based on survivor testimony, which he quotes extensively in his text. Mostly this documentation was culled from testimony as related in the American Senate investigation, giving a sound foundation for his interpretation of events. I don’t necesarily agree with all of his conclusions, but they are all logically represented and are credible theories as to how events might have unfolded that night.

Special note must be made of the artwork created by the author for his book. It is hard enough to write a book, much less illustrate one, but to do both is quite a feat. Quinn is competent as both artist and writer, which enables him to bring his vision of the story uniquely to life.

There are some powerful illustrations of the sinking, the most chilling to my mind are depictions showing the flooding of the ship; one of water pouring down the staircase into the third class dining saloon, another of water slowly pooling on the linoleum of a first class passageway.

Reprint editions are much easier to come by, and would have a scarcity rating of fairly common.