Dead Wake: The Crossing of the Lusitania
by Erik Larson (2015)
Freeport's own Erik Larson (Freeport High School class of 1972) has written a book that tells the riveting story of the final voyage of the top-of-the-line British passenger ship the Lusitania. After leaving New York on May 1, 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed six days later off the coast of Ireland. The ship sank in 18 minutes leaving only 764 survivors from a total of 1,959 passengers. This event eventually pushed the United States into World War I.
Like all of Larson's books, Dead Wake has been thoroughly researched and tells the story through the individuals involved. As we honor the 100 anniversary of World War I, this narrative history is a must read.
More about Erik Larson from the Library's March/April Newsletter
Erik Larson
by Regina G. Feeney and Cynthia J. Krieg
Erik Larson grew up in Freeport
and graduated from Freeport High School in 1972. He earned his B.A. in Russian
history and culture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 and went on to
the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and graduated in 1978 with an M.S.
He has been a feature writer for the Wall Street Journal and Time and
has written articles for Harper’s, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New
Yorker. He taught nonfiction writing at San Francisco State, Johns Hopkins,
and the University of Oregon. He now lives with his family in Seattle,
Washington. Larson has fond memories of living in Freeport. According to his biography he had “three main
pursuits: climbing tall trees, riding my bike to the far reaches of the island
(typically without my parents’ knowledge) and body-surfing at Jones Beach (field
no. 9).”
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When asked recently about the
Freeport Memorial Library, Larson said, “I remember going to the library quite
a bit. As a young kid I participated in the summer reading competitions, where
each kid was represented by a fish on a large sea-like poster. I never won.
Later, as a teen, the library was where I went to study with friends...and, um,
make out. So, a multi-purpose institution. There you go.” Some of Erik Larson’s
books owned by the Library are:
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Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of
the Lusitania (March 2015):
This nonfiction narrative about the sinking of the Lusitania tells the
harrowing tale of wartime travel in 1915. While Captain William Thomas Turner
placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare hat kept
civilian ships safe from U-boats, Captain Walther Schwieger decided to change
the rules of the game.
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In the Garden of Beasts: Love,
Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (2011): The time is 1933, the place,
Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s
Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.(call number: B Dodd
L).
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Thunderstruck (2007): A true story about two men--Hawley
Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator
of a seemingly supernatural means of communication--whose lives intersect during
one of the greatest criminal chases of all time. (call number: 364.152 L)
...
...
The Devil in the White City:
Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (2003): Set in
Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair, this book combines the true story of two
men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair’s construction,
and H. H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. (call number: 364.1523 L)
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