HOW
“HISTORICAL” DOES HISTORICAL FICTION NEED TO BE?
How far back in the past does a novel have to
take place for the work to be called a historical novel? As Kathy Lynn Emerson suggests
in her fine book How to Write Killer
Historical Mysteries, the answers to this question are numerous. “If you
want a specific date—x years ago is historical; more recent than that is
not—there are several available.” Some rudimentary Googling yields a lot of
similarly inconclusive rules. Two that I find most intriguing are:
1. The plot must take place at least 50 years
prior to the copyright date of the first edition of the book; and
2. The writing process must rely more on
research than on personal experience.
The reason this question concerns me is that
I have written and published (on Kindle and Nook) a family saga trilogy based
very loosely on my own family history. I hasten to say that it’s primarily a
work of imagination, but the inspiration for the central character of the first
book, who is also a secondary character of Books II and III, is my own
remarkable uncle. I call him Fergus Powers.
The first novel, Geronimo’s Skull, begins at the Saint Louis World’s Fair in 1904,
when Fergus is nine years old, and ends shortly before the Stock Market Crash on
1929, when Fergus is thirty-four. This novel is a ghost story, a love story, a
war story, a modern western, and a tale of high finance. It’s clearly dated
more than 50 years prior to its copyright date, so I’m safe on that count. I’m
in the clear about the research part, too. I wasn’t alive during that era, so I
had to do extensive research on the life and death of Geronimo, the St. Louis
World’s Fair, Skull and Bones, World War One, Paris in the 1920s, the history
of Route 66, and much more. So yes, Geronimo’s
Skull is a historical novel.
For more about this novel, see http://www.danielpublishing.com/jmd/geronimo's_skull.html
The second novel in the trilogy, Elephant Lake, takes place entirely in
the summer of 1950, which satisfies the rule that the plot take place 50 or
more years prior to copyright date. However I flunk the other requirement. I
did no research for Elephant Lake,
other than to mine my crystal-clear memory (don’t ask me what movie I saw last
Friday night, but I’m certain of what a Pepsi cost in 1950). Actually, I relied
not so much on memory of factoids, as on memory of my dreams of flight.
I suppose the novel, though it takes place 63
years ago, isn’t a historical novel, then. It’s based on my first summer living
on my uncle’s country estate outside Dallas. It was a summer full of loneliness
and fear, and confusion about the adults in my life; but it is buoyed up by an
ability to escape. My fictional eight-year-old hero flies—literally—and rides
an elephant, slays a dragon, and rescues a future President of the United
States from drowning.
Check out this novel at http://www.danielpublishing.com/jmd/elephant_lake.html
I’m afraid the third book in my Fergus Powers
Trilogy is not historical in either sense. It is made up of three novellas that
take place entirely in the year 1963. Historically 1963 was an important year for
our nation and for the world, and as of now that year is fifty years ago; but Promises, Promises, was copyrighted and
epublished in 2011. As for research, again I relied on my memories of that
year, fictionalized by imagination, and I didn’t do much research except to
check when the moon was full.
It was a big year for my uncle, and for
Fergus Powers. He/they got married that year for the first time, at the age of
68. A big year for his sister, who had to leave her home at Elephant Lake. A
big year for Fergus Power’s nephew, now 21-year-old artist spending his first
summer away from home, painting a mural for a movie star. And 1963 was a
horribly big year for the United States, when President Kennedy was killed and
the world spun out of control.
Here’s more about Promises, Promises, Promises:
So is my Fergus Powers trilogy a work of
historical fiction? Book I is historical on both counts. Book II is historical
time-wise but not in terms of research. Book III is disqualified on both
counts.
I’ve just done the math. The Fergus Powers
trilogy is semi-historical. I wonder if there’s a contest for semi-historical
fiction…?
The year 1963 is historical in my view. I'm sure 50 years is just a guideline.
ReplyDeleteNo problem for me! I write western stories. All westerns are historical fiction. They present the same problems - accuracy, especially about firearms and horses.
I see what you mean, Dac, but that raises another question: what is a "western" story? More narrowly defined than just set in the AMerican west, surely. There must be some time zone to qualify. Pre-automotive? Is Edna Ferber's GIANT a western?
DeleteI'd say yes, it's historical. And that's a tricky business to get into! In my novel 'American Caliphate' chapter 2 takes places in Cordoba, Spain in 1542. I think I spent as much time on that chapter as the rest of the chapters combined!
ReplyDeleteI bet you did, Bill, and I bet you enjoyed your research related to Cordoba, since digging into the past (literally and figuratively) is your chosen field.
DeleteInteresting question, John.
ReplyDeleteDefinitions are constantly changing. Take antiques. The rule used to be that an item had to be 100 years old to be considered an antique. Now, as I watch "Antiques Roadshow," that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe it's the same with historical fiction and the answer lies "in the eye of the beholder."
I think you're right, Pat. Some readers might consider any fiction that involves a rotary dial telephone as historical.
DeleteAn antique dealer friend of my dad's used to say, 'if it's older than you, it's an antique.' As Pat mentions, definitions keep changing. The antiques question was resolved by coming up with the term 'collectible' for items not quite old enough to qualify as antiques.
ReplyDeleteYour trilogy qualifies as interesting no matter what people chose to call it.
I like that word "collectible," John. Question: do we want our books to become collectible. Yes if that means they're literary treasures. No if that means hard to find.
DeleteThis puts me in mind of the Kent Family Chronicles which came out in the 1970s. I don't recall in what year the series ended, but those books (8?) were part fiction and part history. As far as I'm concerned, whether or not it's historical is in the mind of the reader. An 18-year-old reading your book from the 1950s would certainly think of it as historical. Me? Yes, at this time I'd probably think of it as historical, too.
ReplyDeleteMarja McGraw
I agree, Marja. An eighteen year old reader would probably consider a lot of my novels historical. Come to think of it, I might consider a lot of contemporary fiction written by an eighteen year old writer science fiction!
DeleteAn interesting question. I think Marja is correct about the age of the person reading the book. I remember having a discussion in my college class one day about music. One of my stucents asked if Paul McCartney had been in any band other than "Wings". Yikes!
ReplyDelete