Charles Dion
asked
Matt Ruff:
Was there a lot of research you had to accomplish in order to write this book? or did you have most of it figured out before hand.
Matt Ruff
I did a lot of historical research, and research into the types of laws and restrictions that African Americans living in the Jim Crow era would have had to deal with. I also read a year’s worth of back issues of the Chicago Defender to get a sense of what news and cultural issues black Chicagoans would have been talking and thinking about in 1954.
If you go to the Lovecraft Country reader’s guide on my website, you can click on the “For further reading” link and it’ll take you to a list of some of my more useful research sources:
http://www.bymattruff.com/lovecraft-c...
I’d particularly recommend James W. Loewen’s book Sundown Towns. Stetson Kennedy’s Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A. is also fascinating to page through: It offers a state-by-state breakdown of Jim Crow era laws covering everything from housing to employment to voting to interracial marriage.
If you go to the Lovecraft Country reader’s guide on my website, you can click on the “For further reading” link and it’ll take you to a list of some of my more useful research sources:
http://www.bymattruff.com/lovecraft-c...
I’d particularly recommend James W. Loewen’s book Sundown Towns. Stetson Kennedy’s Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A. is also fascinating to page through: It offers a state-by-state breakdown of Jim Crow era laws covering everything from housing to employment to voting to interracial marriage.
More Answered Questions
Ian Stewart
asked
Matt Ruff:
Fun Question: I absolutely love A Princess of Mars and was very happy to see it in your book, and that your main character can see through its flaws. How would you tell a modern interpretation of that book? I always took it as a confederate standing up for the sins of his past and saving people. Have a great day, and Congrats on all your success, you deserve that.
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