Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster

One evening in late October 1958, the deepest coal mine in North America "bumped"-its rock floors heaved up and smashed into rock ceilings. Most of the men on the shift perished. But nineteen men were trapped alive a mile below the earth's surface, struggling to survive without food, water, light, or fresh air. Almost a week passed without rescue. Hopes of finding life dwindled; then a miracle happened: Rescuers stumbled across a broken pipe that led to the cave of survivors. In the media circus that followed, the survivors' endurance was mythologized and twisted, and the state of Georgia's tourism ploy-inviting the survivors to recuperate on a Georgia beach-turned racist and pitted the miners against each other.

Using long-lost stories and interviews with survivors, Greene has reconstructed an extraordinary drama of their struggle and miraculous rescue.

MELISSA FAY GREENE’s books, Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing, were National Book Award finalists. Greene has written for the NewYorker, Newsweek, the NewYork Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and Life. She lives in Atlanta.