Hugh Brewster

Hugh Brewster in his book, Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, brilliantly introduces us to the passengers in First Class in such a way that you feel you know them as individual flesh-and-blood human beings before they came on board, and then allows you to see them move about the ship and face the maritime challenge in their own fashion. The Titanic's passenger list included not just wealthy people but people who were famous on the basis of their work in politics, theater, fashion and business. Some show more of them had encountered significant challenges in their lives as they ascended the status of first-class. I had no idea of who Lady Lucille Duff-Gordon had been *before* she became one of the world's most notable designers of women's fashions. Neither had I much of an idea of what the travelling of that time might entail for Edwardian-era "jet-setters". One passenger came aboard with fourteen (14) steamer trunks, four suitcases and three packing crates as well as a quarter of a million dollars in jewelry. And finally, I'd no idea of the Americans who were aboard that ship, several of whom were from Main Line Philadelphia families. We always assume the wealthy of that time were from New York families or from Washington DC. Yet there was one family returning on the Titanic for the funeral of their college age son who had been killed in a motoring accident. That mother lost her husband and a second son on the night of April 14, 1912. Hugh Brewster managed to bring all of these people to life for me. And before I was done with the book, I had to put it down because I knew their ending and it was too painful to read what was going to happen to people who had been made real to me. Let's be honest; modern life has caused many of us to be made jaded and numb to the worst of historical events. It takes a strong author to revive those sensitivities.

The book is a relatively quick read (just about 300 pages), liberally illustrated with photos of the passengers in happier days. It begins with the boarding of a percentage of the passengers at the Cherbourg Quay on Wednesday afternoon, April 10th and closes with the arrival of the survivors on the Carpathia in New York on Thursday, April 18th. There are some pages given over to the investigations following, but that element is minimized in the greater narrative about the people.

This is popular history, not terribly dense or academic, but an excellent example of the educational value of such non-fiction. There are about 50 pages of supplemental materials as well, including a nice bibliography. If you have an interest in the topic, you should certainly read this book. show less

Book Description: "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 intimate atmosphere onboard history’s most famous ship is recreated as never before.

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 show more 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, presenting the very latest thinking on everything from when and how the lifeboats were loaded to the last tune played by the orchestra."

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"It was a brilliant crowd...a rare gathering of beautiful women and splendid men." ---Lily May Futrelle

This quote at the very beginning of the book is probably why so many of us love Titanic stories: we are sad that these beautiful people had to experience such horrible tragedy. We are also the tiniest bit reassured when we are reminded that tragedy is not a respecter of persons and is often left to chance. Horrible things can happen no matter how rich and famous one is.

Books like this take me forever to read, not because they're dull but because I usually can't go two pages without finding a reason to stop and research something. I really enjoyed reading the mini biographies constructed around an in depth look at high society before WWI destroyed the Gilded Age of America and Great Britain. show less

I thought this book was gorgeous. The history of Nicholas II and Alexandra's family up to the revolution was presented with their own family photos as illustration. It was a bit jarring to realize that like many families today the Russian monarchy enjoyed taking snapshots of their children. Family photos tend to reveal things that posed portraits do not. With this book, which is arranged chronologically we see glimpses of silly little girls and their parents. I particularly liked the photo show more of the daughters rollerskating on the deck of the Tsar's yacht, and the photo of the girls with shaved heads after their bouts with measles. History is made real when the persons involved can evoke a feeling be it good or bad. It's easy to understand political motivations for the revolution, but at the same time the monarchy were individuals as well. This book does a nice job of causing real thought by presenting people rather than figureheads, they way they saw each other. show less

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World, by Hugh Brewster, is, as the title suggests, a study of those first-class passengers who boarded the ill-fated Titanic on April 10, 1912, in Cherbourg, France, and their lives aboard the ship until it struck the iceberg on April 14 and sank. There are also chapters concerning the aftermath of that event, including what happened to the survivors afterwards. Hugh Brewster worked with explorer Robert Ballard, who show more found the sunken vessel in 1986, and had extensive access to artifacts, journals, letters and other sources to flesh out his story, making this volume both accurate about the actual events and personal in terms of individual stories, albeit focusing primarily on the stories of the very wealthy elite and mostly ignoring those in "steerage," many of whom died in the disaster. There are fascinating bits of information here: for example, the first several lifeboats carried at best only half the number of passengers that they could have carried because nobody thought the situation was as serious as it proved to be, and of the 425 women on board, some 74% survived whereas only about 20% of the 1,667 men lived. Whether or not the orchestra played "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank is moot, although Brewster uncovers the fact that this hymn was probably played at some point during the night of April 14-15. Brewster does a good job of describing the individuals with whom he deals, and more importantly, in enabling the reader to keep each profile separately in mind without mixing them up, and his writing style is both respectful of the subject matter and easy to comprehend. Really interesting stuff, especially if like me the reader knew only the broad outlines of the disaster prior to finding this book. Recommended! show less