Seven Famous People Who Missed the Titanic
The notables who planned to sail on the fateful voyage included a world-famous novelist, a radio pioneer and America’s biggest tycoons
- By Greg Daugherty
- Smithsonian magazine, March 2012
(©APIC)
The sinking of the Titanic claimed some 1,500 lives, among them a gallery of early 20th-century A-list celebrities. Captains of industry John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim both went down with the ship, as did Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, who refused to leave his side. The popular American mystery writer Jacques Futrelle, the American painter and sculptor Francis Millet, and Maj. Archibald Butt, friend and aide to then-President William Howard Taft, were lost as well.
But for all the boldface names among the Titanic’s victims, many more might have been aboard, but for the vagaries of fate. Among them were:
The novelist, then 40, considered returning from his first European holiday aboard the Titanic; an English publisher talked him out of the plan, persuading the writer that taking another ship would be less expensive.
Dreiser was at sea aboard the liner Kroonland when he heard the news. He recalled his reaction the following year in his memoir, A Traveler at Forty: “To think of a ship as immense as the Titanic, new and bright, sinking in endless fathoms of water. And the two thousand passengers routed like rats from their berths only to float helplessly in miles of water, praying and crying!”
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One of the most famous religious figures of the 20th century to miss the journey on the Titanic was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá http://www.brightwind.org/faith-and-science/2012-the-titanic-and-abdul-baha/
Posted by ray on February 10,2013 | 07:00 PM
you do realize Marconi stole Tesla's invention and his patents were overruled.
Posted by on February 9,2013 | 04:21 AM
wow
Posted by on February 7,2013 | 11:29 AM
You other commenters seriously need to spell-check.
Posted by Catherine on January 30,2013 | 05:36 AM
history of titanic is reallay sorrowful.i also miss it
Posted by nurul azom on January 27,2013 | 03:57 AM
why was the ice burge thier
Posted by christian on January 25,2013 | 01:06 PM
My great aunt was in England at the time of the Titanic sailing and she knew many on board the ship, who wanted her to travel back with them. Allegedly her luggage was on board, but she was not. She was the Executive Secretary of the Art Students League of NYC for 40 years as well as Asst. Secr. of the Architectural League/Guild of NYC and died in 1934 - if memory serves me correctly. She was also an artist who painted mostly seascapes on the coast of Massachusetts. Her grandfather Edmund Shaw Simpson was the Actor/Manager of the old Park Theatre in NYC for 40+ years, bringing talent (Barrymores, etc.) from England to the United States; his portrait hangs in the Museum of the City of NY; he died in 1849; her father was an Episcopal priest in Newark, NJ, Bloomington,IL and later in Oakland, CA.
Posted by Stephen Brockmann on January 14,2013 | 10:46 PM
Thank God that he missed the Voyage and thanks to his friend who advice him not to board.
Posted by Paul Nwaubani on January 12,2013 | 05:26 AM
I work for one of Henry Clay Frick's descendants, one of the best bosses I've ever had. I'm very glad he and his wife didn't make that journey!
Posted by Esmeralda on January 11,2013 | 09:31 AM
oh these facts are awesome in my opinoin.
Posted by on January 10,2013 | 07:12 PM
Titanic was a great ship it's very intresting hestery titanic it's really great ship.i lov tath..........
Posted by rahul reddy on November 26,2012 | 10:51 AM
Too bad about Frick.
Posted by Linda on November 25,2012 | 08:52 PM
$300 was 10% for a first class passage for 2. Very expensive for 100 years ago. That would be what today? $50,000? 100,000? The Titanic notwithstanding, first class ship passage was a very civilized way to travel. Of course everything was more civilized back then.
Posted by Linda on November 25,2012 | 08:45 PM
In the book "How Photography Revealed and Shaped an Extraordinary life" Lincoln Thru the Lens,by Martin Sandler. He shows a morgue photo of John Wilkes Booth from National Archives. Is this a valid photo?
Posted by Dr. Walter v. Powell on November 23,2012 | 02:36 PM
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