first edition Hardcover
1984 · New York
by Keyes, Edward
New York: Atheneum. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1984. First Edition. Hardcover. 0689114060 . [nice tight clean copy, the barest trace of shelfwear to bottom edge; jacket shows very light handling wear]. (frontispiece diagram) "A spellbinding, minute-by-minute account of the most famous disaster in American history -- the fire in Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub that, on November 28, 1942, claimed 491 lives. In a masterful work of reportage, [the author] has re-created that terrible night -- the horror of the fire, the heroics of the medical workers (that night Boston hospitals treated more burn victims than London's did on the worst night of the Blitz), the stories of the victims and their families. And he follows the stories of the survivors, those who, miraculously, recovered and those who finally succumbed. [The book] also probes the causes of the calamity, and reveals the benefits that rose from its ashes: innovative methods of burn treatment, the first general use of the new wonder drug penicillin, the tougher fire laws that resulted nationwide." . (Inventory #: 14389)