A Titanic Bibliography
A Night to Remember
by Walter Lord, Bantam Books, 1955
ISBN: 0-553-27827-4
This book has never gone out of print in 43 years and was back on the New York Times best seller list in the months after the Cameron film's release. Walter Lord sailed on the Titanic's sister ship Olympic when he was a boy, became fascinated with the Titanic story, and interviewed over 60 survivors. This is still the best written of all Titanic books and is available as an inexpensive paperback, making it ideal for classroom use.
Exploring the Titanic
by Dr. Robert D. Ballard, Madison Press, 1987
Madison Press, a Canadian company based in Markham, Ontario, has published several Titanic books in the last few years. Exploring was their first such effort and it details the 1985-86 expeditions in which marine biologist Dr. Robert Ballard, located and explored the wreck.
Titanic, An Illustrated History
by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, Viking Studio-Madison Press, 1992
This is the perfect accompaniment to Lord's book which has no photos. Lynch
and Marschall were historical and technical advisors on Cameron's movie.
The director carried around a copy of this book to show studio executives
in order to obtain backing for the film. Many of Cameron's special effects
shots are literally copied from Marschall's detailed and exhaustively
researched paintings of the disaster.
Titanic Legacy: Disaster as Media Event and Myth
by Paul Heyer, Praeger Publishers, 1995.
ISBN: 0-275-95352-1
Paul Heyer, a professor at Simon Fraser University, examines the influence
and meaning of the Titanic disaster, what he refers to as "our century's
first collective nightmare." Among the questions he deals with is how has
the disaster has affected the way we think about ourselves and technology,
how the media made it into a morality play of mythic dimensions and what
impact it had on the development of news gathering and electronic media.
Down With the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster
by Steven Biel, W.W. Norton Co., 1996
ISBN: 0-393-03965-X
Heyer's book analyzes Titanic and its influence on media; Biel's book
examines the disaster as popular culture. His detailed analysis of how 1912
political forces used Titanic as a metaphor to advance their own
ideological agendas is priceless.
James Cameron's Titanic
By Ed W. Marsh, Harper Perennial, 1997
ISBN 0-00-649060-3
This book marked the first occasion that a movie tie-in book hit the number
one spot on the New York Times best seller list. It's a glossy coffee table
book with lots of colour stills from the film and behind-the-scenes
information. Not much analysis of the film but a useful explanation of the
technical aspects of the production.
"Unsinkable" the Full Story
by Daniel Allen Butler, Stackpole Books, 1998.
ISBN: 0-8117-1814-X
While Lord's book focuses on the events immediately relevant to the
sinking; Unsinkable focuses on the big picture, the social context of
Titanic, the politics, cover-ups, and the events since 1912. I noticed
several historical errors in the book but it's well written and is
important background reading for teachers taking up A Night to Remember
in class.
Recommended Videos
TITANIC
A Comprehensive History
A&E Home Video, 1994, 200 minutes
Volume I & Volume II - The Death of a Dream
Volume III & Volume IV - The Legend Lives On
A&E's exhaustive four hour documentary is the best and most complete account of the disaster and has aired on the network several times, especially since the Cameron film was released. The tape features survivor interviews, rare newsreel footage, vintage photographs and interviews with leading Titanic experts. Narrated by actor David McCallum who played the junior wireless operator in A Night to Remember.
SECRETS OF THE TITANIC
National Geographic, 60 minutes, 1986
This was the first and is still the best of the underwater Titanic videos. Martin Sheen narrates and the whole Titanic story is framed by a documentary about the history of the disaster. This National Geographic special inspired Cameron both in terms of the framing story and the visual style of the underwater footage.
Recommended Web Sites
Official Titanic Movie Site
http://www.titanicmovie.com/
Encyclopedia Titanic
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
Frequently Asked Questions About the Titanic
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/titanic_faq.html
Titanic Historical Society
http://www.titanic1.org
VFX Home page
http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/titanic.html
Titanic: Voyage of Discovery CD ROM
http://www.sstitanic.com/
