Fact and Fiction: Researching the Historical Novel

All history requires the examination and interpretation of sources from the past. Historical novels take these sources a step further, adding fictional characters and a story that takes place in a previous time. “Fact and Fiction: Researching the Historical Novel” examines the challenge of the historical novelist in finding the balance between the momentum of the narrative and the background information necessary to plausibly recreate a bygone world. In this talk, Clara Silverstein interprets the literary and historical merits of the novels The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and Jacob’s Ladder by Donald McCaig. She then explains the research she is undertaking to write an historical novel set in Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War. Her story follows Amanda, the wife of a tobacco factory owner turned Confederate soldier and mother of a 3-year-old; and Cassie, the slave who works in her home. Their roles continually shift to accommodate the challenges of life in a besieged capital in 1864-65. In order to fully imagine life in Civil War Richmond, the author read primary sources, including diaries of women who lived in wartime Richmond, cookbooks, letters from soldiers, and articles from the Richmond Dispatch newspaper. A visit to a row of 19th century houses in Richmond and an old map helped her choose a setting. Secondary sources also helped set the scene. A study of 19th century clothing helped the author imagine what the characters might have worn. Other secondary sources provided an overview of Richmond during the Civil War and its fall in 1865. The talk will conclude with a summary of how historical research can inform, but should not overtake, the creative process of writing a novel. At its best, an historical novel can provide a different sense of the past than a traditional historical study. It can imagine how individuals responded to the events around them, how they felt, and how history influenced ordinary people – territory too speculative for an historical study. Historians can use novels to understand the emotional resonances of the past, and novelists can use history to ground their work. In this way, one field benefits the other