Real People In Fiction

It’s always fun when writers incorporate real historical figures in their books. This allows us to become familiar with a bit of history while enjoying a good story. Here are a few titles you might consider:

Paris Wife by Paula McClain.
Follows the life of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, as she navigates 1920s Paris.

 The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin.
Mid-nineteenth-century little person Mercy Levinia Warren Bump comes of age in the antebellum south before being invited to join the P. T. Barnum circus, through which she meets her future husband, General Tom Thumb, and pursues limitless international opportunities.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.
Hoping to honor his father and the family business with innovative glass designs, Louis Comfort Tiffany launches the iconic Tiffany lamp as designed by women's division head Clara Driscoll, who struggles with the mass production of her creations.

The Road to Wellville by T.C. Boyle.
A snobbish wife and her henpecked husband travel to Dr. Kellogg's spa in turn-of-the-century Battle Creek, where the youth-crazed affluent succumb to quackery.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.
Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.

Arthur and George by Julian Barnes.
Chronicles the lives of two boys--one who is forgotten by history, and one who becomes the creator of the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, as they pursue their separate destinies until they meet in a remarkable alliance.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth.
In a novel of alternative history, aviation hero Charles A. Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, negotiating an accord with Adolf Hitler and accepting his conquest of Europe and anti-Semitic policies.

Claude and Camille by Stephanie Cowell.
A vividly rendered portrait of both the rise of Impressionism and of Monet, the artist at the center of the movement. It is, above all, a love story of the highest romantic order.