BOSTON, May 8 Five years after Frank J. Goldsmith died his wife found a manuscript describing the sinking of the Titanic stored with his personal papers in their Ohio home.
That 1987 discovery ultimately resulted in a legal battle between Goldsmith's heirs and the Titanic Historical Society in Springfield, Mass. Goldsmith didn't write a fictional account. He was one of the survivors of the 1912 disaster that claimed 1,500 lives, including that of his own father.
Put on a lifeboat with his mother, nine-year-old Goldsmith watched as his father remained on the ship, calling out, "So long, Frankie. I'll see you later." The society has filed a federal lawsuit against Goldsmith's three sons, asking a judge to give the organization the legal right to sell a book based on Goldsmith's life.
The society bases the request on permission given by Goldsmith's wife for the sale of copies of her husband's manuscript at a 1988 convention.
Mrs. Goldsmith has died, but the sons say their mother gave permission for that single occasion. They want rights to remain with the family. "It's kind of our legacy from him," the youngest son, Frank Jr., 71, told The Boston Globe.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
