On November 10, 1975, SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a giant freighter, sank with its entire crew of 29 aboard, in one of the most violent storms ever witnessed on Lake Superior. In 29 Missing, Kantar tells the "Fitz's" story from the christening in 1958 as the largest ship on the Great Lakes to the expedition in 1995 to recover the ship's bell in what proved to be a moving memorial to the lost crew. Using information from government investigative reports, the book provides a dramatic hour-by-hour account of what transpired during that terrible voyage, including dialogue from actual radio transmissions between the Fitzgerald and the Arthur Anderson, the freighter that followed behind the Fitz.
In his passionate retelling of the story, designed primarily for young adults, Kantar provides the facts leading up to the disappearance, detailing the subsequent expeditions to the wreck site as well as the leading theories about the sinking that have been debated by maritime experts.
Andy Kantar is the author of a trilogy that tells the stories of the three largest ships to be lost on the three largest Great Lakes: Black November, a finalist for the ForeWord Book of the Year (YA nonfiction), nominated for the Great Lakes Book Award, and the inspiration for November Requiem (a documentary that aired on PBS); Deadly Voyage, selected for One Book, One County Reads (sponsored by the Michigan Humanities Council) and featured at the Great Lakes Folk Festival (Michigan State University); and 29 Missing, a Read Michigan selection for young adults.
A native of Minneapolis, he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and is an English professor and director of the Writing Center at Ferris State University. For two years Dr. Kantar was a Fulbright Scholar, lecturing in the graduate school of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Andy and his wife, Fran, have three grown children, Sally, Max, and Emily, and live in Michigan with their two dogs, a black Labrador and a Newfoundland.
