Writing Fictionalized Accounts of Real People in My Historical Novels
by Karma Kitaj | Blogging | Jan 16, 2022
Hallie Flanagan — from the biography by Joanne Bentley
One of the most fascinating aspects of writing historical fiction is the opportunity to bring real historical figures to life alongside fictional characters. In Becoming a Woman of Substance, several prominent figures from the 1930s and 1940s appear as characters.
Hallie Flanagan (pictured above, from the biography by Joanne Bentley) was the director of the Federal Theatre Project from 1935 to 1939. She was a visionary leader who transformed American theatre and gave work to thousands of unemployed artists during the Great Depression. Her story is both inspiring and tragic — the FTP was shut down by Congress in 1939 amid accusations of communist influence.
Frank Shay was a Greenwich Village bookseller and publisher who was at the center of the bohemian literary scene in New York in the 1920s and 30s. His bookshop was a gathering place for writers, artists, and intellectuals.
Romany Marie Marchand ran a famous Greenwich Village café that was a salon for artists, writers, and thinkers from the 1910s through the 1940s. Buckminster Fuller, John Sloan, and many other luminaries were regulars.
Writing about these real people requires balancing historical accuracy with the needs of the story. I always try to stay true to the spirit of who they were while allowing the narrative to unfold naturally.