City of Heroes: The Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886 - Softcover

Richard N. Cote

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1929175469 ISBN 13: 9781929175468

Publisher: Corinthian Books, 2006

Synopsis

At 9:51 PM on August 31, 1886, William Ashmead Courtenay, the much-respected mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, was relaxing aboard the Etruria, an elite Cunard Line luxury liner bound for New York from Liverpool. At that same moment, the most powerful earthquake ever to strike the East Coast rolled through South Carolina and devastated Charleston, killing over 150 people and damaging or destroying over 90% of the historic city's masonry buildings within sixty seconds. Within ten minutes, it had spread its terror throughout half the nation, causing panic and damage as far north as Toronto, east to Long Island, south to Cuba, and west to St. Louis. The nation was stunned. No one in Charleston, or anywhere on the East coast, ever thought such an unthinkable catastrophe of such magnitude could possibly strike east of the Mississippi. They were very, very wrong.

City of Heroes: The Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886, is a riveting, heavily illustrated non-fiction book filled with gripping, first-hand accounts of the earthquake, drawn directly from newspapers, personal diaries, journals, and letters of the earthquake survivors. It will also follow the earthquake sleuths who descended upon Charleston to discover what caused the disaster. But above all, it identifies the noble and heartwarming acts of numerous unsung heroes, black and white, inspired and led by Charleston's extraordinary mayor, William A. Courtenay. Working together, they saved numerous lives, nursed the wounded, fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, and enabled Charleston to make a full recovery from the massive disaster within eighteen months.

About this title

About the Author

Richard N. ("Dick") Côté, is the nationally-known author of three acclaimed biographies. They include Mary's World: Love, War, and Family Ties in Nineteenth-century Charleston, followed three years later by Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy. His most recent book, Strength and Honor: The Life of Dolley Madison, was published in January 2005.

Dick majored in political science and journalism at Butler University in Indianapolis. He spent six years in the U.S. Air Force, and then eight years conducting historical research and writing in Wisconsin. In the fall of 1979 he joined the staff of the South Carolina Historical Society, where he worked for several years before turning to writing full-time. Since the mid-1980s he has conducted extensive research into Southern biography, social history, plantation life and culture, and architecture.

Dick has served as a Featured Author at the Virginia Festival of the Book; the South Carolina Book Fair; the Spoleto Festival of the Arts, Charleston; and The Carl Sandberg Festival of Books, Hendersonville, N.C. In 2004 he was awarded the Bobby Gilmer Moss Award in History by the Daughters of the American Revolution for his outstanding contributions to historical writing. He was a featured author at the Daughters of the American 2005 National Congress in Washington. A talk he gave about Dolley Madison at the 2005 Virginia Festival of the Book was broadcast on C-Span 2/Book TV. He was also the featured speaker at the 2005 Dolley Madison birthday celebration at James Madison's Montpelier, in Orange County, Virginia.

Dick delights in sharing his love of American history. He lives in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, where he writes, lectures, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Corinthian Books.

Edition details

• Publisher: Corinthian Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1929175469
• ISBN 13: 9781929175468
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 556