This image is the cover for the book Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire, The, Disaster

Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire, The, Disaster

On November 28, 1942, fire roared through Boston's famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub during what was supposed to be a high-spirited Saturday night. By midnight, more than five hundred people were dead, dying, or maimed for life.


Local author Stephanie Schorow probes the club's history, the circumstances leading to the fire, and the tragedy's lingering impact. The inferno reached deep into the city's social structure--its politics, medical care, law enforcement, and religious life--and touched nearly everyone in the Boston area, even those who had never set foot in the club. In this newly updated and revised edition, Schorow has added new information, photographs, interviews and insights on the worst nightclub fire in American history.

Stephanie Schorow

Stephanie Schorow is a journalist, writing instructor and the author or coauthor of seven books on Boston history, including The Great Boston Fire: The Inferno that Nearly Incinerated the City; Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down Story of Boston's Most Notorious Neighborhood; Drinking Boston: A History of the City and Its Spirits; Boston on Fire: A History of Fires and Firefighting in Boston; East of Boston: Notes from the Harbor Island; The Crime of the Century: How the Brink's Robbers Stole Millions and the Hearts of Boston; and, with Beverly Ford, The Boston Mob Guide: Hitmen, Hoodlum and Hideouts. She has worked as an editor and reporter for the Boston Herald and the Associated Press, as well as newspapers in Connecticut, Idaho and Utah.

The History Press