Highlighting American Women through Fiction

            Readers who enjoy reading biographies of the famous also may enjoy novels based on their lives. Here is a selection.

            The Swans of Fifth Avenue: A Novel is written by Melanie Benjamin. It tells the story of socialite Babe Paley, who seemed to have it all. Her friends were “the beautiful people” during the 1950s and 1960s – Frank Sinatra, the Kennedys and more. She befriends writer Truman Capote, only to find her secrets ending up in his stories.

            Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule: A Novel is written by Jennifer Chiaverini, the author of several other biographical/historical novels. The main character is Julia Dent, a woman from Missouri who becomes the wife of the future Union general and American president Ulysses S. Grant. She brings her slave Jule into her marriage.  Over the years Jule eventually obtains her freedom and becomes a businesswoman.

            The Hamilton Affair: A Novel is written by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman. This is the love story of Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton; from the American Revolution to Hamilton’s duel with Aaron Burr to Elizabeth’s life after Hamilton’s death.

            Under the Wide and Starry Sky, written by Nancy Horan, tells the story of American divorcee Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne who, while travelling with her children in France, meets Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who is ten years her junior. A twenty year love affair ensues.

            Fever, written by Mary Beth Keane, tells the story of Mary Mallon, better known historically as “Typhoid Mary”. She is an immigrant from Ireland whose dreams of becoming a cook are dashed when she is discovered to be an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever.

             The Paris Wife: A Novel is written by Paula McLain. In the book, Hadley Richardson meets Ernest Hemingway who is on the cusp of becoming a famous writer. As his first wife she shares his successes and disappointments, until their marriage collapses.

            I Always Loved You: A Story of Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas is written by Robin Oliveira. American artist Mary Cassatt’s years of study in Paris ends with a rejection from the Paris Salon. Deeply disappointed, she then meets and falls in love with French artist Edgar Degas.

            Clara and Mr. Tiffany, written by Susan Vreeland, is the story of Clara Driscoll, the Women’s Division Head at Tiffany’s stained glass factory. She is the one who develops their famous stained glass lamp project and oversees its mass-production. Unfortunately she does not get recognition for it.

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker

            This novel, based on fact, is written by Jennifer Chiaverini. It tells the story of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a talented needlewoman and a former slave who worked to earn freedom for herself and her son. She settled in pre-Civil War Washington D.C. where she successfully established her own business as modiste, or dressmaker, to the fashionable wives of politicians.

            But the political atmosphere was changing in Washington D.C. Abraham Lincoln was elected as president and tensions grew between the northern and southern states. Elizabeth’s success increased when she was introduced to Mary Lincoln, the president’s wife, and became Mrs. Lincoln’s only dressmaker. Through the years of the Lincoln presidency, Elizabeth had a front row seat to their domestic life and historic events. She became the confidante of Mary Lincoln and was able to deal with her erratic moods which most of Washington D.C. society criticized.

            After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, Elizabeth continued to emotionally support Mary while others turned away from her. However, Elizabeth’s decision to write her autobiography featuring her years of slavery, establishment of her dressmaking business, and relationship with Mary came back to bite her when the publisher modified some of the text to present a salacious view of Mary. Mary broke off all contact with Elizabeth and never reconciled with her.

            Even though the ending of the friendship upset Elizabeth, she continued with her life’s work of promoting equality for the newly freed slaves.

Transatlantic

            This novel is written by Colum McCann, a critically acclaimed author who was born in Ireland and now resides in New York City. The story includes elements of historical fiction and family saga. The reader travels back and forth through the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries (not in chronological order), and from Ireland, the United States, and Canada, to explore the thoughts and actions of both historical and fictional individuals.

            The historical figures are: Frederick Douglass, the nineteenth century American abolitionist and former slave; John Alcock and Teddy Brown, two British airmen who in 1919 won the contest to be the first to fly from North America to Great Britain or Ireland within 72 hours; and Senator George Mitchell, who was an integral contributor to the peace settlement in Northern Ireland during the late 1990s. These four men are seen to interact with four fictional characters, all women from the same family – great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, and daughter – during five different time periods. By the end of the novel, we are impressed by the inner strength of all of the characters as they cope with their own troubles, as well as with the historical “Troubles” of Northern Ireland.

A Thread of Grace: a Novel

    A historical novel written by Mary Doria Russell, set in Italy between the years of 1943 and 1945, when Jews were struggling to escape the reach of Nazi Germany by traveling over the Alps into Italy. Italian citizens, intimidated by the occupying Nazi army, act kindly towards the Jews and attempt to hide them from the Nazis. This resulted in more than 43,000 Jews being saved. However, many others still were captured and killed.

    Into this setting, the author focuses on several characters, presenting their experiences: Jewish refugees, Italian freedom fighters, priests, rabbis, Nazi officers, and others. We see the hardships of war, the joys of simple everyday life, the horrors endured by prisoners and soldiers. Survival or death is dependent on the luck of the draw.

    Well-drawn characters, descriptive language and in-depth research of the culture and history make this an enjoyable albeit poignant book to read.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany

     A novel based on factual information and written by Susan Vreeland, it tells the story of Clara Driscoll, an artist and artisan who worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany in his stained glass factory. The book combines details about the history of the stained glass industry, the culture of New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the problems of working women, the advancement of labor unions and more, all while exploring Clara’s life and relationships with friends and lovers.

     Tiffany, the son of the founder of Tiffany & Company jewelers, was an artist in his own right, known for his magnificent stained glass windows. Much of his company’s manufacturing work was done by men but unmarried (only) women were hired to select the colors of the glass and use them in detailed work, as Mr. Tiffany believed that women had a better eye for color. Clara became an indispensable part of Tiffany’s company as her management skills (at one time she managed a department of close to thirty women artisans), her attention to detail and her creativity developed. Only recently has it been determined that Clara was the originator of the Tiffany lamp, designing and supervising the manufacture of a great many versions of it. Ultimately their production was halted because of its overwhelming expense. Clara resigned from the company because of her impending marriage, ending an important era in American crafts history.

The Lost Wife

       Author Alyson Richman offers a hauntingly beautiful story of love lost and then found many years later, paralleling the story of the surviving Holocaust victims, their losses and their struggle to regain some of life’s joys, while never forgetting those that they lost. A large part of the tale takes place in Czechoslovakia before and during World War II, where Lenka, an art student and Josef, a medical student meet and fall in love. They marry just as Jewish citizens are scrambling to escape from the approaching Nazi army. Josef and his family are able to obtain passage to the United States but because Lenka’s family cannot do the same, she refuses to leave with Josef, staying behind with her family. Josef promises to send for Lenka and her family as soon as he is able.

      First, Lenka’s family is shipped off to Terezin, a prison camp in Czechoslovakia. There they suffer much hardship, although Lenka is able to use her artistic skills to produce objects for the Nazis and to give some purpose to life. Eventually the family is sent to Auschwitz where only Lenka survives. Josef loses his family in a shipwreck on their way to the United States. He arrives alone in New York. Although the couple has frantically tried to communicate with one another, through the confusion of the war each mistakenly learn that the other hasn’t survived.

    After the war each remarry; Josef to a fellow refugee whose loss of family has permanently damaged her life and colored their marriage with sorrow; Lenka to an American Jewish soldier who is part of the liberating army, their marriage has more joy in it. Life continues for Josef and Lenka. Eventually both are widowed. Coincidentally, Josef and Lenka each have a grandchild who fall in love with one another and marry. It is on that wedding day that Josef and Lenka discover one another again.

"The Book of Night Women" by Marlon James

The Book of Night Women is the tale of a young slave coming of age in Jamaica at the turn of the 19th Century. The book is written as a slave narrative and chronicles the life of Lilith and the inhumane abuses that her and her fellow slaves were force to endure.

Lilith, at the verge of womanhood, finds herself exposed to the ugly truth of rape, murder and torture that plantation life as a slave has in store for her. After narrowly escaping rape at the hands of a fellow slave, Lilith is sheltered by the house slaves at the plantation, eventually being permanently assigned to the house by the plantation’s “master”. After a dire accident during a cocktail party, Lilith finds herself mercilessly whipped by her owners. This indignation fuels Lilith’s rage at the white slave owners which have control over her. Lilith joins a group of female slaves who call themselves “The Night Women,” who are all connected through their common parentage -- they are all the children of an abusive white slave driver. This group eventually orchestrates a slave revolt across several of Jamaica’s plantations -- a coup d’etat that has tragic results.

Read-a-Likes

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Amistad by David Pesci
The Dark Sun Rises by Denise J. Williamson
The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts
The Known World by Edward P. Jones