History in Fiction
History was my least favorite subject in school as a kid. Yet historical fiction has been my favorite genre since my days of reading Little House on the Prairie in elementary school. How can both of those truths live within the same person?
For me, it’s all about the emphasis. In school, history focused on wars and politics and world powers. None of that interested me. What spoke to my heart were the stories of the everyday people. How they overcame hardship, found love, and made lives for themselves in centuries past. That is why when I write, I don’t focus on major political events in history but on individual people making their way through life the best they can.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t do a ton of historical research, however. I research settings, occupations, clothing, railroads, medical treatments, etc. Anything that would touch the ordinary person’s life in the course of my story, I do my best to base those descriptions on researched facts. This is the kind of history I love to learn!
My latest book, At Love’s Command, starts with the hero and his men in the midst of the horrible battle of Wounded Knee. Researching the account of this massacre broke my heart, so it was only natural that it broke my hero’s heart as well. However, I did my best to keep the scene as true to history as possible.
There were other, smaller historical tidbits that were fun to incorporate as well. Like the setting for Dr. Jo’s clinic. I love using old maps to help me find towns that might not still be in existence today. I wanted an out-of-the-way town that would be likely to accept a female doctor simply because they couldn’t attract a male one due to a small population and an unattractive location. As I scanned the map, a name jumped out at me. It was so descriptive, I just knew I had to use it—Purgatory Springs. It was perfect!
Purgatory Springs opened a school in 1877 for seventeen students. A post office operated from 1890 to 1895 then changed its name to Hugo in 1896, three years after the conclusion of my story. Poor Hugo declined after the turn of the century, and the post office closed in 1909. Within a few decades, the community was abandoned. All that remains today is a cemetery.
In addition, the women’s medical college where Dr. Jo earned her degree was also a real place. The Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania was the second medical institution in the world established to train women in medicine and granted the M.D. degree. It was founded in 1850 with the associated Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia opening in 1861. They did not open their doors to men until a century later in 1970.
Do you like learning about history when you read for pleasure,
or is it strictly the escape to another time and place that you love?
