Editing A Night to Remember (book) (section)

==Publication history==
Lord traveled on the [[RMS Olympic|RMS ''Olympic'']], ''Titanic''{{'}}s sister ship, when he was a boy, 13 years after Titanic sank, and the experience gave him a lifelong fascination with the lost liner.{{sfn|Welshman|2012|p=281}} As he later put it, he spent his time on the ''Olympic'' "prowling around" and trying to imagine "such a huge thing" sinking. He started reading about and drawing ''Titanic'' at the age of ten and spent many years collecting ''Titanic'' memorabilia, causing people to "take note of this oddity."{{sfn|Biel|1996|p=150}} He majored in history at [[Princeton University]] and graduated from [[Yale Law School]] before joining the New York–based advertising agency [[J. Walter Thompson]].{{sfn|Biel|1996|p=150}} Writing in his spare time, he interviewed 63 survivors of the disaster.{{sfn|Butler|1998|p=208}}

''A Night to Remember'' was only Lord's second book but was a huge success, thanks in no small part to the aggressive advertising campaign carried out by [[Henry Holt and Company|R & W Holt]] following its launch in November 1955. The book also undoubtedly benefited from the popularity of the 1953 film ''[[Titanic (1953 film)|Titanic]]'' and other coverage of the disaster that was published around the same time.{{sfn|Biel|1996|p=150}} Within two months of its publication, the book had sold 60,000 copies and remained listed as a best-seller for six months. The ''[[Ladies' Home Journal]]'' and ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' both published condensed versions and it was selected in June 1956 by the [[Book of the Month Club]]. The first paperback edition was published by [[Bantam Books]] in October 1956.{{sfn|Welshman|2012|pp=281–282}}

Since then the book has never been out of print and has been translated into over a dozen languages. Its success enabled Lord to leave the world of advertising and become a full-time writer.{{sfn|Welshman|2012|pp=281–282}} After the discovery of the wreck of the ''Titanic'' in 1985 sparked a new wave of public interest in the disaster he wrote a follow-up book, ''The Night Lives On'' (1986). Daniel Allen Butler comments that "although it was of immense interest to ''Titanic'' buffs the world over, it lacked the spark of the original,"{{sfn|Butler|1998|p=208}} which by 1998 had reached its fiftieth printing.{{sfn|Biel|1996|p=151}}