Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster - Softcover

Greene, Melissa Fay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 015602957X ISBN 13: 9780156029575

Publisher: Harvest Books, 2004

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

It's hard to imagine a scenario more terrifying than being trapped in a gaseous, crumbling coal mine two miles beneath the earth's surface in utter darkness, without food or water, while your gravely injured colleagues howl in agony all around you. This is the premise of author Melissa Fay Greene's engrossing book, Last Man Out, which recreates the Springhill, Nova Scotia mine disaster of 1958. Of the 174 men who entered the mine on the afternoon shift of October 23, 74 never left. Last Man Out is the story of two small groups among the 99 survivors who lasted more than a week in the bowels of the deepest coal mine in the world after its sudden collapse. By relying (among other things) on survivor interviews conducted at the time by two Nova Scotia professors, Greene places the reader in the devastated shafts with the men. "Deep underground, darkness and silence ruled for an unknown length of time," writes the author, "The narrow layers of air swarmed with coal dust as if the flying particles and specks of coal were the only things in the universe, like black, charred, stirred-up matter in the eons before Creation. In the swirling blackness, the men's faces stung as if in a sandstorm. Some unconscious, some dying, they were zinged and pelted where they lay by a thousand small meteorites of coal." We hear their conversations--all lyrical Maritimer lilt--and watch as they struggle to free those trapped, and to free themselves. Greene also gives us their families, working class folks just barely hanging on and facing utter ruin at the loss of the sole breadwinner. And we hear from many of the 137 reporters from around the world--plus accidental participants such as comedian Shecky Green--who gather at the site to bring the tragic story home. Greene is successful not only in capturing the misery of the trapped men but also in giving context to the horrifying event. Educated men don't descend the mines to make a living; men with no alternatives do. Their strength and dignity in the face day-to-day adversity makes Last Man Out a thoroughly humbling read. --Kim Hughes, Amazon.ca

From the Back Cover:

Trapped a mile below the earth’s surface, with scant hope of rescue, nineteen miners spent over a week without light, drink, food. This is the extraordinary story of their suffering, their courage, and their miraculous rescue.

Advance Praise for Last Man Out
"In Last Man Out, Melissa Fay Greene so captures the experience of being trapped in the absolute night of a failed coal-mine that you can almost see the pale beams of dying headlamps and taste the last sips of coal-laced drinking water. Having shared the experience, a sympathetic reader cannot help but marvel at the absurdity of the disaster's aftermath. This is a fine, harrowing, brutally detailed work that will make you savor daylight in a way you never have—unless of course you're already a coal miner."
--Erik Larsen, author of Isaac's Storm

Praise for Praying for Sheetrock
"A monumental social history with implications that go far beyond the borders of a tiny coastal Georgia county. Through a combination of oral history and interpretive narrative, Greene has created a work of great drama, a chorus of voices that is both disturbing and inspiring."
--The Boston Globe

|Trapped a mile below the earth’s surface, with scant hope of rescue, nineteen miners spent over a week without light, drink, food. This is the extraordinary story of their suffering, their courage, and their miraculous rescue.

Advance Praise for Last Man Out
"In Last Man Out, Melissa Fay Greene so captures the experience of being trapped in the absolute night of a failed coal-mine that you can almost see the pale beams of dying headlamps and taste the last sips of coal-laced drinking water. Having shared the experience, a sympathetic reader cannot help but marvel at the absurdity of the disaster's aftermath. This is a fine, harrowing, brutally detailed work that will make you savor daylight in a way you never have—unless of course you're already a coal miner."
--Erik Larsen, author of Isaac's Storm

Praise for Praying for Sheetrock
"A monumental social history with implications that go far beyond the borders of a tiny coastal Georgia county. Through a combination of oral history and interpretive narrative, Greene has created a work of great drama, a chorus of voices that is both disturbing and inspiring."
--The Boston Globe

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvest Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 015602957X
• ISBN 13: 9780156029575
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352