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Title details for To Sleep with the Angels by David Cowan - Available

To Sleep with the Angels

The Story of a Fire

by David Cowan
John Kuenster
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
If burying a child has a special poignancy, the tragedy at a Catholic elementary school in Chicago almost fifty years ago was an extraordinary moment of grief. One of the deadliest fires in American history, it took the lives of ninety-two children and three nuns at Our Lady of the Angels School, left many families physically and psychologically scarred for life, and destroyed a close-knit working-class neighborhood. This is the moving story of that fire and its consequences, written by two journalists who have been obsessed with the events of that terrible day in December 1958. It is a story of ordinary people caught up in a disaster that shocked the nation. In gripping detail, those who were there—children, teachers, firefighters—describe the fear, desperation, and panic that prevailed in and around the stricken school building on that cold Monday afternoon. But beyond the flames, the story of the fire at Our Lady of the Angels became an enigma whose mystery has deepened with time: its cause was never officially explained despite evidence that it had been intentionally set by a troubled student at the school.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 14, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781541420403
      • File size: 331327 KB
      • Duration: 11:30:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 29, 1996
      On December 1, 1958, a fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago killed 92 pupils, most between the ages of nine and 12, and three nuns. This deeply affecting account of that tragedy by two Illinois journalists recreates the horror that destroyed a school and parish. The causes of the tragedy were manifold: outdated fire laws that permitted an edifice built before 1908 to escape a code passed in 1949 to insure safer schools; severe overcrowding; delay in reporting the fire; nuns ordering their pupils to pray rather than try to escape. Nor did municipal and archdiocesan officials help matters, their philosophy being that the fire was best forgotten; when a former student admitted to setting the blaze, they tried to conceal his confession. One positive result of the fire were the safety improvements made in 16,500 U.S. school buildings within a year. Photos not seen by PW.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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