%% 
%%  A DANTE-Edition example
%% 
%%  Example 02-11-5 on page 67.
%% 
%%  Copyright (C) 2010 Herbert Voss
%% 
%%  It may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions
%%  of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3
%%  of this license or (at your option) any later version.
%% 
%%  See http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt for details.
%% 
%% 
%% ==== 
% Show page(s) 1
%% 
\documentclass[]{article}
\pagestyle{empty}
\setlength\textwidth{201.70511pt}
\setlength\parindent{0pt}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{makecell}

\begin{document}
\renewcommand\cellalign{lt}
\renewcommand\theadalign{lb}
\renewcommand\theadfont{\itshape\small}
\begin{tabular}{@{}ccc@{}}
\thead{Title for\\column 1}
  & \thead{column 2}
    & \thead{column 3} \\\hline
A & \makecell*{vertical top\\LEFT} & B\\
C & \makecell{vertical top\\ LEFT}
  & RIGHT \\\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}