Ken Rossignol

titanic-author-Rossignol

Ken Rossignol has long been a student of Titanic history after reading Walter Lord’s book, A Night To Remember, which Rossignol believes remains the very best narrative of the story of the Titanic.
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Heroes of the Titanic poster (2)

As a journalist, Rossignol decided to tell the story of the Titanic from the original news stories of the day. He says the idea came to him when he realized that he had been scanning the famous front pages of the days after the ship went down and was doing what he had always done, that of only reading the headlines. “Who would have thought it necessary to read the stories one hundred years later,” laughed Rossignol. To his great chagrin, he realized upon magnifying the old newspapers that the first telling of the story of the survivors was the best and most detailed he had ever read. “Of course there were inaccuracies and many blaring incorrect headlines, but I believed that delving into those stories and providing for my reader, how they got the stories wrong, was it a case of intentional fabrication, and sensationalism, as can take place even today, or were there just cases of honest mistakes? As it turns out, there were both, some were careless and some were amazingly brazen. One headline said “All Are Saved”, another story claimed that ‘the Titanic would have to be towed back to England, as there was no shipyard in America big enough to work on her’.”

Rossignol’s book Titanic 1912 was completed in time for the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the ship and relates the story of the Titanic through those news stories.The original facts and details of the Titanic disaster from the newspapers of the world bring forward the story in a vivid and striking way!

Titanic 1912 front cover

Available in eBook, paperback and Audible

Join the news stories in action as the first reports told of the RMS Titanic being towed to Halifax and all the passengers saved in erroneous first reports.
Learn how the survivors were saved and about the heroes of the night who sacrificed their own lives so that others may live. The story of the heroes and the wonderful new wireless device that was so critical in saving lives as well as startling new details of a fire on board the Titanic which had been burning since the ship left port in Southampton. These details and others were on the front pages of great newspapers beginning hours after the ship sank. The U.S. Senate convened a hearing three days following the plunge to the ocean floor by the greatest ship ever built to that day. Why did Capt. Smith ignore warnings of ice fields ahead? Why were there only enough lifeboats for one-third of the passengers? Was the ship speeding? See the best photos and graphics that survive from the original coverage in this great book AND in the paperback version now available on Amazon. This book by a 21st century reporter looking back at the most significant disaster to that day in the 20th century will help you separate the facts from the fiction. Also now available in audiobook at Amazon, Audible and iTunes.

Titanic 1912 trailer

 

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Workmen at the Harlan & Wolff shipyard stand underneath the stern of the Titanic prior to its launching.

Introduction to Titanic Poetry, Music & Stories now in audio book, paperback and Kindle editions

Many great accounts of the fateful night of April 14th and 15th of 1912 have been told about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Over the past one hundred and one years, the stories of the people and the disaster have been explained in art, movies, books, music and verse.

This book begins with an original poem I have written to commemorate the ship’s first, last and only voyage and the heroics demonstrated by some of those souls on board, some who survived and others who did not.

Other wonderful and historic poems from the years immediately following the disaster are included here along with musical tributes, some of which can be linked to hear historic renditions on ebooks and computers.

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Rossignol and author Bruce Caplan have co-edited and authored two books together. Titanic & Lusitania: Survivor Stories relates the stories of the people on both ships and explains the lead-in to WWI.

Some of the poems are famous, while others were penned by unknown poets.

Newspapers of the day found that they received unsolicited poems by the hundreds on a daily basis – so many that the editor of the New York Times penned an editorial declaring many to be unworthy. The editorial concluded with a harsh admonition to its readers that simply because one had pen and paper didn’t anoint them with the talent of a poet.  Newspapers of today tend to be considerably friendlier to their declining readerships.

What all those who wrote the poems of the Titanic shared in common was the desire of those authors to express shock, despair and sorrow in all the depths of human emotion. In addition, the very best attributes of character, heroics and courage were described in verse and song as exhibited or even imagined to have been displayed by the valiant on board the Titanic.

Included here are two original poems penned by me along with my favorite story about the hero dog of the Titanic, Rigel, which I tell to visitors at the Titanic Museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri, where I hope to see you when you visit.  – Ken Rossignol

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