The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility
New York: McKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie, [c.1912]. Black and white frontispiece, endpaper maps. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. [iv], 243 pages.
Originally published in 1898, the title story in this well-known but scarce collection eerily foreshadowed the sinking of the Titanic 14 years later.
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.
The story was reprinted here as "The Wreck of the Titan," after the 1912 Titanic disaster seemed to turn Robertson's fiction into reality.
The other stories by Roberton in this collection are "The Pirates," "Beyond the Spectrum," and "In the Valley of the Shadow."
Bound in dark green cloth over boards with gilt-stamped spine, blind-stamped upper board, and endpaper maps printed in dark green. Gilt spine titling is darkened to near illegibility. Prior owner bookplate on verso of front free endpaper. Minor extremity rubs to cloth. Hinges sound. Very good to near fine.
Item #1497
Sold