An Adventure in 1914

The True Story of an American Family's Journey on the Brink of WWI

In the summer of 1914, Thomas Tileston Wells, a New York lawyer, traveled through Europe with his wife and two children. But what began as an idyllic summer vacation descended into a nightmare as Europe’s armies began mobilizing for the devastating First World War. Wells’s memoir, published in full for the first time, immerses the reader in the bygone era of luxury cruise ships and first-class dining cars – and then bears witness to the shattering beginning of the “war to end all wars.” Wells’s memoir uncorks a century-old message in a bottle, with reports of assignation, financial crisis, and war that are startlingly familiar.