PICTURE HISTORY OF THE CUNARD LINE 1840-1990...

PICTURE HISTORY OF THE CUNARD LINE 1840-1990 by Frank O. Braynard and William H. Miller Jr. (Dover: $13.95). The story of this celebrated company began when Samuel Cunard, a Canadian shipper, won a contract from the British government to deliver the transatlantic mail with his four small steamboats. Over the course of the next century, the Cunard name gradually became synonymous with the most sumptuous passenger liners. The lavish Art Deco interiors of these huge ships, especially the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, still evoke fantasies of the elegant beau monde of Cole Porter and Noel Coward. (Ironically, the ‘30s were a terrible time for Cunard--the Depression cut deeply into the travel business.) The black-and-white photographs that Braynard and Miller have assembled showcase the vanished splendors not only of the ocean liners but also of Manhattan, when New York was the port of departure from Americans on luxury cruises.