|
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Titanic
An Illustrated History
Amazon.com
The tragedy of the Titanic has been captured in fiction, nonfiction, music, poetry, cartoons, official judicial inquiry, survivors' recollections, still photography, TV shows, and film; all of the above are covered to some extent in this good and popular book. But few Titanic books match the paintings by Ken Marschall, a specialist on the subject whose work can be found in other books by the ship's discoverer, Robert Ballard, who wrote the introduction here. The photos are notable--including shots of the red-paint-stained iceberg that may have caused the sinking, the pristine ship, the sunken wreck, the people involved in the case--but Marschall's dozens of large-scale paintings really do help to dramatize and explicate moments no camera glimpsed and few eyewitnesses agree upon.
There is much to recommend the text, too. You could make a movie just about Second Officer Charles Lightoller, who helped accelerate the lifeboat-launching process, saving lives; stepped off the ship's bridge into the Atlantic; was sucked down into a ventilator taking in water, vainly swimming against its suction; and then got expelled by a blast of air, like a human cannonball in a circus, and landed next to a lifeboat that had been knocked 20 feet clear of the sinking ship's deadly whirlpool by a huge ship's funnel that crashed into the waves nearby. Lightoller was marvelously clever in his courtroom interrogation by an attorney determined to maneuver him into admitting blame for the disaster.
There is much more history in between the dramatic illustrations, facts both grand and trivial--if you're bent on knowing what actually happened to the dogs aboard, the answer is in this book. Definitely one of the better titles dealing with Titanic.
--Tim Appelo
Library Journal
No ship has continued to capture the public's imagination like the White Star Liner R.M.S. Titanic. The events that unfolded on Sunday, April 14, 1912 have been told in many books, including such works as Walter Lord's A Night To Remember and Robert D. Ballard's Discovery of the Titanic. Lynch (historian, Titanic Historical Society) and artist Marschall have collaborated in this latest history of that fateful event. Combining photographs, stunning paintings, and a gripping text, they have provided, as Ballard states in his introduction, the next best thing to a visit to the Titanic. Lynch raises interesting questions that may never be answered: Most tantalizingly, should First Officer Murdoch, on watch on the bridge during the 60 seconds between the sighting of the iceberg and the collision, have given different commands? This latest history of one of the sea's greatest tragedies is a visual tour de force that will please both general reader and maritime history enthusiasts. Essential for all libraries.
- Harold N. Boyer, Marple P.L., Broomall, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Paintings by Ken Marschall blend with Lynch's survey to tell the story of the Titanic's rise and fall. Now available in paper is a dramatic recording of the ship's construction, history, and wreck, including highlights of its discovery.
-- Midwest Book Review
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Exploring the Titanic
How the Greatest Ship Ever Lost - Was Found
Publishers Weekly
The focus of this book is the recent recovery of the most famous shipwreck of this century. Taller than the Empire State or any building of her day, the Titanic carried three anchors (one weighing 15 tons), had three million rivets and was nicknamed "The Millionaire's Special." Details of her building and maiden voyage are accompanied by photographs and drawings of the ship's many staterooms, ballrooms, lounges, dining rooms, the swimming pool and the huge glass dome over its grand, curving, wrought-iron stairway. All the ship needed was more lifeboats. The night of April 14, 1912, when the ship slowly sank after hitting an iceberg, is retold in equal detail. Then Ballard narrates the years of search using modern technology, which located the ship in 1986 at a depth of 12,690 feet, more than two miles down. Graphs, drawings, sketches, photos and text combine for an excellent book on the famous disaster. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
School Library Journal
Grade 4-8 In straightforward prose, complemented by excellent illustrations, the story of the Titanic 's first and final voyage as well as that of her rediscovery and exploration is told. The text captures the drama of both the night of the sinking as well as that of the discovery of the great ship on the ocean floor. The technically accurate and lucid explanations are greatly enhanced by Marschall's stunning paintings, as well as by diagrams and current and period photographs. Giving a wealth of detail on both the Titanic 's sinking and the exploration of the wreck 74 years later, this is the title of choice for both report writing and browsing on this topic. Although the glossary is good, it does not cover all unfamiliar words. ``Funnel,'' for example, is not defined and may confuse readers who do not realize that this refers to the smokestack. This is a minor quibble, however, given the general excellence of the work. Exploring the Titanic gives more depth of coverage in better style than does John Dudman's The Sinking of the Titanic (Bookwright, 1988), and is more colorful and compelling than Frank Sloan's Titanic (Watts, 1987).
--
Ann Welton, Lake Dollof Elementary School, Auburn, Wash.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Titanic
The Last Great Images
Publishers Weekly
Nearly twenty years after his famous 1985 discovery of the shipwrecked Titantic, the remote viewing technology developed by oceanographer Ballard and his team had progressed such that Ballard could capture the dream he was "just starting to realize" in '85, deep-sea remote viewing with the "cleanest, clearest images... all in high definition." Despite (or because of) decay and ghostly lighting, the submarine images are strangely vivid and colorful, with the power and credence to support one of Ballard's major endeavors, declaring the wreck site an international marine museum (one chapter documents damage caused by private expeditions since '86, another imagines a visit to the museum of 2062). Chapters on the ship's construction and sinking include historical photos of the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic, juxtaposed with those same features from their Atlantic grave. Accompanied by commentary from colleagues Dwight Coleman and Jeremy Weirich, this book is a satisfying read with mesmerizing images for armchair voyagers, and a significant excursion into submarine technology and archeology for the more science-minded.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Booklist
Ballard, a marine geologist, discovered the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic in 1985 and has penned a number of popular books about his search for the ship, among them, The Discovery of the Titanic (1987). Here he revisits the wreck in text and photos, maintaining that memories of the tragedy are fading away as the last survivors die and that the wreck itself has been badly damaged by salvagers. He not only attempts to re-create the splendor of the original ship and the time it sailed but also account for the factors that led to the ship’s sinking. The book is filled with Ballard’s color photographs, along with black-and-white photos and illustrations done in color. The black-and-white photos include images of survivors, passengers who died, sailors pulling bodies from the water, an embalmer at work, and the ship standing ready for launching. A haunting tribute to the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic.
--George Cohen
Bookgasm.com, August 28, 2008
“Titanic buffs will do backflips over Titanic: The Last Great Images."
Sacramento Book Review, September 2008
“…the pictures are so crisp, one could forget that they were taken from under 12,000 feet of water. All in all, an excellent book of the history, and aftermath of the Titanic tragedy.”
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Collision with History
The Search for John F. Kennedy's PT 109
Library Journal
On a foggy August night in 1943, the future President's PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands. Two of the 13-man crew died in the action, which cut their boat in two. Kennedy acquitted himself well in the aftermath, assisting two injured crewmen, leading the survivors to nearby islands and eventually getting word to rescuers. In the tradition of his explorations of the Titanic and Bismarck wrecks, Ballard (with help from writer/consultant Morgan) attempts to set the strategic and tactical stage for Kennedy's war, but the result is rather disappointing. The text then jumps forward to the May 2002 expedition to locate the wreck. There is some material describing the geography of the Solomons and their modern inhabitants. Chapter 5, which is given over to the actual search and discovery, might have made a detailed magazine article but is scarcely sufficient to form the core of a book. Heavily illustrated with photos and National Geographic reconstructions, and with family remembrances and an introduction by Sen. Edward Kennedy, this coffee-table book feels rushed into print to accompany the promised television documentary. A marginal purchase unless the documentary generates demand.
-- Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Ghost Liners
From Booklist
Best known for the undersea discovery of the Titanic,
Ballard introduces readers to that shipwreck and four others of the
twentieth century: the Empress of Ireland, the Lusitania,
the Britannic, and the Andrea Doria, which collided with the
Stockholm. Each chapter describes the exploration of one of the
wrecks and offers information about the ship's origins, amenities,
importance, and why it sank. In each chapter, one passenger is profiled in
a sidebar, giving readers a personal story and a photograph to bring the
experience more sharply into focus. Exceptionally detailed dramatic
paintings by Ken Marschall, show the ships as they appeared on the water,
while sinking, and beneath the sea. Many period photos, posters, and
sketches set the scene; photographs of undersea exploration show the ships
and their artifacts as they appear today. The large, attractive format and
informative text combine to make this an appealing book on a subject that
continues to fascinate young people. Add this to the Titanic bibliography
in the March 15 issue of Booklist.
--
Carolyn Phelan
Copyright© 1998, American Library Association. All rights reserved
From Horn Book
Ballard recaps his discovery of the Titanic wreck and
discusses four other ships, including the Lusitania and the
Andrea Doria, that also sank in the Atlantic. The simple text
provides historical information on each ocean liner, examines the
circumstances of its demise, and relates the discoveries made by
contemporary explorers. Illustrated with archival artwork, photographs,
and Marschall's haunting color paintings.
-- Copyright ©
1999 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.
|
