A Night To Remember, By Walter Lord

 

Boyd Tonkin
Thursday 12 April 2012 10:03 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

In their Titanic dramas, both James Cameron and Julian Fellowes rested heavily on this pioneering oral history of "the last night of a small town" (Walter Lord's phrase).

Writing in 1955, Lord interviewed 63 survivors, passengers and crew. He stitched their testimonies, along with every written source, into a swift, streamlined and supremely compelling narrative of the liner's demise on 14 April 1912.

At this distance, his masterwork not only reads like a still-definitive account of the mythic disaster. It also looks forward to the next half-century of close-focus New Journalism and high-speed narrative non-fiction.

The boat sunk, but the literary form that Lord fashioned so sturdily floats proudly along our bookshelves to this day.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in