"[A] superb education in geography, seamanship, and history....Bacon writes in arresting prose....Since no crewman survived, details of the disaster are spotty, but Bacon makes the most of them, delivering biographies of crewmen, their duties, descriptions of the storm, increasingly fraught messages from the Fitzgerald before they ceased, interviews with victims’ families, and a discussion of the lessons learned. The author makes the Fitzgerald the centerpiece of a broad account of Great Lakes shipping, the careers and daily lives of the crews—and the industries, cities, and bars that feed them—and tales of other sinkings. A gripping account of a maritime disaster." -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

John U Bacon's The Gales of November brilliantly documents the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. His scholarly research is deeply impressive, and his knowledge of Great Lakes history is masterful. Highly recommended!" -Douglas Brinkley, bestselling author of American Moonshot and Cronkite

"Here is a work of spectral beauty destined to be a classic. Readers of Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm, Erik Larsen’s Dead Wake, and Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea will love this deeply reported tale from our vast inland ocean. With Bacon’s graceful and poignant retelling, the saga of the Edmund Fitzgerald now takes its rightful place among the world’s greatest legends of shipwrecks and tempestuous seas." -Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of The Wide Wide Sea and In the Kingdom of Ice

"This book is an epic achievement. Gripping in its reporting, poignant and heartbreaking in its storytelling, with an encyclopedic grasp of history, and a heart-pounding end to a tale already known around the world but revealed here as never before, The Gales of November is a book to be loved by fans of David McCullough, Erik Larson, and Candace Millard. I grew up on Lake Michigan and I learned more than I thought possible. Pick up this book. You won’t forget it, and you won’t put it down." -Doug Stanton, #1 New York Times best-selling author of In Harm’s Way and Horse Soldiers

"John Bacon has done it again! This is another riveting narrative that puts facts on a still mesmerizing legend. But this is more than getting the details right. Bacon has distilled the essence of the story and rendered a huge monument to those lost and a great gift to the rest of us." -Ken Burns, filmmaker

"The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald has long fascinated and frustrated storytellers. Now, at last, the story is deftly and deeply explored by John U. Bacon in this terrific, gripping account." -Jonathan Eig, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for King: A Life