All Behind the Book essays

“We learn to be heroes by example”

Behind the Book by Betsy Cornwell

I first hit on the idea of a girl Robin Hood while I was drafting my steampunk Cinderella retelling, Mechanica. What kind of story would inspire a girl whose life is full of injustice, of service to a cruel family who’s supposed to take care of her? A hero who lives in the wild freedom of the forest with a loving chosen family and who robs from the rich to give to the poor: Robin Hood was a perfect story for Cinderella to tell herself.

Turning the noble thief into a girl was only natural since I was already exploring feminism and gender roles in Mechanica. The Forest Queen became a figure of legend that my characters frequently referenced, and a role model for them as they grew into their own strength.

That’s what fairy tales always do. They’re models for the stories of our own lives. We learn about love and courage, cowardice and vengeance, and so many other facets of the human experience from those archetypal stories that get passed down through centuries and cultures. Whether we accept them at face value or push back against them, they have much to teach us. In my own life, I’ve drawn crucial support and inspiration from so many women—all of them strong in different ways—so it was important to me that my girl Robin Hood be surrounded by heroines, too. In too many of the gender-swapped retellings I’ve read, there’s just one special girl filling the shoes of a traditionally male character, and too often the author seems to suggest she’s the exception to the (weak, boring) rule of girlhood.

My girl Robin Hood is no exception: The Forest Queen has a whole band of “merry women,” like a giant girl named Little Jane, a nun-midwife called Mae Tuck and a dashing musician named Alana Dale. (Alana’s name is a variation on the Allan-a-Dale of the old Robin Hood ballads, of course, but it’s also an homage to one of my real-life writing heroines, Tamora Pierce, and her iconic Alanna.) All of these characters are at least as heroic as my protagonist, and in many ways more so: the Forest Queen starts the story as a sheltered young noblewoman, and she comes into her heroism by learning from those around her. I wanted the women in my story to work together for the collective good rather than compete with each other—that seems like a big part of what Robin Hood’s ethos is all about.

As I wrote and revised The Forest Queen, a real-life group of teen heroes rose into the national consciousness: the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The teenagers who responded to their school’s tragedy with such courage and grace were the embodiment of all the ideals I work toward in my fiction. Emma Gonzalez, in particular, struck me as so much like the girl Robin Hood I’d dreamed of: a compassionate, brave young woman of color with an awesome haircut, to boot. She’s been the image of the Forest Queen in my mind ever since.

I really do believe that we learn to be heroes by example—from heroism in real life, if we’re lucky enough to witness it, and always, always from stories. I started writing about Robin Hood to give a heroine to my Cinderella, and then some real-life heroes inspired my work on that story. Today’s young people are a generation of activists, smart and savvy and strong in ways that challenge us older generations to do better. I’m so proud to get to write for them, and I hope that my books reflect back to them some of the strength and courage that they’ve modeled for me. After all, that’s how we all learn to be heroes.

 

Betsy Cornwell is a New York Times bestselling author living in west Ireland. She is the story editor and a contributing writer at Parabola, and her short-form writing includes fiction, nonfiction and literary translation. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. from Smith College. Her latest novel, The Forest Queen, follows 16-year-old Lady Silvie and her band of diverse outlaws as they attempt to upset the status quo of their medieval land.

Betsy is currently working on The Circus Rose, a queer YA retelling of “Snow White and Rose Red” slated for release in fall 2019.

I first hit on the idea of a girl Robin Hood while I was drafting my steampunk Cinderella retelling, Mechanica. What kind of story would inspire a girl whose life is full of injustice, of service to a cruel family who’s supposed to take care of her? A hero who lives in the wild freedom of the forest with a loving chosen family and who robs from the rich to give to the poor: Robin Hood was a perfect story for Cinderella to tell herself.

Thriller

A shiny thing

Behind the Book by Lea Carpenter

When I was five months pregnant with my second son, I spent most of my days interviewing special operations officers. It was fall 2011, a Navy SEAL team had killed Osama bin Laden that May, and in August a helicopter crash had resulted in the greatest loss of life in special operations forces history.

I was writing a novel about a mother whose son goes missing in Afghanistan, and while a lot of people far more knowledgeable than I were also trying to understand what had happened in May and in August—whether May was linked to August, would this “forever war” ever end—I was interested in something different. I wanted to know what it felt like inside the mind of a special operator.

When I met members of the community, I didn’t ask about the bin Laden raid, or any raid. I asked about how their bonds with mothers and children and spouses survived under the radical pressures of multiple deployments. I tried to understand the concept of risking your life to save someone. And then I remember thinking that if you ask any mother whether there is someone she’s willing to die for, of course she’ll say yes.

Two months after that book, Eleven Days, was published, I was at the beach with a former CIA case officer, a family friend who had read the novel and asked me to lunch to talk about it. I remember he used the phrase “shiny things” that day. He said something like, “Everyone in Washington is chasing shiny things.” He explained how in the context of the Agency, a “shiny thing” is a plum recruit. He explained this with a level of cynicism, implying (I thought) that in a way a shiny thing is a chimera. I had the sense that while his own experiences had been broad and exceptional, there was something else, something existential, in his view of life in that line of work. Maybe he was getting at the idea that hunting shiny things could wear a person down. It was our talk that convinced me to try and write about the CIA. Of course the intelligence world, like the world of special operations, is defined by an ethos of discretion. If you meet someone from these worlds who wants to tell you all their stories, chances are, they’re not going to have the best stories. Chances are, the people with the finest stories are the people you will never meet. But I tried.

As I did with Eleven Days, I started by placing a woman at the center of my narrative. In Red, White, Blue, my main character is not a mother who has lost her son but a daughter who has lost her father. As I talked to more and more people currently or formerly in the intelligence world, it struck me that the fundamental skill required isn’t firing fancy weapons or jumping out of airplanes or mastering the art of surveillance. It’s far more human and complex. It’s empathy. You can teach someone how to load an M4 far easier than you can teach them to be empathetic. Empathy is the ability to look at another person and understand why they do what they do. Sometimes the other person is an asset you want to recruit. Sometimes it’s a foreign officer who wants to recruit you. And sometimes it’s someone about to commit an unimaginable crime. The radical end of empathy, I came to believe, is understanding why someone would do that. And then perhaps convincing them not to.

Chances are, the people with the finest stories are the people you will never meet. But I tried.

The training, the Farm, the art of recruitment, dead drops, brush passes, spotting and assessing and developing an asset—I learned all these things. Anyone can. Only then I concluded that, while not exactly dull, these things are not exactly new either. I concluded that telling a reader how to recruit as asset was far less compelling than trying to make a metaphor of things spies do and then, as John le Carré put it, “mirror the big world in the little world of spies.” As I did with special operators, I set out to understand the emotional make-up of someone willing to assume not one but several new identities, in doing so risking the loss of whomever they were underneath it all. Someone I interviewed told me about lining up mobile phones on a table, each one linked to a distinct, separate identity he inhabited at the time. I thought, a tableful of phones is not a life. I wrote that line into the novel.

What is and is not a life is, I think, what my family friend was really trying to describe that day at the beach. I think he was, if gently, even without meaning to, cautioning me away from glamorizing “tradecraft,” away from the typical tropes of the genre. He was trying to encourage me to look at the people, as he felt I had done with the prior novel. Maybe he thought I could illuminate another community that had endured unimaginable loss over more than almost two decades of perpetual combat. After he read a galley of Red, White, Blue, he wrote me a note. Its simplicity made me smile, as I now know spies rarely write anything down. “You did it,” he said.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Red, White, Blue.

Screenwriter and author Lea Carpenter was a founding editor of Zoetrope magazine and is currently a contributing editor for Esquire. Her first novel, Eleven Days (2013), is an affecting portrayal of maternal love during a time of war and was inspired by her father’s career in Army intelligence during World War II. Her latest novel, Red, White, Blue, is a haunting modern-day spy story that plumbs the depths of American espionage through the story of a daughter grappling with the truth of her late father’s secret life. Carpenter lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Author photo by Michael Lionstar.

When I was five months pregnant with my second son, I spent most of my days interviewing special operations officers. It was fall 2011, a Navy SEAL team had killed Osama bin Laden that May, and in August a helicopter crash had resulted in the greatest loss of life in special operations forces history.

RomanceContemporary Romance

Life as an NFL wife

Behind the Book by Alexa Martin

When people find out that I wrote a book that takes place in the world of the NFL, the first thing they always ask is, “So this is about your life, right?” To which I answer with a strong and emphatic, “No, no, not even remotely close at all.” So I figure, since I’m here, I should take this opportunity to clear up any questions on what’s real and what is totally “The Hills”-level exaggerated.

Honestly, when I sat down at my computer and decided to give writing a go, I very vividly remember thinking there was no way I would ever write a sports romance. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading them, but the books I read about football were missing a lot of the things I was actually experiencing as an athlete’s wife. The NFL sounds pretty glamorous without the players getting cut and concussions. But I guess, in the words of the great Justin Bieber (with a cameo by the equally great Jayden Smith), “Never say never.”

When I started writing Intercepted, I knew there were certain experiences that had to be told. I knew if I went ahead and wrote the sports romance I wanted to write, there would be elements of truth alongside all of the drama I had a blast creating. Lucky for me, my husband played in the NFL for eight years, so I had a lot of inspiration to draw on.

First things first, the women I met while my husband was playing in the NFL are nothing like the “wicked wives” from my book. I was 19 when I moved to Baltimore with my now husband. I was not a wife—I wasn’t even a fiancée. I mean, I couldn’t even drink yet! But unlike the women in my book, the women I met in real life were nothing short of amazing. They took me in like I was their little sister, inviting me to dinners and movies, to their houses to watch the games when the guys were away. They showed me the kind of woman I wanted to become. Their loyalty knew no bounds, and their kindness wasn’t something they ever hesitated in showing.

I still remember the time right after my husband was traded from Baltimore to Green Bay. I was 37 weeks pregnant, and we had an 18-month-old as well. Some of the other wives and I all had babies right around the same time, and we signed up for the same mommy-and-me class. My husband was gone, and when I mentioned I needed to go grocery shopping, my friend, who is still one of my close friends today, met me at my elevator-free apartment and carried all of my groceries up four flights of stairs for me.

Those are the NFL wives that I know.

There really was a wives’ group. We met up and discussed community outreach we wanted to participate in. Sadly, though, there were no margaritas or glitter gavels involved. We did, however, have matching vests, and I still have mine tucked away in my closet.

Also in my book, the players all live in the same community of mansions. This is true. Except instead of mansions, the majority of the team lived in the same neighborhood of moderately priced homes and apartment complexes. Have you ever heard the saying that NFL stands for Not For Long? Well, that saying is accurate AF. And the vast majority of the team aren’t making millions of dollars and won’t invest in a house that they might not last a year—or even a month—in.

The one part of Intercepted I really tried to keep as close to reality as I could were the injuries. I met my husband in high school. I watched him play high school, college and professional football, and I can tell you that watching him get hit never got easier. Hearing the crack of helmets—even above the voracious roar of the crowd—would make my stomach turn. There’s a helplessness and a loneliness that can’t properly be described. You watch the person you love get hit repeatedly with so much force it can be compared to getting in multiple car accidents. There would be times when I would meet some of my friends to watch the games together, and their husband would get injured. The deafening silence that would take over the room as we’d crowd her, turning up the TV and waiting for the announcer to give us news or, even worse, see him give a thumbs-up from a stretcher carting him off of the field. Knowing that your significant other’s safety and your financial stability could end with one hit made the games more of a chore than anything else at times.

Sorry.

That got a little dark, didn’t it?

Don’t worry, I know how to lighten it up. . . . Crystals!

There are a lot of references to glitter, crystals and margaritas in my book. Part of this is because that is exactly what I imagine my fantasy life to solely consist of, and the other part is because crystals are one of my favorite WAGS (wives and girlfriends) memories. The first time I saw an altered jersey was when my friend wore one to the game. She cut out lace to go over the numbers and adhered it with a hot glue gun and a buttload (technical measurement) of crystals. It was glorious. It was the kind of DIY I knew I was always destined for, but didn’t even know existed. And once my eyes were open to this fabulous, over-the-top way to show support, I couldn’t look away. That’s how I found Leah Miller, aka the Diamond Duchess. I wish the descriptions I have in my book did even a fraction of justice to the masterpieces she creates, but if you have time and you need a rabbit hole to fall down during your next venture on the internet, I highly suggest you look her up.

Being an NFL wife was a wild journey for me. I’d be lying if I told you it was all roses or that I haven’t had moments where I resented all it stood for. But at the end of the day, I don’t regret a single second of it. I have met wonderful women, traveled the country and watched my husband live out his dream. I know how lucky I am to have the perspective I have been given. I just hope that now I can pass it along and give readers a new and exciting way to experience the crazy world of sports.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Intercepted.

When people find out that I wrote a book that takes place in the world of the NFL, the first thing they always ask is, “So this is about your life, right?” To which I answer with a strong and emphatic, “No, no, not even remotely close at all.” So I figure, since I’m here, I should take this opportunity to clear up any questions on what’s real and what is totally “The Hills”-level exaggerated.

Picture Book

Leading children to find happiness in life

Behind the Book by Julie Chen

I wrote When I Grow Up because, as any tiger mom can tell you, the first moment you hold your child, you expect them to become the president of the United States. But as time passed and I started to get to know my son—while also learning what it means to be a mother—things started changing. 

I started to see what his interests were and what he is good at. I also saw him reject some of the things I wanted him to excel at as a “perfect” child. For example, soccer and basketball . . . NG: That means not good! Often there was either a meltdown or major bribery (OK, you can get a coveted Pokémon card) to get him to behave. Terrible! I learned the hard way how bad of a mistake it is to bribe your child. They will argue about doing things they should be doing unless they get a reward.  

I also started to see that I’m not as much of a tiger mom as I thought I would be. I thought I could teach/force my son to be a piano-playing, math-loving, trilingual basketball superstar who loves to read and volunteers at the soup kitchen where he finds the cure for cancer during his breaks.

I saw his likes and dislikes shift and change at a rapid pace. One day he’d say he wanted to be a gardener when he grew up (because he was off looking at the flowers during soccer games instead of keeping an eye on the ball). The next day he’d say he wanted to be the next King of Pop after discovering the music of Michael Jackson. Then a baker, because like Oprah, HE LOVES BREAD! Then a Legoland tour guide so he could go on the rides for free.

When I first thought about writing When I Grow Up, my son was only 7. I thought, What can I do, as I watch him grow, to make sure he finds happiness in his life and career? How did my mom help me?  

When I was growing up in Queens, New York, I remember when my family and I saw an Asian-American female face sitting at the local news anchor desk for the first time. This was SHOCKING! In those days, the only Asian faces we saw on TV were the men in cheesy, English-dubbed kung fu movies. The men wore long beards, had long hair piled on top of their heads in the now popular “man bun” and fought with long sticks. My father screamed at the top of his lungs as if he’d won the Powerball jackpot: “Ghang qwai lie, ghang qwai lie! Doong Fahng rhen zhai dian shir saang!” Translation? “Hurry up! Hurry up! There’s an ASIAN person on TV!”

My mom and I came running. There she was, Kaity Tong, co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast next to Tom Snyder on WABC. I was 13 years old. The year was 1983. (Ms. Tong, by the way, is still an anchor today in NYC. You go, girl!)  

My mother turned to me and asked, “If she [Kaity Tong] can do it, why can’t you?” She went on to say something to the effect of, You are inquisitive like a good reporter, you love talking to people, you like to wear pretty clothes, and you love makeup! (Hah! How shallow I was!)  

But my mom planted the seed that day, and it grew from there. I never strayed from that idea, and it became my dream. My dream started to come true six years later, and in 1989, I had my first newsroom experience. I was an unpaid intern at CBS News. Ten years after that, I became the news anchor on the very same show where I was an intern.

But it was during that internship when I realized if you do what you love, getting any size paycheck feels like a bonus. As I mentioned earlier, I worked for FREE as an intern, and I loved every minute of it. The experience was priceless.

When I Grow Up is not only written to entertain young, budding minds, but also to help other moms do what my mom did for me. The first step is to help your child find their natural talent. The second step is to see what makes them happy. The third step is helping your child figure out how to combine steps one and two into a successful life. If you can do that, then you’re halfway there to guaranteed happiness for your kid!

The other half is finding love. I am lucky I found it and have it, but I haven’t figured out how to teach my son how to find it. But if I do, you can bet I’ll write another book.
 

A little boy shares with his mom his dreams of what he might be when he grows up in When I Grow Up, a tender picture book from the host of  “The Talk” and “Big Brother,” Julie Chen, and New York Times bestselling artist and Caldecott Honor recipient Diane Goode. Chen is a mother, a television personality and a producer who lives with her family in California.

When I Grow Up is not only written to entertain young, budding minds, but also to help other moms do what my mom did for me. The first step is to help your child find their natural talent. The second step is to see what makes them happy. The third step is helping your child figure out how to combine steps one and two into a successful life. If you can do that, then you’re halfway there to guaranteed happiness for your kid!

A novel born from girls’ stories of survival

Behind the Book by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

The kidnapping of more than 200 girls from their school dormitory in Chibok, Nigeria, was a most horrific incident that shocked the world, but it led to some unexpected good. The outrage and international outcry sparked by the April 2014 abductions compelled the Nigerian government and international allies to launch an unprecedented attack on the Sambisa forest hideout of the Boko Haram terrorist group. In the process, thousands of women and girls who were also kidnapped by Boko Haram, even long before the Chibok kidnappings, were rescued. The world had been largely unaware of their plight. Over the past four years, I’ve spoken with dozens of former Boko Haram captives, sometimes spending time with them in their homes or in refugee camps, observing as they struggle to restart their disrupted lives.

The majority of the freed women and girls told me that they were starved, raped and forced into marriages while in captivity. This gives you an insight into the depths of abuse that can be regarded as normal among a community of men with no regard for women’s and girls’ rights. Boko Haram believes that girls have no business in school; they should be married off as soon as puberty sets in, or even earlier, if possible, and placed under the absolute control of men.

There were some women and girls who admitted to me that they relished their life with Boko Haram. Despite being kidnapped and forced to wed, being married to Boko Haram militants, especially commanders, made them feel important. They imagined themselves as part of something significant—a global jihad. They were made to believe that Boko Haram would one day conquer Nigeria and then go on to rule the world. They were fed, clothed and tended to by their husbands. Some had slaves from among the captives yet to be married. One girl told me that she was so displeased when the Nigerian military turned up to rescue her that she would have shot at them if she’d had a gun. (Bear in mind that these women and girls are from a region where the typical female lives an uneventful existence, valued as little more than a baby factory, cook and charlady.)

The prevalence of child marriage in Nigeria varies widely from one region to another due to different political and religious factors, with figures as high as 76 percent in the north, and as low as 10 percent in the south. Nigeria has the world’s highest number of out-of-school children (10.5 million), of which about 60 percent are girls. Again, northern Nigeria is worst hit, with 60 percent of the out-of-school children in that region.

In a way, Boko Haram is amplifying the already problematic issues in that part of Nigeria.

Sadly, there are many women and girls who never lived to tell their stories of Boko Haram captivity. Almost all those I’ve interviewed told me of family or friends who died, usually in childbirth, from snake bites, illness, or during Nigerian military airstrikes on Boko Haram camps.

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree is journalism masquerading as fiction—my attempt to go beyond the news headlines and present as many of these women’s and girls’ stories to the world. Boko Haram may have changed their lives forever and stolen their innocence and dreams, but the terrorists have not succeeded in silencing their voices.

Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a Nigerian writer and journalist. The author of the award-winning adult novel I Do Not Come to You by Chance (2009), Adaobi has had her writing featured in the New York Times, The Guardian and the New Yorker. You can find her at www.adaobitricia.com.

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree is journalism masquerading as fiction—my attempt to go beyond the news headlines and present as many of these women’s and girls’ stories to the world. Boko Haram may have changed their lives forever and stolen their innocence and dreams, but the terrorists have not succeeded in silencing their voices.

RomanceHistorical Romance

Going to war in the Regency

Behind the Book by Kelly Bowen

Kelly Bowen’s current series, The Devils of Dover, centers around a finishing school for girls in the evocative coastal setting of Dover. As the series goes on, it becomes clear that secondary themes of the books are the Napoleonic Wars and their effect on people at all levels of society. A near-constant backdrop in the era, the continental conflict is almost never explored in depth in Regency romance beyond giving a titled aristocrat a reason to brood. Here, Bowen tells us why the wars were all the things we don’t associate with the Regency—chaotic, socially disruptive and for some, liberating.

It is often unusual to come across more than a passing mention of the Napoleonic Wars in British Regency-set novels. Yet there are extraordinary real-life accounts of courage, hardship and bravery that can’t be overlooked and offer inspiration for my own tales. The hero in my new novel, Last Night With the Earl, is a veteran of this conflict and is finally returning to England. As an officer and the son of an earl, Eli Dawes’ experience on the battlefield has disabused him of any romantic notion of war and his homecoming has opened his eyes to the struggle to survive beyond his privileged world.

The wars that engulfed almost the entire European continent for nearly two decades cost 2.5-3.5 million soldiers their lives. And even though the battles were not fought on British soil, they still had a huge impact on the lives of those British citizens left behind. Massive taxes to fund the war effort were levied. At the same time, food prices and unemployment skyrocketed due to wartime trading restrictions and increased industrialization. Many desperate men—and women—faced with starvation enlisted in the military. But at the war’s end, circumstances did not get better.

For those soldiers who did survive to return to Britain, there were no war memorials or recognition. Many were weakened, crippled or severely maimed. They, like the widows and families of fallen soldiers, were left to fend for themselves as best as they could, reduced, in many cases to stealing or begging. Or, in Kent, where the Devils of Dover series is set, smuggling.

Over the centuries, the smuggling trade flourished along the Kent coastline with its proximity and easy access to the continent. The practice was not without its risks, yet after the wars, the illicit trade became even more dangerous with the reassignment of the Crown’s soldiers from the battlefields of Europe to the coastlines of England. Their directive was to bring order to the lawless coasts and end smuggling for good.

Rose Hayward, the heroine in this novel, is well-acquainted with this quandary. Living in Dover, she is familiar with those who so valiantly served their country and are now hunted by the law for surviving the only way left to them. Her position at the elite finishing school managed by her sister, Clara, has allowed her to run interference with the law more than once to protect these individuals. The sudden arrival of Eli Dawes provides her with a fierce ally and champion she wasn’t expecting. If there was a silver lining in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, it was the resulting political, economic and social unrest helped ignite the beginnings of reform.

Eli isn’t the only character I’ve written who served on the front lines of the Napoleonic wars. Harland Hayward—baron, surgeon and the hero of the next book in the series (A Rogue by Night)—is also a veteran. And so is the heroine, Katherine Wright. An estimated 4,000 women accompanied the British army, working and sometimes fighting alongside husbands and lovers, brothers and fathers. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention their contributions here.

The Napoleonic Wars were huge in scope and their direct and indirect effects were profound. Writing about some of these effects—real facts woven into my own fiction—seems not only justified but essential. The men and women who faced impossible odds and prevailed offer an author no end of inspiration.

 

Kelly Bowen attended the University of Manitoba and earned a Master of Science degree in veterinary physiology and endocrinology. Her infatuation with history and weakness for a good love story led her down the path of historical romance. When she is not writing, she seizes every opportunity to explore ruins and battlefields.

Kelly Bowen’s current series, The Devils of Dover, centers around a finishing school for girls in the evocative coastal setting of Dover. As the series goes on, it becomes clear that a secondary theme of the books are the Napoleonic Wars and their effect on people at all levels of society. A near-constant backdrop in the era, the continental conflict is almost never explored in depth in Regency romance beyond giving a titled aristocrat a reason to brood. Here, Bowen tells us why the wars were all the things we don’t associate with the Regency—chaotic, socially disruptive and for some, liberating.

NonfictionLiterature

Choose your words wisely

Behind the Book by James Mustich

Imagine being asked to cull 1,000 volumes from the shelves of a library to represent a lifetime of reading. Where would you start? What principles would govern your selection? How would you explain the reasons for your choices?

That thought experiment will give you some idea of why it took me 14 years to get 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die between covers. Since I have been a bookseller for most of my adult life, I knew from the start that my project could never be the last word on a reading life, nor should it attempt to be. What I most hoped it would convey are the pleasures of browsing and the serendipity that bookstores nourish—pleasures that are a preface to all the stories readers compose out of their own lives.

One of my first jobs was working in an independent bookstore in Briarcliff Manor, New York. I learned to listen to customers and, eventually, to make useful, interesting and potentially life-changing recommendations. That last hyphenated adjective may sound grandiose, but the truth is that devoted booksellers—as Roger Mifflin, the protagonist of Christopher Morley’s The Haunted Bookshop (one of my 1,000 books), put it—are missionaries who seek “to spread good books about, to sow them on fertile minds, to propagate understanding and a carefulness of life and beauty.”

With that mission in mind, in 1986 I co-founded a mail-order catalog called A Common Reader and spent the next two decades running that venture, which, luckily for me, consisted of writing about books old and new, of every subject and style—an occupation that prepared me as well as any could for the task of writing this book.

Still, that task was daunting: A book about 1,000 books could take so many different shapes. It could be a canon of classics; it could be a history of human thought and a tour of its significant disciplines; it might be a record of popular delights (or even delusions). But the crux of the difficulty was a less complicated truth: Readers read in so many different ways, any one standard of measure is inadequate. No matter their pedigree, inveterate readers read the way they eat: for pleasure as well as nourishment, indulgence as much as well-being, and sometimes for transcendence. Hot dogs one day, haute cuisine the next.

Keeping such diversity of appetite in mind, I wanted to make my book expansive in its tastes, encompassing revered classics and commercial favorites, flights of escapist entertainment and enlightening works of erudition. There had to be room for novels of imaginative reach and histories with intellectual grasp. And since the project in its title invoked a lifetime, there had to be room for books for children and adolescents. What criteria could I apply to accommodate such a menagerie, to give plausibility to the idea that Where the Wild Things Are belongs in the same collection as In Search of Lost Time, that Aeneas and Sherlock Holmes or Elizabeth Bennet and Miss Marple could be companions, that a persuasive collection could begin, in chronological terms, with The Epic of Gilgamesh, inscribed on Babylonian tablets some 4,000 years ago, and end with Ellen Ullman’s personal history of technology, Life in Code, published in 2017?

Readers read the way they eat: for pleasure as well as nourishment, indulgence as much as well-being.

I came upon the clue I needed in a passage written by the critic Edmund Wilson, describing “the miscellaneous learning of the bookstore, unorganized by any larger purpose, the undisciplined undirected curiosity of the indolent lover of reading.” There, I knew instinctively, was a workable framework: What if I had a bookstore that could hold only 1,000 volumes, and I wanted to ensure it held not only books to be savored but also books that could be devoured in a night? A shop where any reading inclination might find reward, and where a reader’s search for what to read next would be guided by serendipity as well as intent. I’d arrange my books alphabetically by author, so that readers could find their way easily but make unexpected discoveries as they turned the pages, from, for example, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s magnificent work of scientific observation and imagination, On Growth and Form, to Flora Thompson’s celebration of life in an English country village, Lark Rise to Candleford, followed by Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Kay Thompson’s marvelous children’s book Eloise at the Plaza.

For a long time as I labored over building my metaphorical bookstore, a thousand books felt like far too many to get my head around, but now that I’m done, it seems too few by several multiples. Which is to say 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is neither comprehensive nor authoritative; it is meant to be an invitation to discovery and a tool to prompt conversations about books and authors that are missing as well as those that are included, because the question of what to read next is the best prelude to more important ones, like who to be and how to live. Happy reading!

 

Along with his experience as a bookseller, lifelong book lover James Mustich worked as an editorial and product development executive in the publishing industry. His popular mail-order book catalog, A Common Reader, ended publication in 2006. He has collected a sweeping compendium of significant books in 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die, a brilliant guidebook that’s filled with thoughtful essays and delightful asides. Mustich lives in Connecticut with his wife, Margot.

Author photo © Trisha Keeler Photography.

Imagine being asked to cull 1,000 volumes from the shelves of a library to represent a lifetime of reading. Where would you start? What principles would govern your selection? How would you explain the reasons for your choices?

RomanceHistorical Romance

Why authors and readers are falling for the Gilded Age romance

Behind the Book by Maya Rodale

Romances set at the end of the 19th century are usually westerns, taking place in the last gasp of the Old West. But in recent years, some books set in the period have moved back east, to the glittering, booming New York City of the Gilded Age. We’ve been longing for historical romances set in unique time periods and Maya Rodale, whose new book Duchess by Design is one of the most exciting new additions to the subgenre, is here to tell us what makes the Gilded Age so alluring.

Mention historical romance novels and most readers will think of a Regency-era duke, the occasional pirate or a laird in the Scottish highlands and not too much bathing. But the American Gilded Age is having a moment as authors like Joanna Shupe, Marie Force and myself turn to a subgenre pioneered by authors like Beverly Jenkins, Laura Lee Guhrke and Brenda Joyce. When it comes to irrepressible spirit, dynamic heroes and heroines, fascinating history—and running water!—nothing compares to the Gilded Age romance.

The Gilded Age—a coin termed by Mark Twain—is roughly defined as the latter half of the 19th century in America. It’s an age of massive transformation, tremendous wealth, high conflict and high drama. This is the era of Robber Barons, Dollar Princesses and also extreme poverty; it’s the era of transcontinental railroads, Fifth Avenue mansions with modern conveniences and a progressive spirit hoping to change the world for the better. Guhrke sums it up perfectly: “There was tremendous change and upheaval. That atmosphere is a storyteller’s dream.”

Legendary author Jenkins, who writes Westerns set in this period, is drawn to the “excitement, expansion and possibilities” of the era and Force notes that it’s an era of “innovation and progress.” Whether its transcontinental trains, the invention of department stores or rising skyscrapers, the world was changing dramatically, which is the perfect backdrop for adventurous characters and complicated love stories. For those who love history—and think they know American history already—a Gilded Age romance might offer some surprises. Shupe points out that stories set in this age remind us, “Our history is much more complex and diverse than we were taught in school. So many wonderful stories have been left untold and unexplored.”

The Manhattan set Gilded Age novel definitely has elements that will appeal to the lover of Regency romance—whether it’s corsets, horse-drawn carriages or romantic moments by candlelight. While the Regency has the haute ton, the Gilded Age has the Four Hundred (a coin termed to describe the limited number of people who could fit in Mrs. Astor’s ballroom, a.k.a. the highest of New York society). In both time periods there is a high society to navigate with wit and daring. As Shupe notes, “Both Regency and Gilded Age romances are full of wealthy people and scandalous behavior that shocks the rigid society around them. Carriages, balls, fancy dresses, mansions . . . both periods are brimming with glitz and glamour.” And in both time periods, there’s an emphasis on Getting Married and the tension between a marriage of wealth, status and convenience—or the love match. Classic romance conflicts!

But the novelty of the Gilded Age setting allows familiar tropes to be refreshed due to the types of heroes and heroines one finds in this era. There’s a particular kind of woman who we’ll find strutting across the pages of a Gilded Age romance. Guhrke, who writes novels set in England during this era, says, “In the Regency, a woman gained a position in the world only through marriage. It was almost impossible for a woman to gain recognition for anything in her own right. Her entire identity was based on who her father and husband were and what accomplishments, wealth and position they had.” But women during the Gilded Age, however, were embarking on higher education, becoming doctors (Elizabeth Blackwell), working as journalists (Nellie Bly), social reformers (Lillian Wald) and advocating for the right to vote and whole host of progressive causes. The heroine of my novel, Duchess by Design, rises from mere seamstress to proprietor of her own dressmaking establishment—she doesn’t land a duke so much as he lands her. The Gilded Age is a great time for historical heroines who do things and the type of heroes who find that kind of woman alluring.

Most of us read historical romance for the escape, and while the Gilded Age has so many parallels to our current world (income inequality, a progressive spirit, an ever-changing world), these romance novels provide that oh-so necessary escape to a setting where dynamic characters face high conflicts and still find life, liberty and happily ever after.

We’ve been longing for historical romances set in unique time periods and Maya Rodale, author of Duchess by Design, is here to tell us what makes the Gilded Age so alluring.

RomanceHistorical Romance

There will be kilts!

Behind the Book by Vanessa Kelly

When Vanessa Kelly concluded her Improper Princesses series with The Highlander’s Princess Bride, which featured a sprawling family of gorgeous, eligible Scottish men, it seemed fated by the romance gods that the Kendrick family would play a part in her next book.

Lo and behold, The Highlander Who Protected Me is Kelly’s first book in a new series which will tell the love stories of the wild, but eminently lovable Kendricks, starting with ex-soldier Royal and the British heiress he’s sworn to protect.

With the fourth season of “Outlander” only days away, Kelly told us why there will always be fans of men in kilts.

The long wait for the return of “Outlander”—or Droughtlander, as some fans referred to the seemingly interminable passage of time—is almost over. Soon our favorite Highlander and his sassy sassenach will return to the small screen with their exciting adventures. Cue up the mania for all things Scottish!

That mania extends to readers as well, with their insatiable love for Highlander and Scottish romance. Even as other historical romance genres wax and wane, Scottish romance remains popular. Why do readers love it, with a particularly steadfast devotion to the Highlander hero archetype?

Let’s start with Scotland itself, especially the Highlands. They are a place of astounding beauty, what the Romantic poets would have characterized as awesome in the original sense of the word—inspiring awe. Scotland is a land of myth and magic, rich in cultural traditions and history. As Diana Gabaldon said in an interview, “there are stories under every rock in Scotland.”

That sense of Highland magic and story is beautifully captured in Outlander and its TV adaptation. Who can forget the mythic dance at Craigh na Dun on the Eve of Samhain, or the dramatic settings of loch, mountain and sky that form the backdrop of so many Scottish-set tales? The reader senses that almost anything could happen in the Highlands, not the least of which is stumbling upon a rugged Highlander with a brogue (let’s not underestimate the appeal of that brogue).

Ruggedness is a key element to the appeal of the Highlander hero. When it comes to manly men, it’s hard to find a more fitting archetype. Highlanders have to be rugged. They confront a physically challenging landscape, an often-wretched climate and frequent attacks from outsiders—or sometimes battles among themselves, quite honestly. Before the English invaded Scotland, clan often fought clan. The Scots could be notoriously argumentative and grudges led to feuds that lasted for decades, especially when a clan’s honor was at stake (this is a theme in my latest book).

You certainly won’t find our Highlander hero sitting around the gentlemen’s club, getting sloshed on brandy and staggering home to his plush bed, waiting for the over-worked valet to pull off his exquisitely polished boots. No, our heroes are facing down the elements, the enemy and sometimes each other. They are the epitome of the competent, courageous and canny alpha male.

And what does every good alpha male need? A strong, smart woman, of course. The archetypal Highlander hero is attracted to a verra strong woman, because he needs and wants her as much as she needs and wants him. Think of Jamie Fraser’s sister, for example. Jenny Murray is tough, smart and pretty, a classic Highland heroine who keeps the castle fires burning and takes no guff from her menfolk. They love her all the more for it, because they know she always has their backs.

For today’s romance reader, what could be better than a hero who truly appreciates a strong and capable woman?

Speaking of readers, I asked some of mine to list the qualities they most love in Highlander heroes. By far, the most important was loyalty—loyalty to family, to clan and to their women. These are men who fight for honor and love, and to protect their family and traditions, often against forces far superior in numbers and technology. As one of my readers noted, the English tried for decades to destroy the Highland culture. And even though they eventually did conquer the country and outlawed many Scottish traditions, they never truly conquered the soul of the Highlander.

Fiercely protective and committed to honor against all odds, the Highlander hero is the ultimate romantic. Even when he knows the cause is lost, he fights to the end, because he knows his fight is just. He’s willing to sacrifice everything, and rarely if ever takes the easy way out. That kind of self-sacrifice can be deeply, if often tragically, romantic.

The hero of my latest book, The Highlander Who Protected Me, is a true Highland warrior. Like Jamie Fraser, Royal Kendrick is a wounded warrior. But despite the damage he’s suffered to body and spirit, Royal remains true to the code of honor and loyalty, willing to make any sacrifice for family, clan and the woman he loves.

Coincidentally, my heroine is a sharp-witted, independent sassenach who, like Claire, chafes at the notion that she needs a man to protect her. In every way that matters, Lady Ainsley Matthews is Royal’s equal. When she does need a man to shield her from a truly terrible set of circumstances, she turns to her rugged Highland hero, knowing he won’t let her down.

Fierce, loyal, protective, honourable, courageous—these are the bedrock qualities that make the Highlander hero so special, and consistently bring readers back to the romance and magic of the Scottish Highlands.

Finally, let’s not forget the kilts. Always and forever the kilts.

With the fourth season of “Outlander” only days away, and all things Scottish enjoying a resurgence in romance, The Highlander Who Protected Me author Vanessa Kelly told us why there will always be fans of men in kilts.

Science Fiction & FantasyHistorical Fantasy

Researching with respect

Behind the Book by Beth Cato

Beth Cato’s fantastic Blood of Earth trilogy is set in an alternate turn-of-the-century America, and follows a diverse cast of characters as they attempt to prevent the United Pacific—the unified forces of the United States and Japan—from conquering the rest of the world. As a white woman, Cato knew that to honestly portray her characters, as well as the racism and/or sexism they would encounter in 1900s America, she would have to be open to criticism—and ready to do as much research as humanly possible. Here, she tells us how she approached creating a diverse world with respect and empathy.

My Blood of Earth trilogy may be shelved in the science-fiction and fantasy section of bookstores, but I’m writing about reality. A twisted reality, sure, because my books are alternate history, but I based my world on real situations, people and places. What seems like distant history to me might not be distant at all to people whose family stories and cultural memories keep alive the events of a century ago.

These were among my primary considerations as I researched and outlined Breath of Earth, the first novel in my trilogy. My initial concept was to rewrite the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, with bonus magic and incredible creatures. The fact that I wrote fantasy did not lessen my burden of accuracy. Instead, it complicated matters more because I delved into cultures and mythologies from around the world that were not my own.

Representing
My heroine, Ingrid Carmichael, is a woman of color living in a time period where many people assume she’s a servant and likely illiterate—that she is less of a person, with no place in society. On the contrary, she’s brilliant, compassionate and a gifted geomancer, meaning that she can channel the energy released by earthquakes. She’s just one facet of my cast.

Another one of my characters is Lee, a teenage Chinese-American boy. I extensively researched the experiences of Chinese immigrants in America during that period. It was not easy reading. The Chinese were repeatedly abused and even murdered, and the American justice system offered little succor for “Celestials,” whose very humanity was called into question.

I sought out primary sources foremost—the voices of Chinese immigrants who lived at the time. I found very little available in English, and soon found that many written records hadn’t even survived the period in Chinese. San Francisco’s Chinatown had been the largest in the United States until it burned down immediately following the 1906 quake. Through the late 19th century and into the 20th, other Chinese communities throughout the West were firebombed by anti-immigrant labor activists. Residents lost almost everything as they fled for their lives. To my horror, this happened in several towns near where I grew up in Central California. I never learned about these atrocities in school, nor had my mom or grandparents. The tragedies had been buried.

That made it even more important for me to show the genuine ugliness of the time period. As far as I was concerned, to do otherwise would have made me culpable in the continuing crime of erasure.

Citing Sources
In my alternate history, the American Civil War ends early because Union forces ally with the Japanese. By the time 1906 rolls around, the two militaries are still closely allied and in the process of taking over mainland Asia. I drew on real events as I raised the stakes for the Chinese immigrants in my setting.

However, I knew I was writing about a time period and situations that weren’t widely known. People might think I made up everything wholesale.

Therefore, in each novel in my trilogy, I include both an author’s note and a bibliography. In my note, I explain the major areas where I twisted history and why. The bibliography (which is also available on my website) outlines my source material. It’s my hope that people will read my fiction and then be inspired to read nonfiction on the period as well.

Choosing What Not to Say
While it’s important to show the ugliness of the time period, I also took care to avoid overdoing it. Constant violence against the vulnerable and the use of epithets can run the risk of being exploitive. Less can be more. Each word should be effective.

Within a series it can be tricky to know when and where to repeat vital information. In Breath of Earth, there is a major reveal about fan-favorite character Fenris Braun. When I started work on Call of Fire, I deliberated whether or not to repeat that reveal in some way. After all, there will always be some readers who pick up the books out of order. I didn’t want them to feel lost. At the same time, I also realized that if Ingrid continued to dwell on Fenris’ secret, that made it seem like she didn’t accept him. That just wasn’t right within my characters’ relationship.

Most importantly, Fenris is a complicated, realistic character, and like any person, should not be defined by a singular trait. In the end, I settled for adding a few hints in the next two books in the trilogy, and left it at that. At this point, I’ve confirmed that readers who initially skipped the first book still loved and related to Fenris without any problem.

Revising to Get It Right
I want to treat my characters with respect. I also want to treat my readers with respect. That means I’ve done my due diligence at every step in the process. I researched and tried to understand my time period. I wrote and endeavored to incorporate the truths of the era, without overdoing it.

And then—most importantly—I tweaked and deleted through the revision process, because despite all of my good intentions, I screwed up sometimes. That’s why I relied on the diverse perspectives of critique readers, my agent and my editor to help me to fix those errors and make my books as solid as possible. The value of their feedback was immeasurable.

After all, my ultimate goal was to create a fictional world that feels genuine. I want people to relate to Fenris. I want them to cheer for Ingrid. I want readers to be furious about the dark, gritty pieces of obscured history that I bring to light. I want fantasy and fact to meld. The writing and research for the Blood of Earth trilogy often felt daunting, but the entire process has also been incredibly enlightening. I only hope that readers feel the same way.

Beth Cato tells us how she created the diverse world of Roar of Sky with respect and empathy.

Mystery & SuspenseMysteryHistorical Mystery

Lost, but not forgotten

Behind the Book by Anna Lee Huber

On November 11, 1918, world leaders signed the armistice ending World War I and its four years of gruesome conflict. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the armistice, Anna Lee Huber shares a look behind the latest installment of her delightful Verity Kent historical mystery series, Treacherous Is the Night.

My fascination with World War I began because it seemed to be the war that always got skimmed over in History class. Not on purpose, I’m sure, but when the school year was winding down, and our class had only just begun to crack our books open to the 20th century, the First World War tended to get reduced to a blip in time in order to get to the Second. It was like fast-forwarding to the end of a movie, ignoring the plot twists that had gotten the characters to that point in the first place.

But I wanted to know about the people. I wanted to understand how the war had affected the hundreds of thousands of people who had fought and died and struggled through the first modern worldwide conflict. It seemed to me they deserved more than to have their lives reduced to such sparse facts as the assassination of an archduke and a short description of trench warfare in a Western Civilization class.

The truth is, it’s all too easy to reduce an era in history to just a set of numbers and dates and a few names and places. To ignore the humanity of millions of individuals. But when I look at history, I see people. I see their hopes and dreams. I see their struggles and losses. Sometimes they triumph, sometimes they fail, but always there is the wishing, the wanting, the striving.

But World War I crushed so much of that. It extinguished the hope, or reduced it to a bare flicker. It left its survivors wandering and lost, searching and sometimes failing to find something to give their lives meaning. Or at least to distract them from the pain for just a little while. It’s no wonder they’re called the Lost Generation, and not just because of the unimaginable number of casualties stolen from their ranks.

I began writing my Verity Kent series to try to better understand this generation, to explore who they were and what it would have been like to live through such a horrendous conflict. To have survived, and yet not know how to move on and rebuild their lives, or even dare to hope again. But rather than a soldier, I wanted to do so from the perspective a woman, one who had witnessed both sides. A woman who had become a young war bride just days before her beloved husband left to fight on the Western Front, leaving her to sit anxiously at home waiting for him. But also a woman who had decided to do her bit, unwittingly finding a position in military intelligence—one of the few agencies that would hire a married woman—and discovering she was good at it. A woman who could move about London as one of the thousands of wives carrying on while their husbands fought, but also found herself undertaking increasingly dangerous missions at home, near the front and even within the German-occupied territories.

I wanted to grapple with what it was like for the thousands of women employed in various capacities by the British intelligence agencies to serve their country in secret, and then when the war was over to be demobilized and told to never speak of it again. To be so tremendously useful and then suddenly not. Not to mention the impact this had on their relationships with their families, friends and spouses. What was it like to be reunited with a man you had been largely separated from for four long years, a man who had been through the hellish experience of trench warfare? How did such a marriage survive when they’d both been forbidden to speak of their years of service, to share what had become such an essential part of who they were?

On the centennial of the armistice for World War I, which will take place on November 11th at 11 a.m.—the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month—I’ll be thinking of all those men and women. I’ll be thinking of those who died, of those who served, of those whose contributions and sacrifices were barely acknowledged. But most of all I’ll be thinking of those who survived, but whose lives were irreparably impacted—the returning soldiers, the wives and fiancés, the children. I hope you’ll join me in observing two minutes of silence to honor all those lives, as well as our veterans.

My fascination with World War I began because it seemed to be the war that always got skimmed over in History class. Not on purpose, I’m sure, but when the school year was winding down, and our class had only just begun to crack our books open to the 20th century, the First World War tended to get reduced to a blip in time in order to get to the Second. It was like fast-forwarding to the end of a movie, ignoring the plot twists that had gotten the characters to that point in the first place.

FictionComic Fiction

Dashed presumptuous: On writing a new Jeeves and Wooster novel

Behind the Book by Ben Schott

Bestselling author Ben Schott has revived Jeeves and Wooster for a new novel starring literature’s most beloved master and servant. In sparkling, comic prose worthy of P.G. Wodehouse, Schott sends Jeeves and Wooster off on a new (mis)adventure as spies for the English Crown. But how does a contemporary author enter into a well-loved series? Schott explains—in a way.

‘I say, old bean, do you think this is wise?’

‘Wise?’

‘Prudent, sensible—sane even?’

‘You mean, to dog the patent-leather footsteps of P.G. Wodehouse? The greatest craftsman of comic fiction the English language has known? The genius who created Jeeves and Wooster? The man who spun unforgettable prose, and wove a thread of Englishness on which the sun will never set?’

‘Yup. That’s the chap. And I ask again: Is this wise?’

‘Possibly not.’

‘I’d call it loopy.’

‘You may have a point.’

‘Dashed presumptuous, too. What in heaven inspired you?’

‘Adoration. Admiration. Awe. Many of the words beginning with ‘A.’ And it occurred to me that the universe, being in such a darkly parlous state, might enjoy a tad more Bertie to gladden the heart and lighten the soul.’

‘And so you wrote a new Jeeves and Wooster novel?’

‘I did indeed. It is called Jeeves and the King of Clubs—and it is fully authorized by the Wodehouse Estate.’

‘They must be mad!’

‘The premise is that Jeeves’ club of butlers and valets, the Junior Ganymede, is actually a branch of the British Secret Service. It remains a genuine social club for those in the upper echelons of service, of course, but it is also a conduit of unique intelligence to His Majesty’s Government.’

‘You mean to say, there’s a gang of butlers roaming the halls, sniffing out secrets like the Baker Street Irregulars?’

‘They prefer to think of themselves as the Curzon Street Perfectionists. And for reasons explained in the book, Bertie is inveigled into joining the Junior Ganymede to help thwart the fascist upstart Roderick Spode.’

‘That fat-headed oaf!’

‘Quite. Bertie, naturally, takes to spying like a d. to water, and we are led on an uproarious adventure of espionage through the secret corridors of Whitehall, the sunlit lawns of Brinkley Court and the private Clubland of St James’.’

‘Does Aunt Dahlia appear? I adore Aunt Dahlia.’

‘She does indeed, along with a cast of characters old and new: outraged chefs and exasperated uncles, disreputable politicians and gambling bankers, slushy debs and Cockney cabbies, sphinxlike tailors and sylphlike spies.’

‘Is there action? A spy caper rather demands action, y’know.’

‘Fear not, old crumpet—there’s Action-a-Plenty. In addition to foiling treasonous fascists there are horses to be backed, auctions to be fixed, engagements to be escaped, madmen to be blackballed and a new variety of condiment to be cooked up.’

‘I say, it sounds quite the thing!’

‘Far be it for me to tootle my own trombone, but if Jeeves and the King of Clubs is one hundredth as much fun to read as it was to write, well . . . ’

‘I shall send my man out for a copy immediately.’

‘I say, you are a brick!’

 

Author photo by Harry MacAuslan

‘I say, old bean, do you think this is wise?’

‘Wise?’

‘Prudent, sensible—sane even?’

‘You mean, to dog the patent-leather footsteps of P.G. Wodehouse? The greatest craftsman of comic fiction the English language has known? The genius who created Jeeves and Wooster? The man who spun unforgettable prose, and wove a thread of Englishness on which the sun will never set?’

YA FictionYALGBTQ Fiction

The unsung 1950s genre that changed literature

Behind the Book by Robin Talley

Robin Talley, author of the new YA novel Pulp, shares a glimpse into the underground world of 1950s lesbian pulp fiction that changed her life.

My first glimpse of a lesbian pulp novel came from a refrigerator magnet.

I was a college student browsing in an LGBT bookstore when an image leaped out at me from across the aisle: “I PREFER GIRLS,” it proclaimed in all-caps, alongside a painting of two women clutching at each other while dressed in skimpy vintage clothes.

I was mystified by where the image could’ve come from, but in that moment, I didn’t care. I bought the magnet, took it home and proudly slapped it on my dorm room minifridge.

It wasn’t until years later that I learned I Prefer Girls was a novel published in 1963—and that it was part of an enormously successful midcentury genre now called “lesbian pulp fiction.” During World War II, paperback books finally took off, and by the 1950s publishers were rushing to put out original paperback novels. They were printed on ultra-cheap paper, with the idea that a man would buy one of them in a bus station, read it during the trip and toss it into a trash can once he reached his destination.

(And yes, the books were very much intended for men. It didn’t seem to have occurred to most of these publishers that women were an audience worth targeting—let alone queer women.)

Most of the lesbian pulp authors were men, too, often writing under female pen names, but a handful of the authors were lesbians themselves. In many cases, it was the first opportunity these women had to write about their own experiences and communities.

The stories often had tragic endings, thanks to publishers’ fears of controversy and censorship. Pioneering author Marijane Meaker was instructed to put one of the protagonists in her 1952 novel Spring Fire into an asylum following a nervous breakdown at the end of the book and to have the character’s former girlfriend promptly forget she’d ever been anything but straight. And Tereska Torrès’ Women’s Barracks was the subject of much outrage at a public hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials. (Incidentally, news reports of that hearing led to millions of additional sales for Women’s Barracks, so it wasn’t all bad news.)

Despite everything they were up against, some of the books written during that era are incredible. The collection Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965, compiled by powerhouse lesbian author and editor Katherine V. Forrest, is full of gripping midcentury writing as well as fascinating glimpses into the lives of the LGBT community in the pre-Stonewall era. Nearly all of the characters are closeted, and many of them face discrimination that threatens to destroy them, but the worlds the characters inhabit and the lives they live are still incredibly rich.

But even though lesbian pulp fiction was selling in numbers that most modern romance authors can only dream of, actual lesbians, along with other gay, bisexual and transgender people, were facing impossible odds. Same-sex marriage and other legal protections were unheard of, discrimination was a matter of course, and outright persecution was common.

The same era when lesbian novels were thriving was also the height of the lavender scare in the United States. From the late 1940s and all the way into the 1970s, the federal government went to great lengths to identify any potential gay, lesbian or bisexual employees and summarily fire them. Gossip spread by a disgruntled coworker or a belief that someone’s voice was too low or hair too short might be all it took to get an employee kicked out of the job and officially banned from any future government employment. The rumor mill also made certain they could never get a job anywhere else either.

Thousands of people lost their jobs. Along the way, many were outed to their parents in an era when outing often meant the severing of all family ties. Suicide was common.

I never came across anything in my research about whether the same men who conducted the interrogations and ordered the firings (because it was pretty much all men there, too) also read lesbian pulp fiction in their spare time. But odds are, most government officials in that era would’ve seen absolutely no contradiction between being titillated by fictional lesbians and ruining the lives of actual queer people.

That contradiction wound up being the most interesting part of writing Pulp. From the beginning, I envisioned it as a dialogue between two queer teenage girls, both writers like me, living in very different circumstances and battling hypocrisy.

Pulp starts with Abby, an out-and-proud lesbian high school senior in 2017. Abby lives in Washington, D.C., and she regularly goes to protests with her friends to speak out against the injustices happening in the world around them. One afternoon she stumbles across an eBook of a lesbian pulp novel and becomes fascinated by the dramatically different world it represents. She decides to track down the author, who wrote under a pseudonym and vanished after publishing only one book. The 1950s have always seemed like a million years ago to Abby, but as she searches for the mysterious author, she starts to understand exactly how much the world still hasn’t changed.

Interspersed with Abby’s story, alternate chapters introduce Janet, an 18-year-old closeted lesbian living in 1955 who also happens across a lesbian pulp novel and decides to try writing one of her own. While she’s writing, Janet also falls in love for the first time, but her best-friend-turned-more, Marie, has just been hired as a secretary at the U.S. State Department. Her job would be in major jeopardy if anyone found out about Janet or discovered Janet’s book.

While I was researching Pulp, I naturally read a lot of lesbian pulp fiction (my personal favorites are Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt and Ann Bannon’s Beebo Brinker series), and it gave me a whole new appreciation for the women who wrote these novels right in the middle of the horrific landscape that was the United States in the 1950s. These authors helped to lay the groundwork for the modern publishing industry. I’m a queer woman writing fiction about LGBT teenagers, and if it hadn’t been for the queer authors who first paved the way, I might never have been able to see any of my books in print.

We take for granted now that the world is ready to read stories like these, but that’s only true because activists worked for decades to make change. Reflecting on their work is a great reminder of how far we still have to go to ensure representation of marginalized characters—and of how lucky we are, even with all the challenges we’re still confronting, to be living in today’s world instead of the era just a few generations back.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Pulp.

Robin Talley, author of the new YA novel Pulp, shares a glimpse into the underground world of 1950s lesbian pulp fiction that changed her life.

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