now you see her...
Bestselling author of historical fiction including THE ARCTIC FURY and the Five Queendoms epic fantasy series (SCORPICA, ARCA).
After a few weeks off, I’m barnstorming the virtual event circuit again! Check out my Events page for details.
I kicked off a week of five (five!) events with a very fun hour talking to Julia Kelly, hosting me on Facebook Live for her Ask An Author series. Couldn’t make it live? No worries! Catch the replay here.
This is my second visit to the Des Moines Public Library’s podcast, and Aaron always asks such great questions! You can listen to just the first part if you haven’t read the book yet, but there’s a section full of spoilers (with a clear warning beforehand!) if you’ve read THE ARCTIC FURY and want to know all my secrets.
Listen to our super-fun conversation (including news about what I’m up to next!) here.
Just a quick note that Sarah Penner’s marvelous debut, THE LOST APOTHECARY, is out today! You’ll love this dual-timeframe novel that follows three fascinating women: an apothecary who only allows her poisons to be used to kill misbehaving men, a clever girl whose curiosity about the apothecary leads her to quickly get in over her head, and the modern-day woman whose discovery of an 18th-century apothecary vial spurs her to investigate the unknown as a distraction from her crumbling marriage. I can’t even list how many Most Anticipated lists this book is already on… expect to see it on more lists (like the bestseller lists) soon.
Not only did I get to read an early copy of Christina Baker Kline’s new book THE EXILES (it’s soooo good!), I also got to interview Christina for the Chicago Review of Books.
I talked with Christina about inspiration decades in the making, the responsibility she felt toward those who lived the history she fictionalizes, and the upsides of swapping a virtual book tour for the traditional traveling version. “I will miss meeting people on the road and hearing their reactions to a novel I’ve spent years writing in solitude. Those interactions are the best part of being on tour. (Snarfing cold breakfast sandwiches in airports, not so much!)”
Read the interview here.
If you love reading about the early days of Hollywood, the behind-the-scenes combination of grit and glamour, you will absolutely love Juliette Fay’s latest, City of Flickering Light, just released today! I was lucky enough to read an early copy and absolutely devoured it. Her book The Tumbling Turner Sisters is one of my favorite takes on vaudeville. Turner fans will enjoy seeing a certain character’s return in this book.
So today seemed like the right day to introduce you to Juliette and her new novel! Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Amy Bloom’s Lucky Us will especially love its intelligent, sympathetic take on the constant compromises, surprises and tragedies that accompany the quest for fame.
Welcome, Juliette!
Juliette Fay
Greer: What’s the last book that blew you away?
Juliette: I just loved A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler. It’s about Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont who rose from half-starved teenager to be one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in the country. Along the way she aimed her keen mind and can-do personality at social causes like poverty and women's suffrage, and found true love. A fascinating story, carefully researched, and beautifully written.
I went to hear the author speak and she talked about how Alva had always been portrayed as aggressive, demanding, and bossy, and at first Fowler wrote the whole story with that perspective. Then she started thinking about how many men from history could be described in just the same way, but were considered great leaders with big ideas and admirably high standards. Fowler rewrote the entire book with the same angle on Alva. I love that she was able to see through what would have been considered terribly un-well-behaved at the time, to the bright, passionate, shrewd woman whose efforts impacted so many for the better.
Greer: Yes! It was a fabulous book and Fowler speaks about that issue so eloquently. Next question for you: Do you consider yourself a historian?
Juliette: I do not consider myself a historian, and this is the very thing that kept me from writing historical fiction for a long time, despite the fact that I love to read it. I kept thinking, “Don’t you have to have some sort of degree, or at least to have paid a little more attention in history class than I did?”
Then I was between book ideas for a couple of months in 2013, which was really freaking me out, and I suddenly remembered that my great grandfather had been in vaudeville, and wouldn’t it be great to write a novel about that! It gave me the inspiration and courage to start researching. After a couple of months, when I felt I had a solid command of the facts I was able to start writing the story.
So while I’m still not a historian, I found I really love learning all this crazy stuff, whether it’s historical facts, medical conditions, fashion, food, politics, language and jargon, old jokes to pepper the dialogue of my Jewish comedians in the book about vaudeville (The Tumbling Turner Sisters), or crazy stunts to give my silent film actors in my latest book, City of Flickering Light. And because I’m still a little insecure about it, I’m fanatical about getting the facts right.
Greer: Your dedication shows! You’re so good at working those details in. Last question: What book, movie or TV show would your readers probably be surprised to find out you love?
Juliette: I’m a huge fan of historical shows, of course—The Crown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Victoria, Poldark. I also love shows with interesting structures, like This Is Us, where the timeframe is bouncing all over the place.
But my guilty pleasure is Roswell, New Mexico. There, I’ve said it.
If you believe the conspiracy theories, Roswell, NM is the site of a crashed alien ship and a vast government cover-up. The show is based on the premise that three little alien kids emerged from that crash with no knowledge of where they came from and what they’re capable of. Now in their late twenties, they’re still desperately trying to pass as humans so the government won’t spirit them away and do experiments on them.
I think what I like about it is that it’s just pure emotion. Of course, they’ve each fallen in love with humans, which is complicated—there’s a whole Romeo-and-Juliet thing going on with “us” and “them.” It’s all angst and heartache and unexpected couplings. You have to suspend disbelief hard and just go with it. No real nutritional value, but who doesn’t love a hot fudge sundae once in a while!
Greer: Reciprocal confession: I was a huge fan of the original “Roswell” in the ‘90s. Such a sundae.
Juliette: Question for you: In your latest book, Woman 99 (which I cannot wait to get my hands on, as I completely loved Girl in Disguise), what was the most interesting piece of information you dug up in your research, whether you actually used it in the book or not?
Greer: There’s so much that doesn’t make it into the book, right? We always find more than we can use. For Woman 99 specifically, the asylum setting was my biggest research challenge — it had to be realistic and accurate to the period without being completely depressing and exhausting for the reader. So I didn’t go deep on some of the uglier “treatments,” though I worked in a passing mention of the one I found most shocking: the utterly quack-y idea that there was a link between dental health and mental health. The idea that pulling a depressed patient’s teeth out would somehow help them seems ridiculous to us now, but it was a real thing that happened. And here’s the extra-creepy part: Dr. Henry Cotton, who did a lot of this “focal infection therapy” in the early 1900s, believed so strongly that infections of the teeth spread to the mind that he removed his wife’s and children’s teeth just in case. Ew! Truth is creepier than fiction!
Read more at JulietteFay.com.
Pioneering women in law enforcement have never gotten their due. Within the past few years, historical fiction readers may have learned the names of Constance Kopp (from Amy Stewart’s books) or Kate Warne (from mine), but there are dozens, even hundreds, of names like theirs we could know.
Add Maude Collins to the list. She was Jess Montgomery’s inspiration for The Widows, and you’ll learn more about her — and Jess — in today’s Q&Q&Q&A.
Jess Montgomery
Greer: Tell us about a woman (or group of women) from the past who has inspired your writing.
Jess: In THE WIDOWS, my protagonist Lily Ross is inspired by Ohio's true first female sheriff in 1925, Maude Collins. Maude became sheriff in Vinton County when her husband, Fletcher, was sadly killed in the line of duty. After his funeral, she was packing up in the sheriff's house for her and her five children when the county commissioners came by and asked her to fill in for Fletcher. She did so, and in 1926 ran for office in her own right--and won. I was struck when I learned of Maude by how challenging serving as a sheriff in such circumstances would be now--what's more, nearly a hundred years ago. Then I began imagining what it would be like for a young woman to lose her sheriff husband but under mysterious circumstances, and the lengths she might go to to find out the truth. Thus, Lily was born--a character in her own right. I am blessed to have several aunts who were very tough women who were also leaders in male dominated work fields, so I drew on them as well for the spiritual inspiration for Lily.
Greer: If you could pick one woman from history to put in every high school history textbook, who would it be?
Jess: Mary Harris Jones, a.k.a., Mother Jones (1837-1903). She was a dynamo labor organizer--including for the United Mine Workers. She became an organizer after her husband and four children all died of yellow fever, and she lost her dress shop in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She was known as "the most dangerous woman" in America in 1902 for her efforts to help mine workers organize into unions. She is the spiritual inspiration for Marvena Whitcomb, a widow and mine union organizer in my novel THE WIDOWS. I love Mother Jones for her feisty spirit and passion for the working class. After such a terrible loss, it would have been understandable if she'd given up--but she didn't. Learning about her is a way to also learn about the history of workers' rights, unions, and women's rights. Her name is also the inspiration for Mother Jones magazine, which I think high school students would find fascinating!
Greer: Do you consider yourself a historian?
Jess: Not at all! But I do love researching the settings and times for my novels in great detail and am indebted to actual historians. I also love to dig into source material (newspapers of the day, for example) as much as possible. I very much want to get all the historical details right, without turning my novel into an historical treatise.
My question for you: To me, historical fiction is a chance to time-travel a bit into the past--which is fun--but it is also so much more than that. It's a way to see the present, and perhaps even the near future, with a fresh perspective. For example, women's rights have certainly progressed since 1925, but by looking at women's roles in the 1920s, we can also see the ways in which some attitudes haven't changed. Do you think of historical fiction as a lens for looking afresh at the present?
Greer: Absolutely! I’m fond of saying that historical fiction is a way of looking at how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go. Anyone who brushes off historical fiction as irrelevant because it’s about things that happened a long time ago is really missing out. And historical fiction that uses history as a jumping-off point can really be enjoyed twice: once, while you’re reading the fictional story, and a second time, as you search out the real history that inspired the novel. Reading and enjoying, reading and learning — what could be better?
For more on Jess:
Web and blog: www.jessmontgomeryauthor.com
Facebook: @JessMontgomeryAuthor
Instagram: @JessMontgomeryAuthor
Twitter: @JessM_Author
I used to live in Brooklyn Heights, billed as “America’s first suburb,” built when people first realized that living right next to New York had some advantages over living in New York itself. Because of its age, there’s a historical house around nearly every corner. One day, strolling around Henry Street on the far side of Atlantic, I checked out a plaque: 426 Henry Street was the birthplace of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill’s mother. Winston Churchill’s mother was American? I thought. I need to know that story.
So when I saw the cover of Stephanie Barron’s That Churchill Woman, I knew it was the story I, and plenty of other people, had been waiting to read.
Stephanie Barron
Greer: Tell us about a woman (or group of women) from the past who has inspired your writing.
Stephanie: There's no question in my mind that the women who preceded Jane Austen--the women she read, like Anne Radcliffe, Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Aphra Behn, and others--were strong, independent, and daring writers. In some cases they wrote for financial survival; in all cases, from intellectual and emotional need. They were highborn and low, personally secure or clinging by their fingernails to respectability; but each had a voice and was determined to express it. Along the way, they revolutionized what was generally a male-framed world. Austen's genius is that she also advanced the novel form in ways that neither men nor women before her did, by pursuing a linear and internally coherent narrative; she learned from those she read and improved upon them stylistically. One of the great gifts to scholarship in women's literature is Chawton House, one of the estates that belonged to Jane's brother Edward, which houses a center for the study of Early Women's Writing. I can't think of a greater tribute to Jane and her work. (I should also say that I have authored a mystery series with Jane Austen as the main character, and have been an ardent Janeite from the age of 12, so perhaps I'm biased.)
Greer: Do you consider yourself a historian?
Stephanie: It depends upon the audience I'm talking to, honestly. I hesitate to proclaim myself an historian because I left a doctoral program in history at Stanford without writing my dissertation--I am what is known as ABD, "all-but-dissertation," meaning I passed my Orals but never penned the opus. This had to do with several things: I found as I journeyed through graduate school that I was more interested in the PEOPLE I studied than in the sweeping historical trends of demographics or economics, and the field was tilted in the latter direction when I was in school. I also found the academic community less than congenial. I far prefer writing fiction about historical figures--and I draw heavily on every single skill I learned, as a student of history for seven years, to do it. Those are techniques and principals I discuss with readers when we talk about historical fiction--so that those who like my work feel reassured that it's based on exploration of the existing record, even when I choose to diverge from it. I've been lucky enough to write about Queen Victoria, Virginia Woolf, Jack Kennedy, Ian Fleming, and Allen Dulles; most lately, of course, about Jennie Jerome Churchill, Winston's outrageous American mother. I love exploring a particular moment through the life and mind of an era's standout people.
Greer: What do you find most challenging or most exciting about researching historical women?
Stephanie: The effort required to unpack the truth of their inner lives from the multiple layers of obfuscation, distraction, and sheer bias that result from most women's habitual depiction at the hands of male historians. Take Jennie Churchill, for example--I have spent a lot of time researching her son Winston for several of my WII spy novels (JACK 1939, THE ALIBI CLUB, TOO BAD TO DIE) written as Francine Mathews. I grew increasingly frustrating that the parent who clearly shaped him most, his mother, was consistently dismissed as frivolous, irrelevent, self-centered, neglectful, even nymphomaniacal--when Winston himself unequivocally adored her. I stepped back and looked at the fact that most of HIS biographers were male and British, and deplored the fact that England's greatest hero was only...half-English. It is the greatest source of indignation among conservative British historians of a certain male school, that Jennie was a Dollar Princess, and independent woman raised by her father to be fearless and joyous, a woman of considerable intelligence, broad experience, virtuosic artistic ability, and strong political opinions--a woman who would have thrived in this era, but was way ahead of her own. It's been immensely satisfying to present her to a current audience, and allow them to evaluate her for themselves.
My question for you: What compelled you to write WOMAN 99?
Greer: I did feel compelled! I was inspired by Nellie Bly’s intrepid journey undercover in an insane asylum in 1887, but I didn’t want to write a journalist character or just replicate what Nellie had done — if you want to read what Nellie did, after all, you can read her account — and that was where Charlotte Smith came from. And the extra little odd bit of inspiration was that at the time I was obsessed with thrumming beat and threatening lyrics of the Elvis Costello song "Don’t Want to Go To (Chelsea),” which includes lines like “Men come screaming/Dressed in white coats/Shake you very gently by the throat.” It seemed like a sign to write the asylum idea I had in mind. Sometimes the world gives us a nudge.
It has become increasingly clear to me that I’m going to run out of March before I run out of WomensHistoryReads interviews! Again. But, as I said over on History in the Margins, having a Special Month is no excuse not to call attention to great books by and/or about women the rest of the year. And the rest of the year starts, well, next Monday.
But we’ve got one more week of Women’s History Month proper, and I’m happy to kick it off with this Q&Q&Q&A with Chanel Cleeton, whose real-life historical inspiration comes from the women in her family. You’ve likely read her blockbuster Next Year in Havana — read below to find out what you can look forward to next (and soon!) from Chanel.
Chanel Cleeton
Greer: What’s the last book that blew you away?
Chanel: I’ve been really fortunate to have some amazing reads lately, but one that instantly comes to mind is The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar. From the first page, I was captivated. The writing is so lyrical and stunning that I found myself swept away. It’s a dual timeline novel set eight hundred years apart in Syria, and is beautiful, breathtaking, and heartbreaking. The modern-day story of a young Syrian refugee and her family and the extraordinary lengths they go to in order to survive is one that has really stuck with me. It’s a tremendously powerful book that I cannot recommend enough.
Greer: Tell us about a woman (or group of women) from the past who has inspired your writing.
Chanel: My most recent books, Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba, have largely been inspired by women in my family, particularly my grandmother. My grandmother lived with us growing up and we had a special bond. She used to tell me stories of her life in Cuba and she passed on so much of our history and culture to me, and really gave me a great appreciation for where I came from. She was a strong, unapologetic, fierce woman and I’ve injected a lot of her spirit into my characters. My grandmother was pregnant with my father during the Cuban Revolution and lived through a tumultuous time in the eight years she lived in Cuba under Castro’s regime and then her exile to the United States. I was inspired by her strength and courage when writing Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba and strove to honor her legacy with my words.
Greer: What’s your next book about and when will we see it?
Chanel: My next book, When We Left Cuba, will be out on April 9, 2019. While it can be read as a standalone, it follows the story of Beatriz Perez (the sister of my heroine from Next Year in Havana) after her family has arrived in the United States following Fidel Castro’s rise to power in Cuba. Living in South Florida, Beatriz becomes involved in a plot with the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro, and the novel follows the turbulent Cuban-American relations of the 1960s including the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Kennedy Assassination.
Question for you: What characteristics inspire you when choosing a real-life heroine for your books?
Greer: It’s a bit of a challenge to choose — there are so many more fascinating, untold (or at least under-told) stories than I could possibly tackle! I’m most inspired by women who bucked the trends of their time, but I also prefer characters who aren’t entirely good or entirely evil. After all, that’s not what we’re like in real life, right? Also, sometimes I stick fairly close to what’s known, as with Kate Warne in Girl in Disguise, and sometimes history is more of a jumping-off point, as with Nellie Bly and Woman 99. In Nellie’s case, she was a journalist, so if you want to read about her undercover adventures at Blackwell’s Island, you can already do that, since she documented them. So I took that inspiration and created a character who does one of the things Nellie did — feign insanity to infiltrate an insane asylum — but for her own reasons. That’s where Charlotte Smith came from. And that way I get to draw on a host of different stories to synthesize a coherent story with a satisfying ending. Which doesn’t always happen in real life.
For more about Chanel and her books:
Hello from the road! Or at least the train tracks. It’s my most whirlwind segment of the Woman 99 book tour, so I’m writing this from a 6am train and hoping desperately the Amtrak wi-fi can hold up its end of the bargain.
Today’s guest is Julia Kelly, author of The Light Over London, and like many of the authors I interview for this series, she has an amazing story of women of the past to share with the world. Have you heard of the Gunner Girls? I hadn’t! For more, here’s Julia…
Julia Kelly
Greer: Tell us about a woman (or group of women) from the past who has inspired your writing.
Julia: My favorite thing about writing is introducing readers to incredible women they may never have heard of before. For The Light Over London, I wanted to tell the stories of the Gunner Girls, a group of British women who worked in mixed gender anti-aircraft gun batteries in World War II. They did everything on the guns except for pull the trigger. (Firing a gun was considered to be active combat, which Parliament said only men could engage in.) The Gunner Girls were incredibly brave women who made a serious contribution to fighting in Britain and on the Continent.
Greer: Play matchmaker: what unsung woman from history would you most like to read a book about, and who should write it?
Julia: I am dying to read a modern biography of Nancy Wake, the infamous World War II spy. She was brash and bold, earning her nickname the “White Mouse” for all the times she slipped through the Gestapo’s fingers as they tried to hunt her down. I actually wrote about Wake for my Lightseekers series, which is all about incredible women during World War II. Who knows, maybe I’ll write the book myself!
Greer: Nancy Wake’s name has been cropping up more and more lately — can’t wait to find out more about her! Ariel Lawhon has a novel about her in the works, I believe. Last question: What book, movie or TV show would your readers probably be surprised to find out you love?
Julia: I love a good murder mystery, whether I’m reading or watching TV. I always love books on the grittier end of the spectrum like Val McDermid or Peter May—both great Scottish authors. For TV shows, I’m happiest watching programs like Endeavour, Grantchester, and Luther.
And a question for you: What was the book that first got you interested in history?
Greer: Great question! I’m afraid I don’t have a brilliant answer. But I do distinctly remember being fascinated and thrilled by my European history course in college, not just because of the facts — I love facts — but the words! The names! I walked around muttering “Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen” under my breath for at least a month.
Website: https://juliakellywrites.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliakellywrites/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/The_Julia_Kelly
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliakellywrites/
Podcast: https://yourenevergoingtoreadthis.com
After wearing myself out publishing an interview a day for last year’s #WomensHistoryReads series, which ended up continuing for a full month after Women’s History Month was over, this year I cut way back. Only for March, I said. And only for novelists.
Well, I’ll be breaking both of those rules, as it turns out. But hey, women throughout history have had to break rules to get things done, right? Right.
I couldn’t resist inviting historian Jen Deaderick to the blog to talk about her new book SHE THE PEOPLE, an illustrated history so necessary, Hillary Clinton herself took to Instagram to offer congrats. (Personally, my heart beat faster when I saw the comment, and it’s not even my book!)
A little peek behind the curtain: I offer my interviewees about 10 questions and they choose 3, and it’s always fascinating to see what gets chosen. Of most interest, of course, are the answers! On to Jen’s.
Jen Deaderick; drawn by Rita Sapunor
(The illustrated headshot is genius, isn’t it? Click here for more of Rita Sapunor’s work.)
Greer: Do you consider yourself a historian?
Jen: This is the first question that jumped out at me from the list. It’s been a bigger question for me than I would have expected. A few months ago, I was having lunch with Jaclyn Friedman (who wrote the amazing Unscrewed), and she was giving me a hard time for not calling myself a historian. She was incredulous that I was writing a book on history, and yet wouldn’t give myself the title.
Maybe it’s living in such an academic town that makes me so reluctant. It seems like the title “historian” is something you earn with a degree. I did briefly pursue a masters degree in Public History at Northeastern, but I couldn’t afford it. I realized I could do the projects I wanted to do without spending thousands of dollars that I didn’t have. Still, I’m grateful for the semester I had there. I took a theory and methodology class, and that’s been helpful in my work. My fellow students were also great, and I was thrilled to meet them and have amazing conversations with them once a week. It was a terrific break from hanging out with a toddler, which was my main occupation then, and teaching intro to computers classes, which was my other occupation.
Now that I have a book that is officially classified as a history book, I’m revisiting the word. I suppose I can call myself a historian now, but I have to ease into it.
Greer: I’ll call you a historian, if that helps! (I added it to the introduction as soon as I saw this.) Next question: What’s the last book that blew you away?
Jen: The Library Book by Susan Orlean. She goes so deep in it, while also telling the history in such a compelling way. Her writing always makes me feel like I am walking along next to her as she takes me through the narrative. I love her confidence in describing the fire as if she witnessed it herself. It’s an amazing accomplishment.
It was particularly compelling to read it while I was waiting for my own book to be published. It’s powerful to think of something I created contributing to the conversation she describes.
Greer: What’s your next book about and when will we see it?/Tell us about a woman from the past who has inspired your writing.
Jen: I’m smooshing these questions together because they’re connected for me.
Back when I was in my twenties, I was hanging out with my Grandma, who was born in 1908, and very cockily said that when I got married, of COURSE I would marry someone who did half the housework. She replied, “that’s what we thought.” It blew my mind.
My grandmother was no radical feminist. She would get very upset if she was called Mrs. Rosalind Deaderick in formal correspondence instead of Mrs. Alfred V. Deaderick. She counseled me not to wear sneakers too often, to keep my feet from “spreading.” She never wore pants. Still, the feminist wave that led up to the passage of the 19th amendment, and the changes in gender roles that followed, had impacted her. She’d grown up in the Bronx, which gave her a proximity to the massive changes happening.
That exchange, and other chats with her, made me realize how complicated the history of women’s rights was, and helped inspire me to eventually write this book.
Grandma was also the person who got me interested in genealogy and how it connected us personally with history and the passage of time in general. I very clearly remember another day with her, later in my 20s, when we sat and looked through photo albums together. She told me stories about these family members that were long gone, and as she did, I realized I was going though some of the same experiences they had, and was asking some of the same questions about my life. It gave me a perspective that I hadn’t had before, and made me clearly realize that all of the past had only happened through a series of choices made within a context over which we often had very little control. No one knows how anything will turn out, we just keep going, and that’s always been true.
My grandfather was from a prominent Southern family, and my Yankee grandma had needed to learn their history to get in good with his kin. At some point in my late teens or early twenties, I was given the family history that had been passed down since my distant cousin, Anna Mary Moon, had written it around 1933. It’s really racist, and speaks very casually about the slaves my ancestors owned, and the Native Americans they killed.
My mother was given a copy when she married my Dad, and has never recovered from the horror she felt while reading it. As an actual descendant, I’ve had to really wrestle with what this family history means to me. In my next book, I want to talk about that history, and the long tradition of women passing along family history, often building glorious myths about their male ancestors along the way. In SHE THE PEOPLE, I talk about the central role of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in passing along the Lost Cause myth, and I want to expand on that, and weave in my own family history along the way. I see the book as a response to Anna Mary Moon’s.
Greer: Sounds fantastic. Can’t wait.
Jen: My question for you: Regarding the role so many women have played in helping to create male myths, both through genealogy and published scholarly works, is there a greater obligation on female historians to tell women’s stories? Additionally, how do our experiences as women impact the ways in which we tell men’s stories, if they do?
Greer: Ooh, that is a BIG question. I will try to appropriately size my answer.
I think we should write what moves us. The appetite of the historian, or the historical novelist, to dig deep and write hard on a story that she’s passionate about — that strikes me as the most important thing, right off. That said, I’m sure there are people out there writing all sorts of horribly racist, misogynistic, offensive stories — including these faux-glorious male myths — who would defend those stories with plenty of passion. (They would also probably argue that they’re “just telling the truth,” as if “truth” and “something someone wrote down once” were synonymous.) There will always be women who want to tell men’s stories and men who want to tell women’s stories, and I’m not one to draw a hard line and say that can’t be done beautifully.
But there is no getting around the fact that men’s history tends to be overdocumented and overexplored, and women’s history tends to be underdocumented and underexplored. So in that way, yes, I think responsible historians should lean toward women’s stories and the stories of underrepresented groups of any gender. We don’t need more George Washington on America’s collective bookshelf. Find and tell the stories we don’t know by heart. I want the names Kate Warne, Irena Sendler and Ida B. Wells to be as familiar as John Wilkes Booth, Oskar Schindler and W.E.B. DuBois. And it’s not as if introducing these lesser-known names replaces the better-known ones: there is so much capacity to make history bigger. Add Sophie Scholl alongside Anne Frank, Claudette Colvin alongside Rosa Parks, Elizabeth Bisland alongside Nellie Bly. That’s what I want to see.
