LoginJuly 2023 Notable Author: Walter Lord
Ordinary People in Extraordinary Situations Makes History Exciting
John Walter Lord, Jr., (1917 – 2002), most famous for his book A Night To Remember (about the sinking of the Titanic), was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School. He earned a history degree from Princeton. His course of law at Yale was interrupted by WWII, where he served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), but completed after war’s end.
Lord had a lifelong interest in the sea, the Titantic, and history. His grandfather was president of the Old Bay Line of steamships and Lord sailed on the RMS Olympic (RMS Titantic sistership) 13 years after the Titanic sank. At age 17, his speech on the sinking of the Titanic was awarded a prize.
His interest in writing also revealed itself early with Lord, at Gilman, serving as president of the Literary Club, editor-in-chief of the Blue & Gray, copy editor of the Gilman News, and associate editor of the Cynosure. After Yale Law school, Lord took a job as a copywriter for a NY advertising agency and began to write at home in earnest. He found out he had an interest and flair for what he called “Living History.” He combined rigorous historical research with the journalistic practice of interviewing survivors and witnesses of significant events to create a ''you are there'' feel to his works. For example, he tracked down and interviewed 63 Titanic survivors to create a minute-by-minute account of the event. Then in A Night To Remember (1955) he wrote the historcial account like a novel using the real participants as the characters. The book was a stunning success and immediately made into a movie (1958), also successful. Thirty-five years later, Lord consulted for James Cameron while filming Titantic (1997).
His success with A Night To Remember allowed Lord to leave the advertising company and dedicate his life to writing. In total, Lord wrote 12 best-selling books using the same method and formula as he did with A Night To Remember.
Lord died from Parkinson’s disease and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. His life and his legacy live on in the Walter Lord Collection on Digital Maryland now. https://collections.
Genre: Living History
Narrates a historical event or time using the actual participants as the characters as they go through the sequence of events that is the subject of the work.
Sample Reading List: A Night to Remember (Sinking of the RMS Titanic), Day of Infamy (Attack on Pearl Harbor), Incredible Victory (Battle of Midway), A Time to Stand (Battle of the Alamo), The Dawn’s Early Light (Battle of Baltimore), Peary to the Pole (Arctic exploration), Lonely Vigil (WWII Coastwatchers of the Solomons).
Writer's Prompt - Fun With Words
Fun With Words - Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing Living History like Walter Lord. Using up to 100 words, create a highly unusual event involving ordinary people caught in an extraordinary situations. Title your work and submit to: https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Selected responses will be published with next month's article and on the MWA Website.
Last month we asked writers to have fun writing young adult fiction like Laura Amy Schlitz by picking a child from the Medieval era and writing a monologue describing an aspect of their life. Their responses are posted on the MWA website www.MarylandWriters.org.
Submit Your FUN WITH WORDS Prompt
Christopher George
Jul. 31, 2023Whiskey and Gunpowder - When we invaded the north, I was running a fever. For the coming battle, we fortified ourselves with whiskey and gunpowder. We didn’t worry our heads 'bout the right or wrong of the war—we were fightin’ the damn Yankees for our plots of land, our kinfolk in Sweet Pea, Georgia, or Waxhaws, South Carolina. Though many said the war was 'bout slavery, I never see’d it that way. Though Northern politicians fussed that it was all about nigger folk, it was mostly a white man’s war. I caught a slug in the throat in Bloody Lane, bled out in the ditch—sprawled dead, black as a nigger.
Beth Smith
Jul. 31, 2023Retail Encounter - Snow is coming down. No customers in the store. Anna sighs. The door opens. A young man wearing a hooded sweatshirt walks in. He is selling insurance to pay for college. Anna listens. Suddenly he is behind the counter. A silver object is pointed at her. Anna’s heart stops. She opens the cash drawer. “In the back,” he says, grabbing the money. The pistol pushes into her side. Her mind races. The bathroom has a lock. Her cell is in her pocket. The robber hesitates. Anna pushes him, lunges into the bathroom, locks the door, hits 911, and screams.
Viola Robinson-Boone
Jul. 31, 2023“Ellis Island ahead!” - “Ellis Island ahead!” The man’s voice reverberated along the corridor. Our 12 days journey from County Cork, Ireland had ended. My name tag read “Annie Moore, Age 17”. My brothers clung to my tattered coat while my sweaty, shaking hands gripped our suitcase. We were about to deboard the Nevada steamship. It was a cold January 1, 1892 morning. Afraid and weary, I thought my wobbly legs and aching feet would give out. My heart pounded with each breath I took. Terrified, I was about to become the first immigrant to step onto New York’s Ellis Island.
Lawrence McGuire
Jul. 31, 2023TERROR OF FLIGHT, GLOOM OF THE GRAVE - Flinching at smoky thunder that burst from British shells, Lieutenant Antaeus Meredith felt exposed up here on one of Fort McHenry's brick bastions. Meredith's undersized jaw was locked shut with dread. His men, who trusted him, hunched between the fort's cannons. The men's cap plates reddened with rocket fire. If one panicked artilleryman broke, all would break. Meredith could not let this September day, drenched in a drumming, sour, soul-drowning rain, collapse into another "Bladensburg Races," Americans fleeing the star fort, the Royal Navy laughing on its warships. "Sergeant," Antaeus yelled as if to shame the enemy guns, "return fire!"
Leslie Dickey
Jul. 31, 2023The Columbus - 11/28/1850 - The paddlewheel steamer had survived the perils of the Chesapeake some twenty-two years. I’d been aboard for sixteen years and had achieved the rank of first mate. I had learned much from Captain Hardy and was honored to have his trust. I had the helm as we slid southward towards Richmond during the midnight hours. The stoker burst into the bridge, reeking of smoke. Looking over his shoulder, I saw the glow aft. Sternward, the flames were erupting skyward. We were doomed. We lost six men that night. I have not been back to sea since.
Jim Coleman
Jul. 31, 2023No Escape - Late May, 1889. The wagon trip over the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania had been arduous for John and Melissa. Light rain had been falling, with word of heavier rain to the west. But nothing could dampen the spirits of these newlyweds. John would seek fortune in the bustling steel and railroad country of Western Pennsylvania, and they would raise their children there. They passed a lake with an earthen dam, cottages and a luxurious main house. A sign announced the location: "South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, Johnstown Pa". Downstream was their new hometown. Rain began falling harder.
Doris Brady
Jul. 31, 2023Disorder on the Court - There wasn’t an empty seat in the stadium. But we all sat in stunned silence as men in tactical gear and AR-style weapons took over Court 18 at Wimbledon. There were guards at every exit. We were hostages. A guy in the top row told me he heard they were asking for $20 million. Someone else said hostage negotiators had arrived. Meanwhile, we heard police evacuating all nearby areas, including Henman Hill to the north and the media center directly south. Just us fans in Court 18 were at risk, as far as we knew. It was all about to change.
Rob Billingsley
Jul. 31, 2023A Steak to Remember - Young Angelica stepped off the train in Florence, Italy. She joined two gay roommates from London, cleaning up after the great flood of 1966. Tiptoeing muddy cobblestoned streets in light slip-ons, she cursed. No wellies. That night, thirsty and hungry, no light or running water, she ventured into the pitch-dark. At the glow around the corner, Bruno bent over steaks on a grate. Their eyes locked, “Prego,” he waved toward a table, “I feed you.” Eating Bruno’s dinners for two weeks and cleaning muddy library books, Angelica’s on the train platform for home. Bruno says, “Marry me. Ti amo, Angelica.”
Steve Baker
Jul. 31, 2023Pushin' Up Gravies - Bob-The-Bread-Truck-Driver only had two questions about life: "Why am I here (literally OR figuratively)?" and "What's the deal with pumpernickel?" [Shoulder Shrug] Regardless, Bob made ends meet but one day the gravy train derailed. Not figuratively. LITERALLY! An actual train departing the "sauce division" of Thelma's Chicken Rendering Plant had crashed. EMTs were rescuing victims before they were forever congealed in a gelatinous mass of savoriness. As Bob eyeballed the succulent mess (which needed to be sopped up) someone yelled: "I NEED 55,000 SLICES OF RYE…STAT!" Instantly, Bob recognized that God always had him in the exact right place at the exact right time.
Ruth Ticktin
Jul. 31, 2023Wet - At age 18, I got to the Rio Grande with my husband on the back of a farm truck. Stopped and searched, authorities discovered we had no papers. Waiting in the pouring rain, they discussed our case. Instead of jail, they took all our money and left us broke and soaking. Eventually we managed to get a room in back of a house in town. I cleaned the big house and my husband worked in the man’s metal shop. Pumping water from the well, I washed all day long. My hands got bloody. My husband cried looking at my hands.
Jon Hillbilly Anthology Ketzner
Jul. 31, 2023A Nightmare to Not Remember - Michael Marshall was drowning in the dry dirt. He was a strong kid but sapped after hours of hand digging. He dug on. Those little guys were counting on him. Three masked men had stopped their school bus and forced Michael, Mr. Ray the driver and two dozen children into dark vans. After driving for hours, they were forced into an ancient, buried trailer. Then abandoned. Michael saw light through the dirt. He crawled from the would-be mass grave and called to Mr. Ray to start having the others crawl out too. Soon they would all be home again in Chowchilla.
M.Q. Riding
Jul. 31, 2023Tables Turned - As an entry-level analyst, they told me to follow their lead. Leadership knew what was best. When the projections in the confidential file didn’t correspond with leadership’s speeches & the 10K, I wondered. Concern distressed me, but no one listened. I took the spreadsheets to the SEC. We poured over the tables for hours – something was wrong. The bank was projecting a profitable year, but the pivot tables showed accounts in arrears. Leadership was hiding losses from the shareholders. Two years later the jury was unanimously convinced. The CEO was convicted of racketeering.