In this book Walter De La Mare has written four fairy tales, and the best one of them is "Lord Fish". In it he tells us for the story of John Cobbler, an indolent young man who likes to fish more than everything else. The desire for finding new places to angle fish there one day drives him in the forsaken lands where once lived an evil wizard and there he finds something as horrible as sorrowful, as beautiful and the adventure he takes later, is going to change his life and the life of his mother.. The rest of the tales are very enjoyable too, but the first one is the best of them. Truly, Walter De La Mare has written some of the most beautiful tales I've ever read, all in a superior for this genre style. You really shouldn't miss this book.

One of the best ever Victorian period erotic books evern writtne. I have collected many many victorian era erotic books, but this is by far the best ever written. It is sensual, detailed and in very good taste, all other books should be judged by it. If you can find it, get it.

Superb re-enactment of The Battle of Midway when understrength American carrier task forces came up against a formidable and full strength Japanese naval carriers and battlewagons. It is the epitomy of American courage against the Japanese busido juggernaut. After Pearl Harbour, the Japanese sought to lure the remnants of the American fleet and its precious carriers to a showdown at Midway, an island between the Hawaiian Islands and Japanese held territory of Wake Island and the Marshalls. The ensuing battle proved to be a turning point of the Pacific War as the Japanese lost the cream of their superb naval aviators and four of her heavy aircraft carriers which participated in the infamous Pearl Harbour attack. Read about the tenacity of green American pilots coming up against the Imperial Navy's best pilots and emerging victorious at a horrendous cost. But the valour, bravado and sacrifice was not in vain as they smashed the Japanese behemoth to a pulp. A truly David versus Goliath insipiration war narrative. After Midway, America will be the Goliath, dominating the Pacific with massive fleets churned out by her efficient and colossal heavy industries. Get this book and boy will you be proud to be American.

I first read this book as a ten year old and it is an outstanding read. Any child could pick it up and find it fascinating. If your children have ever seen the cartoon movie Balto and want to find out the true story about all of the legendary mnushers and their dogs - such as Leonard Seppala and his lead dog Togo - you have to read this book. It is an inspring story of how man helped his fellow man (with the assistance of man's best friend the dog)to beat a Diptheria epedemic. Absolutely wonderful - hope this book is back in stock soon as I would love to re-reasd it.

Walter Lord follows up his best seller of the fifties-A Night to Remember--with this eighties version on some mysteries about the sunken liner. One learns about the musicians (two groups actually) and what they played that night while the life boats were being loaded. Another story details the negligence of the freighter Californian for not answering the eight rockets of distress from the Titanic. Another story details the shootings and suicide near the end of the launch of the last life boats. Still another story details why there were not enough life boats on the Titanic and most other ocean liners of the day. Walter Lord clears the air about these mysteries with his well informed writing.
If you want to know more about the Titanic, read both Lord's books on the subject (A Night to Remember, The Night Lives On). They will help the reader understand this tragedy. I have seen the movie and I know the producers consulted these books when they made the movie.

This book picks up where A Night to Remember left off. It updates information in regards to the ships break-up from the "new" information obtained by Robert Ballard's discovery of the wreck. Some aspects of the sinking are recaped with additional survivor accounts plus much more information is provided of what was happening on the California, how the Carpathia responded, the inquests which followed, etc. Put together with A Night to Remember and you have an extremely comprehensive coverage of nearly all aspects of the Titanic sinking all presented in extremely readable and entertaining format. Highly recommended--a must read for anyone interested in this subject who wants to know all about it. I found it hard to put either book down and, of all the books I've read on the subject, I've found Walter Lord's two books to be the best.

A spell-binding, moment-by-moment review of the sinking of the White Star Liner, Titanic, on April 12, 1912. The author reviews all the evidence of that fateful night, including eyewitness accounts of survivors and testimony at both the U.S. Senate subcommittee on the disaster and at the court of the Board of Trade in England. The recent controversy of the discovery and photographing of the Titanic by Robert Ballard is also discussed. This is a remarkable book, written almost like a novel, following the events of that night very closely, but also with much respect given to the conflicting stories of survivors. Walter Lord pieces everything together, and comes up with startling, well-researched conclusions. The era, the people, and the entire tragedy are brought to life as if it had just occurred yesterday.

This is one of the best books I have ever bought! As a long time fan of the TITANIC and an amateur cook I could not resist this book; despite the tragic fact that the LAST DINNER ON THE TITANIC was literally the LAST meal of over 1,500 men women, and children.

Despite that chilling touch, this is a wonderful book, and the food is fantastic! The book is lavishly illustrated, and I was a bit reluctant to take such a lovely book into the kitchen and risk a spill, although I'm very glad I did! The binding is such that it lies flat on my counter, and the pages don't turn themselves or snap shut 1/2 way through a recipie, (This is a VERY important feature in a cookbook!). Its type is a bit smaller than I like in a cookbook, but is still large and clear enough that I can read the recipies while cooking.

The recipies themselves are some of the easiest to follow and most clearly written I have encountered. I really enjoyed cooking the Chicken Lyonnaise and the Lamb with Mint Sauce; and they came out sucessfuly the first time too! (If you knew my cooking ability that is quite a tribute to the recipie!) Most of the dishes also seem to be relatively "idiot proof" (perhaps because the White Star Chefs had to turn out several hundred servings of each during the course of the evening??) though there is plenty to challenge the more experienced chef's as well, such as Lobster Thermidor, and Minted Green Pea Timbales. I have been very happy with everything I have cooked from the book so far.

Menus for Third, Second, and First Class (as well as the First Class Ala Carte Resturant) are all included, as are tips for hosting a TITANIC themed dinner party. The authors discuss the flowers and fruit baskets that seem to have been omnipresent (at least in first and second class), suggest wines to be served with each course, and even provide tips on what music to play at the party! (Suprisingly though the authors failed to mention the new RHINO CD from Ian Whitcomb and The White Star Orchestra "TITANIC: Music As Heard on the Fateful Voyage.")

One of the best features of the book is the Make Ahead Chart for the 1st Class Menu. Thanks to this chart, a reasonably competent chef can bring virtually all of the dishes to an almost compleat state well before the dinner is due to start. This means you can cook most of the dinner in the morning and afternoon, take your lady friend to the movie in the early evening, and still be able to serve her an authentic (and reasonably compleat) TITANIC dinner for a late supper. (How's THAT for a romantic evening?)

If there is a 2nd edition I would hope that the authors would include some of the other recipies that are mentioned on the surviving TITANIC menus (especially the "Swedish Bread" and other items from the breakfast menu). I would urge everyone interested in Cooking, the TITANIC, or romance to BUY THIS BOOK!

excellent recipes for those willing to take the time.I cooked 5 of the first class entries all of which were very good,especially the beef barley soup.The third class pork roast also sounds like it has the ingredients to be something special.great book , great cook book.it really adds something when you have the dinner and watch the movie.

One of the key surprises in this book is the fact that third-class passengers on the Titanic ate better than we do. A large color photograph on page 114 shows a water stained menu recovered from the body of a third-class passenger.

It says that the third-class breakfast on the morning of April 12, 1912 was oatmeal porridge and milk, smoked herrings, jacket potatoes, tripe and onions, fresh something something (seawater has eaten away the print) and butter, marmalade and (illegible again) bread. Beverages were tea and coffee.

Who eats a more nutritious breakfast now?

Dinner in the third-class dining saloon was vegetable soup (made from scratch), roasted pork with sage and onions, green peas, boiled potatoes, plum pudding with sweet sauce, cabin biscuits and (a real delicacy for the time) oranges. When was the last time you had a plum pudding with sweet sauce or vegetable soup made from scratch? If it's been too long, you can make these and other things on the third-class dinner or tea menu, using recipes in this book.

Titanic's third-class accommodations were clean and comfortable and its two dining saloons were white and well lit. They had to be. The Titanic expected to compete with many other ships for the trade of millions of immigrants bound for America. And that's where the White Star steamship line hoped to make its money, not from the flashier passengers in first- and second-class.

Food in second-class was pretty grand, rather like a middle-class family's Sunday dinner when somebody important was expected to visit. A second-class menu for April 14, 1912 says that the first course was consomme with tapioca. Second course offered a choice from among baked haddock with sharp sauce, curried chicken and rice, lamb with mint sauce or roast turkey with savory cranberry sauce. Side dishes were turnip puree, green peas, boiled rice and boiled or roast potatoes. Turnip puree was delicious, actually, judging by its recipe. The dessert course in second class offered more choices than the third-class menu, but plum pudding and sweet sauce were there, just as in third-class.

The book gives recipes for anything in these first, second and third courses which really needs a recipe. There is even a recipe for making a special second-class dessert delicacy: American Ice Cream.

First-class meals were spectacular, and they were served in a variety of cafes, saloons, restaurants and reception rooms. You'd prefer the meals in first class to those in third- or second-class. You can trust me on this.

And so, another pleasant surprise is that the book gives menus and recipes for a vast, complete first-class dinner which you can make for yourself and some especially fortunate friends. Plus, there's a two-page make-ahead chart. It tells how to divide your dinner-making chores into several groups, starting three days before dinner.

I like Walter Lord's writing--A Night to Remember and Day of Infamy. These were two great books about disasters. Unlike those books, this book is about the experience of the twenty coastwatchers in the Solomons campaign. It is well written but does not have the intensity of those other two books. The book is well written and tells about the alert activities of the coastwatchers, along with their guerrilla and rescue actitivities. The Allied victory at Guadalcanal had much to do with the coachwatchers.
This part of World War II might never have been written about were it not for the rescue of the future President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Kennedy's part in the rescue shows his leadership abilities. It also dispels the notion of negligence on Kennedy's part in the destruction of the PT-109.

I am partial to this book becuase Walter Lord interviewed my Father during the writing of this book. My Father Benjamin F. Nash was the only full time American Coastwatcher during WWII and was with Reg Evans when they spotted the fire ball that turned out to be the wreck of PT 109 when the Jananese destroyer ran over it. I met Mr. Lord during the days he talked to my Father during the Summer of 1976. I think it was '76. I have read the book several times. It is a fascinating history filled with facts, so you have to take your time in reading it to get the full impact. My Father told me that the facts that he knew of where 100% accurate in the book. Great book.

Walter Lord's book, "Lonely Vigil: Coast Watchers of the Solomons," written in 1977, was written as a tribute to those brave Australians who stayed behind in the Solomon Islands to report on the activities of the Japanese at great personal risk to themselves. They helped the United States during the Battle of Guadalcanal. One of them even saved the life of JFK. During World War II, the Pacific was a Japanese lake. They controlled every country in Asia and Southeast Asia. The Coast Watchers were a vital link in Australia's defensive chain. They even aided VMF-214, the legendary Black Sheep Squadron, commanded by the late Major Gregory R. ("Pappy") Boyington. If it weren't for the Coast Watchers, then we probably would have lost World War II.

After recently watching the much hyped movie Pearl Harbor, I realize my knowledge of the history of Pearl Harbor was woefully lacking. My search for information led me to this wondeful book by Walter Lord. Rather than a historical narrative of dry facts, it is a collection of individual stories, relating the experiences of the common ordinary soldier, sailor, marine, or civilian in the hours before the attack through the end of the day on 12/7/41.

Some of the tales are heroic, some comical, and many tragic, but they are all fascinating. One of the things that struck me was number of people who couldn't comprehend the fact they were under attack by an enemy force, even as bombs and bullets rained down on them. And the wild tales and rumors that spread throughout Hawaii in the aftermath of the attack are just incredible and laughable looking back on it now.

For those wanting more of a general overview of the battle, and a listing of historical facts, they may be disappointed by this book. But I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about the people involved on that fateful day.

This was the first non-kids book I ever read. That was back in the 3rd Grade. And years later I still look at this book as one of my favorites.

Walter Lord does not break any new ground in this classic but older story of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But what he does do is give you a perfect description of what happened and how it happened.

Walter Lord is one of those historians that puts you there. And thats what he does in this book. You are there as the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

I highly recommend this book.

After reading a library-full of books seeking to place blame, as history and polemic, Walter Lord's account of Dec. 7, 1941 is a compelling narrative of the emotional gamut from innocence to bitter tragedy of that pivotal day in American history. As a trained historian and reader of many of Lord's other books, I was surprised somewhat at the story-telling modus. Those who have enjoyed the methods of Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day and Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers will find themselves amidst the unpeeling of emotional numbness that years of Depression and isolationism had left on the psyches of those whose stories unfold in Lord's able prosaic style.

His ability to bring excitement and vivid characterization to history, without losing his factual focus, has long been evident in Incredible Victory, his artistic telling of the unlikely American smashing of the Japanese fleet at Midway, and his other books. It is his choice, not his inability to make conclusions, which gives the book its human punch.

Lord chooses to relate the impact of the startling events of that day on the high of rank and the swab, using personal primary sources to supplant official chronologies. He draws his readers into the chaos and heroism and tragedy, letting us react and come to conclusions, as the accumulation of individual experiences allows us.

Those looking for fodder with which to exonerate or indict from prior opinion will probably not find the key to their cases in this book. Those wanting a heart-stopping chapter of the human experience, at its most uncommon best and worst, are in for a great read. It is a very appropriate view of historic events for our time, when we have become accustomed to learning the backgrounds and reactions of our fellows involved in national tragedy, in which we share vicariously and emotionally, but look to find a more concrete point of common reference.

I enjoyed reading Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember". I found it to be an easy and fast read and was quite informative based on the eyewitnesses who were interviewed. However, this is the type of book one would find available for sell in a school weekly reader. Lord does not gives us any real history of the ship prior to departure - he starts the book a few miles from the iceberg. He does not give the reader any real scientific reasons why the ship sunk as it did (flawed metallurgy, etc). Based on Robert Ballard's findings, one could prove that it was impossible for the Titantic to right itself 90 degrees from the surface of the water and plunge straight down (Ballard believes the ship must have snapped in half). Nevertheless, considering that the book was written in 1955 and lacking the scientific evidence we have today, the book was interesting and held my attention. It did an excellent job of showing the tragedy of the California not responding to the distress calls (a fact that was sorely overlooked in the movie, Titanic). I was also surprised to find that all of the female passengers were referred to as "MRS" so-and-so and not by a first name. Even the ship's roster listed the women as "Mr and Mrs" so-and-so. But, I suppose it was indicative of the times (early 20th century).

Being a huge "TITANIC" fan I was in desperate need of serious reading material on my favorite subject.Going to my favorite bookstore Atlantic Books I purchased my first book on "TITANIC".Anxious to read it,and driving my mother nuts we finally arrived at my house.The anxiety I felt finally opening "A Night to Remember" quickly subsided me as I eased into the almost real surroundings produced by Walter Lord.I was in my glory as I began to feel the excitement of the passengers when they began to leave the port.And of course the chill of absolute terror when they heard that half of them would die and that the surviving half would live to tell their story of that fateful night.They did not know that they would soon be mourned by millions of people who they of course did not know.And yet some 86 years later,on April 14th the world seems to pause at 11:40pm to give their moment of silence to a ship that was said to be "unsinkable".There are also some new characters from the legendary ship that director James Cameron made noticeable such as John Jacob Astor and "the unsinkable Molly Brown. Of course some new characters are fictisous yet they make the story even more romantic.So no matter what the critics or anyone else says if you like "TITANIC" or you just want to read a good book I highly recommended this one. __

I first read Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" in the summer of 1968 as part of my required reading list for freshman year of high school. I was so fascinated by the account that I read it at least three times that summer and early fall. It brought to chilling life one of the greatest maritime disasters in history. As I read the dog-eared, yellowing, crinkled-paper copy of the paperback (its purchase price was sixty-cents back then) once again last year as a "mature" 42 year old, Mr. Lord's brilliant account of the tragedy still held my attention. His vivid, detailed, yet smooth flowing narrative brought back the excitement as felt as a young teenager, in a way that few books have. I recently viewed the movie "Titanic" with my fourteen year old daughter. The movie was thoroughly enjoyable, but there were some aspects of the book (such as the spectre of a rescue ship only a few precious miles away)that could have added to the drama. The book is worth reading both as literature as well as history.

It seems virtually impossible for anyone outside the USA to find any form of realistic guide to the best narratives or texts on American history by Americans.
Whereas English history, French history, Russian history, etc. etc. has its recognised 'authorities', US history seems to have a collection of 'pro' tradition or 'con' tradition writings.
Walter Lord's book 'A Time To Stand' may have its detractors and its supporters but in the simplest of terms it does actually tell the story of the siege of the Alamo including the build up and the aftermath. Further reading may be a good move for in depth study but this book gets the reader into the history itself with very little forced interpretation of possible fact or rumour or political spin.
For the non-USA reader who just want to know what happened it's a must.

I was pleased to find "A Time To Stand" in print again after many years. Although I've enjoyed every book of Walter Lord's I've read, and admit that he does his homework and strives to present the historical facts, I feel his writing tends to lean to the fluff and lacks bite. The historical subjects he has chosen to cover useually contain tragedy, (The sinking of the Titanic), and violence, (Pearl Harbor), yet his prose tends to be polite and fluffy, lacking the blood and guts of the bottom line that the events actually presented themselves in. It's almost as if there is a fictional writer in Lord screaming to be set free. Yet none of this subtracts from the hard hitting, factual research that is the nut of Lords work; he never fails to present the facts as they happened.

"A Time to Stand" was the first book about the Alamo I ever read (some forty years ago). With adrenalin still pumping after seeing the John Wayne film, I was desperate to know more. Now the adrenalin pumps every time I read this great book. Though other more recent books present more updated material, most "Alamophiles" agree that Walter Lord's version is the "Holy Grail" of all Alamo publications. Any person who reads other books on this subject, but fails to read "A Time to Stand", is getting only part of the story.