All the Livelong Day - by Richard Neil (Hardcover)

About the Book

A powerful true railroad story and creative nonfiction classic for all. Actual participants and colorful characters tell and show you events of the Thanksgiving Wreck at Woodstock. Original photos. All aboard! Highball!

Book Synopsis

All the Livelong Day is a creative nonfiction narrative by Richard Neil detailing theThanksgiving Wreck at Woodstock, on November 25, 1951. The true account is narrated by the son of the fireman on Southern Railway's Second 47, The Crescent, southbound from Birmingham to Meridian, Mississippi to New Orleans. The story details the train wreck and the characters involved, The Greatest Generation of post-World War II. The author is a forester and describes the southern flora as well as the Klamath National Forest mountains of Northern California. The book begins with the author being stationed in Eddy Gulch Fire Tower in summer of 2021, a summer of intense wildfire. He returns home to Red Mountain in Birmingham, Alabama, on a perch below Vulcan, a cast iron statue of the god of forge and metalworking. The story is told from there, beginning on morning of the wreck. In fine detail, the narrative tells of the fireman's ride to Birmingham Terminal Station and of the train ride south, a ride onboard engine, until the trains meet head-on in Woodstock. The fireman's wife and brothers drive from Woodlawn, a community in Birmingham, to Woodstock on night of the wreck to try to find out who's alive and who isn't. National Transportation Safety Board transcripts allow the participants to tell their story in their own words using their actual testimony.

Review Quotes

Richard Neil's All the Livelong Day is ultimately about resilience of the human spirit. It will appeal to those who love trains and railway history. But the audience will also include those who like to read creative nonfiction at its very best--Vicki Covington, a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, author of five novels and two books of nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker.

In All the Livelong Day, Neil tells you what is going to happen, and then proceeds to slay the reader with suspense anyway. Hitchcock himself would have no choice but to tip his hat--Dennis Love is an author and former journalist whose books include My City Was Gone, an investigative memoir of the tragic environmental history of his Alabama hometown. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Everyone is fascinated by a train wreck. This one was a doozy. Think about Richard Neil's All the Livelong Day next time you ride one--Angus Vieira, Seattle and Portland based author of poetry, The Snake Swallower of Cochin and Other Occupations, and mystery noir novels including Murder on a Two Lane Road.

Neil has done his research, but what makes All the Livelong Day a piece of art is the cast of characters. This is a man's world, but the women who inhabit it are exquisitely drawn--Vicki Covington, a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, is the author of five novels and two books of nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker

Every family history is remarkable in some way, some inevitably are more compelling than the rest, intertwined with destiny that sets the star-crossed course of people's lives. Richard Neil's All the Livelong Day is a vividly personal and unrelentingly cinematic account of a spectacular and tragic train collision for which Neil's father literally occupied a front-row seat--Dennis Love is an author and former journalist whose books include My City Was Gone, an investigative memoir of the tragic environmental history of his Alabama hometown. He lives in Sacramento, California.

There is also a rich sense of time and place here. Neil holds a degree in Forest Management and, in All the Livelong Day, eloquently describes land and flora of his native South, while masterfully capturing music, manners, language, history, and culture of post-World War II America--Vicki Covington, a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, is the author of five novels and two books of nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker.

All the Livelong Day is researched with a historian's exactitude, and Neil turns his father's train, Second 47, into a veritable time machine--elegantly told with heart and a novelist's eye for nuance and detail that bring his characters into full view--Dennis Love is an author and former journalist whose books include My City Was Gone, an investigative memoir of the tragic environmental history of his Alabama hometown. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Richard Neil's first book, Serenader, a novel, is a brave and honest father-daughter story. He has expanded his range as a writer with All the Livelong Day. The pace, tone, drama, and redemptive arc are fully realized--Vicki Covington, a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, is the author of five novels and two books of nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker.