Transcript Slide 1

Adventures in Storytelling:
Historical Fiction
Presented by Michele Leininger, State
Library of Iowa and
Katie Dunneback, Southeastern
Library Services
Objectives for class:
• Understand the history and evolution of historical fiction
• Recognize current trends in historical fiction publishing
• Identify:
• Sub-genres and genre-blends
• Historical fiction publishers
• Review outlets
• Organizations and Awards
• Indicate methods to analyze a historical fiction collection
• Identify RA tools for historical fiction readers
• Discover ways to market the historical fiction collection
A Brief History of Historical Fiction:
Grandfather of the historical: Sir Walter Scott
• Waverly (1814), published anonymously
• Featured everyday people during the
1745 Jacobite rebellion against the British
in Scotland
• Set standard for what is considered
“historical” – approximately 50 years
• Other titles include Rob Roy (1818) and
Ivanhoe (1820), which is credited for
creating interest in the Middle Ages.
History cont,
th
The 19 c imitators:
• Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850): Puritan
New England
• Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (1856): French
Revolution
• Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869): early 19th
century Russia
History cont., early 20th c:
critical acclaim
• Sienkiewicz’s Polish books and Quo Vadis
(1895); Nobel Prize in 1905
• Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy (10201922); Nobel Prize in 1928
• Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1936); Pulitzer
Prize
History cont.;
mid- 20th century:
• Rise of popularity led to view that is lower
form of literature:
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Westerns
Blend of history and romance
Women writers
Poor history
Period pieces
History cont,
the recent renaissance:
• Rise of the literary historical novel
– Atwood’s Alias Grace
– Frasier’s Cold Mountain
– Millhauser’s Martin Dressler
• Multiple genre-blending attracts a wider
audience
– Gabaldon’s Outlander series
– Liss’ Conspiracy of Paper
– Brown’s DaVinci Code
Historical’s current
trends:
• Well-tread history with a new perspective
– The Other Boleyn Girl (Gregory)
• Fictionalized biographies of the famous
– Loving Frank (Horan)
• Rise of social history over political history
– Year of Wonders (Brooks)
• Genre-blending
– The Name of the Rose (Eco)
– March (Brooks)
The Publisher and
the Historical novel
• Remains very popular at all the major houses:
Macmillan, HarperCollins, Penguin Group, Random
House, Simon & Schuster, St. Martin’s Press, Time
Warner
• Most popular/best-sellers not usually marketed as
“historical fiction”
• No real historical fiction imprint; under publisher’s name
or various imprints
• Historicals found in multiple places in catalogs: general
fiction, literary fiction, literature, romance, mystery,
fantasy, Christian/inspirational
Authors to know:
• Classics: Aldrich, Cather, Cooper, Renault, Richter, Scott,
Seton, Sutcliff, Tolstoy, Undset
• Benchmarks: W. Clark, Cookson, De la Roche, Delderfield,
Fast, Forester, Graves, Kantor, Lofts, Michener, Mitchell,
Plaidy, Renault, Richter, Seton, M. Shaara, Stone, Sutcliff,
Thane
• Contemporary benchmarks: Carr, Clavell, B. Cornwell,
Doctorow, Dunnett, Goudge, J. Higgins, Holland, Jakes,
McCullough, McMurtry, Price, Settle, F. Stewart, Thom, Uris,
Vidal
• Current popular authors: Coyle, Donati, Gabaldon, Gregory,
Griffin, Kent, Laker, Llywelyn, Maxwell, Miles, Nevin, O’Brian,
Penman, Rutherfurd, J. Shaara, Tarr, Wood
• Up-and-coming authors: C. Carr, Faber, Furst, Kanon, Liss,
Pearl, Reich, Vreeland
What’s in your collection?
What do historical readers want?
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Time periods and eras
Geography
Level of historical detail
Level of fact and fiction
blend
Realism, violence and
sex
Author
Pacing
Characters and point of
view
Language and dialogue
Accuracy
What should be in
your collection?
Marketing the invisible collection
• Dual labels for the
genre-blends
• Bibliographies and
displays
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Time periods
Geography
Cultural heritage
Fiction and nonfiction
together
• Book clubs
What did you read?
Defining the invisible genre:
Next steps:
• Find the historical fiction and inventory it!
• Look for any holes (by genre, period,
geography) and find titles to help fill them
• Talk to your historical readers and find out what
their favorite sub-genres are
• Find out what the local book clubs are reading
Important class
notes:
• Extra credit for this class is due by 5:00 on
October 2.
• The SF, Horror and Western class will be held
on November 6, 13 and 20.
• Registrations for the next class will begin
following the last Historical class (which is
Ocbtober 7). Announcement will be to this group
first.
Thanks!
• Class Web site:
http://www.statelibraryofio
wa.org/ld/continuinged/genrestudy
• Michele Leininger:
[email protected].
ia.us or 800-248-4483
• Katie Dunneback:
[email protected]
or 800-397-0029