Background
Maxtone-Graham was born in Orange, New Jersey to a Scottish father and an American mother.
Maxtone-Graham was born in Orange, New Jersey to a Scottish father and an American mother.
He graduated from Brown University in 1951.
He served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War and then worked as a Broadway stage manager. In 1972 he wrote his first book on ocean liners, The Only Way to Cross, to be followed by numerous other books for small publishing houses. France/Norway, was published in 2010, and in March 2012 he wrote and published Titanic Tragedy.
He later worked on a book about the Steamship United States.
He is the father of writer Ian Maxtone-Graham. John Maxtone-Graham died from respiratory failure in Manhattan on July 6, 2015, aged 85.