About the Book

By the time world-renowned British news editor, Father of Investigative Journalism, women’s rights advocate, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee William T. Stead stepped aboard Titanic, his once-sterling reputation had greatly tarnished due to his Spiritualist fascination—turned obsession—with scientifically proving that clairvoyance and communication with the dead were real. Many thought he’d gone mad.

But twenty-five years before Titanic, Stead wrote and published two fictional stories which, when woven together, spin a tale of an RMS White Star Line steamer sailing from Southampton, UK to New York, striking an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic, sinking, with most passengers dying due to a lack of lifeboats. He modeled its captain after then real-life sailor Edward J. Smith, the future captain of Titanic.

Did Stead predict the tragedy? If so, why did he accept an all-expenses-paid, First-Class ticket aboard Titanic, having foreseen its fate—and thus, his own drowning? If he knew, why did he go?

Curious, I set out to find the answer and publish my findings in a straightforward biography of William T. Stead. However, after a series of jarring otherworldly encounters that not only fact-checked my research but fully revised my manuscript, the book—and my journey writing it—turned out to be anything but straightforward. His story became our story and ultimately revealed to paranormal skeptic me the shocking real reason I had been led to write it.

WHISPERS BEFORE THE ICEBERG is a riveting, previously untold, fresh take on the Titanic story. This thought-provoking and inspirational true story is a must-read for every Titanic enthusiast, for anyone grieving a loved one, and for those who ponder what happens after we depart this world.

I am Julie Basil Pierce, great-granddaughter of a Spiritualist and professional tarot reader. Host of YouTube channel Basil Tarot, I was ranked #1 Hotel Psychic by Fodors.com in 2022 and fictionalized as the tarot reader in the 2024 New York Times Bestseller/Jenna’s Book Club novel The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I graduated with a BA in Art History, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa Honors, from the University of Rhode Island. I currently live in Providence, RI, with my Jack Russell Terrier, Cicero.