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Title: Trapped: The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster by Karen Tintori ISBN: 0743421949 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Rating: 4
Summary: A local point of view
Comment: I live 5 miles from Cherry, and we have already had a local author who retold the story several years ago, so I was interested to read the new version of events. The author has obviously done her research well, and attempted to relay the events in a logical sequence, but I felt the text needed more diagrams, possibly a glossary of mining terms. A list of the dead is included, but a list of survivors would be interesting from a local point of view.
Rating: 5
Summary: Gripping and Informative
Comment: This is a real page turner. Karen Tintori does a great job of putting her story in context. She gives us a good feel for the mood of the times, and a fine appreciation for the life of a Cherry Hill miner. One fascinating part for me was how a series of small errors cascaded into a full scale catastrophe. Additionally, Tintori was able to interweave many different threads - the trapped miners underground, the miners' families and company officials topside, government troops and university experts arriving on mile a minute trains - into a cohesive and easy to follow tale. Most interesting of all were the steps that one group of miners took to stay alive. Their adventures, and those of their heroic would-be rescuers, give new insights on survival under all-but-impossible odds. This is a very involving story. If you are not afraid of an emotional roller coaster, then hop aboard for a ride!
Rating: 4
Summary: A Compelling Historical Account
Comment: "Trapped" is the latest in a recent glut of books about historical disasters. The quality of these books depends largely on the storytelling ability of the author in question. Fortunately, Karen Tintori, who has a familial connection to this particular disaster, is well up to the task. She tells the harrowing tale of the 1909 Cherry (coal) Mine fire in central Illinois that ranks as the nation's third deadliest mine disaster. Over 250 men died in the mine, and the death toll could have been much worse if not for the amazing heroism of some of the rescuers (eight of whom died in circumstances eerily reminiscent of the firefighters who perished on September 11th).
The disaster was the usual result of carelessness, bad luck and arrogant overconfidence. When built, the Cherry Mine was thought to be fireproof, much like the Titanic was thought to be iceberg proof. When the fire started, it wasn't taken seriously at first, indeed, the elevator operators continued to haul up coal for over an hour after the initial flames appeared. By the time the danger became readilly apparent, it was too late for a majority of the miners.
Tintori adopts the correct tone for such a book, letting the words of the survivors speak for themselves whenever possible. Her account of the twenty miners who spent several days trapped below ground and presumed dead before being rescued is particularly compelling, as are the verbatum words from a short journal written by a trapped miner who eventually suffocated. Tintori may not quite have the narrative touch of say, Sebastian Junger or Jon Krakauer, but she is still quite good.
Overall, an excellent historical account of a very unfortunate trajedy.
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Title: Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History by William Lutz, Denise Gess ISBN: 0805067809 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 02 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Ghosts of the Fireground: Echoes of the Great Peshtigo Fire and the Calling of a Wildland Firefighter by Peter M. Leschak ISBN: 0062517775 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 02 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 by Robert Mykle ISBN: 081541207X Publisher: Cooper Square Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: White Hurricane : A Great Lakes November Gale and America's Deadliest Maritime Disaster by David G. Brown ISBN: 007138037X Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Pub. Date: 27 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy by Diana Preston ISBN: 0802713750 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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