Books with author Hugh Brewster

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage takes us behind the paneled doors of the Titanic’s elegant private suites to present compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers. The Titanic has often been called "An exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,” but until now, her story has not been presented as such. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, historian Hugh Brewster seamlessly interweaves personal narratives of the lost liner’s most fascinating people with a haunting account of the fateful maiden crossing. Employing scrupulous research and featuring 100 rarely seen photographs, he accurately depicts the ship’s brief life and tragic denouement and presents compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers: millionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim; President Taft's closest aide, Major Archibald Butt; writer Helen Churchill Candee; the artist Frank Millet; movie actress Dorothy Gibson; the celebrated couturiere Lady Duff Gordon; aristocrat Noelle, the Countess of Rothes; and a host of other travelers. Through them, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own. And with them, we gather on the Titanic’s sloping deck on that cold, starlit night and observe their all-too-human reactions as the disaster unfolds. More than ever, we ask ourselves, “What would we have done?”

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage takes us behind the paneled doors of the Titanic’s elegant private suites to present compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers. The Titanic has often been called "An exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era,” but until now, her story has not been presented as such. In Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, historian Hugh Brewster seamlessly interweaves personal narratives of the lost liner’s most fascinating people with a haunting account of the fateful maiden crossing. Employing scrupulous research and featuring 100 rarely seen photographs, he accurately depicts the ship’s brief life and tragic denouement and presents compelling, memorable portraits of her most notable passengers: millionaires John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim; President Taft's closest aide, Major Archibald Butt; writer Helen Churchill Candee; the artist Frank Millet; movie actress Dorothy Gibson; the celebrated couturiere Lady Duff Gordon; aristocrat Noelle, the Countess of Rothes; and a host of other travelers. Through them, we gain insight into the arts, politics, culture, and sexual mores of a world both distant and near to our own. And with them, we gather on the Titanic’s sloping deck on that cold, starlit night and observe their all-too-human reactions as the disaster unfolds. More than ever, we ask ourselves, “What would we have done?”

Frank's room is a tiny third-class cabin. Billy and his family are traveling in a luxurious suite. But both boys are thrilled to be on the first voyage of the greatest liner ever built. And they can't wait to explore every deck of this fabulous new ship. Follow two real-life young passengers as they explore the Titanic from top to bottom. Giant cutaways by the world's leading Titanic artist reveal the huge ship in stunning detail. A fourpage foldout gives the most complete view ever of this floating city at sea. Illustrations offer a moment-by-moment depiction as the Titanic strikes the iceberg, fills with water and vanishes beneath the ocean. In this lavishly illustrated book, the gripping story of the R.M.S. "Titanic" is told in a spectacularly visual way that makes readers feel as if they are actually "inside" the giant doomed liner. A compelling text featuring the stories of real-life children who sailed on the "Titanic" accompanies the detailed cutaway illustrations of the ship. Full color.

As the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic approaches in April 2012, the haunting story of the doomed liner has lost none of its allure. A host of commemorative events are planned for the centenary, and with many Titanic books set to hit the market, the question arises as to how this one will stand out from the others. Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage is a fresh take on this everpopular subject through the prism of the lives of the Titanic's first class passengers - woven into a gripping account of the ship's short life. The ship has often been called a microcosm of the Edwardian era - this has never been more true than it is presented in this book. In other accounts of the Titanic the ship is the protagonist and those on board merely bit part players. Here, its leading characters are moved into the foreground and their stories intertwined with the powerful narrative arc of the doomed voyage. The book probes into the lives of those on board in a way that no other account has done. Here we find some of Britain's and America's leading society figures engaged in illicit homosexual relationships, flaunting extra-marital affairs and openly risking scandal in the ballrooms of the world's most famous ship, oblivious of the disaster that lay in the seas ahead.