The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility
[New York]: McClure's Magazine, (1912). Full cloth. Octavo. [vi], 243 pages. Bound in red cloth over boards with gilt-stamped spine lettering. Shallow bump to top fore corner of upper board, a few minor stains to exterior, slight fading to spine. Gilt spine titles remain sharp and legible. Hinges sound, interior clean. Near fine overall. Presents well in custom 4 mil Mylar cover.
The title story in this well-known but scarce collection eerily foreshadowed the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, though it was originally published in 1898.
Morgan Robertston's novella "Futility" tells the story of a gigantic, "unsinkable" luxury liner called the Titan. As she speeds recklessly across the North Atlantic, in April, she strikes an iceberg and sinks. The fictional Titan carries too few lifeboats for the number of passengers aboard, resulting in a tragic loss of life.
This story was reprinted in this edition in 1912, when the Titanic disaster seemed to turn Robertson's fiction into reality.
Item #1309
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