Speleologist Brucker, coauthor of The Longest Cave (1976), teams up
with popular historian Murray to reconstruct the 1925 Floyd Collins
tragedy - still, to many reporters, the greatest news story of the
century for stark drama in a perfect setting. None of the drama is
wasted as Floyd gets trapped and ever more trapped with the world's
news services and its infant radio and movie news teams inflating
his every last breath. The trap grows tighter and more merciless as
modern technology proves useless; hopelessly, Floyd cries, "You're
too slow. . . too slow. . ." - his last words. But the world
doesn't know it's too late, and efforts continue for 17 days to get
at his foot trapped under a stone and loosen it enough to haul him
out through tiny, winding, dripping passages 60 feet under the
earth. Talk about clamminess! It may well have been Floyd's greed
that sent him caving alone in search of a rival attraction to
Mammoth Cave. Clearly he went too far and into one tight crack too
many when a small but immovable rock fell and pinned him there with
his lamp out. Then, as recounted, local rescue attempts catch the
attention of Louisville reporter Skeets Miller who goes down into
the cave and interviews the entombed Floyd face to face. Soon,
Coolidge and all the government have suspended business to await
the hourly word from Kentucky.A carnival atmosphere grows on the
site, souvenirs are sold, the national guard moves in. . . .
According to the press, the event is cosmic, man against Fate -
while huge mining disasters that year are buried in the back pages.
A gnawing page-gripper. (Kirkus Reviews)
"When Floyd Collins became trapped in a cave in southern
Kentucky in early 1925, the sensationalism and hysteria of the
rescue attempt generated America's first true media spectacle,
making Collins's story one of the seminal events of the century.
The crowds that gathered outside Sand Cave turned the rescue site
into a carnival. Collins's situation was front-page news throughout
the country, hourly bulletins interrupted radio programs, and
Congress recessed to hear the latest word. Trapped! is both a tense
adventure and a brilliant historical recreation of the past. This
new edition includes a new epilogue revealing information about the
Floyed Collins story that has come to light since the book was
first published.
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