Biographical Fact and Fiction
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In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez Camila, whose mother, Salome, inspired a Dominican revolution with her poetry, spends most of her life trying to please her father and her brothers, all prominent men, before seeking a place for herself in the days following the Cuban revolution. Catalog Link |
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The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel by Louis Bayard When a murder occurs on the grounds of West Point, retired NYPD detective Gus Landor is enlisted to solve the case, recruiting the assistance of an eccentric young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe to help him find the culprit. Catalog Link |
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Crippen: A Novel of Murder by John Boyne Fiction |
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America's Queen: A Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford Fact |
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Mr. Emerson's Wife by Amy Belding Brown Living in the shadow of her famous poet husband, Lidian Emerson, disillusioned by marriage and silenced by social conventions, is drawn to the erotic energy and intellect of family friend Henry David Thoreau, a situation that challenges her beliefs and results in overwhelming life changes. Catalog Link |
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Jackson by Max Byrd David Chase has the task of writing a biography of Andrew Jackson in 1828, and when he uncovers information that would kill Jackson’s bid for the presidency, he must decide what to do. Catalog Link |
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True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey Ned Kelly, the legendary nineteenth-century Australian folk-hero, describes how he, his brother, and two friends led authorities on a twenty-month manhunt, marked by widespread populist support, before his capture and execution. Catalog Link |
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Mozart's Sister: A Novel by Rita Charbonnier Offers a fictional portrait of the life of Maria Anna Mozart, the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a musical prodigy in her own right, who was forced by their father to put aside her talent and become a piano teacher to support his ambitious plans for her brother. Catalog Link |
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Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier Presents a sweeping and romantic tale set against the historical backdrop of William Blake’s London. Catalog Link |
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Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier A poor seventeenth-century servant girl knows her place in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, but when he begins to paint her, nasty whispers and rumors circulate throughout the town. Catalog Link |
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The Little Balloonist by Linda Donn A story inspired by first woman pilot Sophie Blanchard traces her hydrogen balloon journey from the humble seaside village of La Saliere to the battlefields and court of Napoleon, where she hides the pain of her loveless arranged marriage. Catalog Link |
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The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette: A Novel by Carolly Erickson Awaiting her execution, Marie Antoinette writes the story of her life, describing her privileged childhood as an Austrian archduchess, years as the glamorous mistress of Versailles, and imprisonment during the French Revolution. Catalog Link |
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The Secret Life of Josephine: Napoleon's Bird of Paradise by Carolly Erickson Surviving a violent past to become the wife of the much-younger General Bonaparte, Josephine, an exotic Caribbean-Creole woman, rises even further in status when her husband crowns himself emperor but is unable to forget a mysterious stranger who won her heart in girlhood. Catalog Link |
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The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson Hiding her identity as the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, Daria Gradov looks back on her luxurious childhood in pre-revolutionary Russia, the machinations of an illiterate monk, and the circumstances that forced her to assume another life. Catalog Link |
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Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser Fact |
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The Scandal of the Season: A Novel by Sophie Gee A tale based on the early eighteenth-century scandal that inspired Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” finds an impoverished Alexander Pope gaining entry into society and following a forbidden affair between the rakish Lord Petre and the coquettish Arabella. Catalog Link |
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The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory An only survivor of the ambitious Boleyn family, lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn testifies against Henry VIII’s latest queen, Anne of Cleves, and conspires to place her young cousin, Katherine Howard, on the throne. Catalog Link |
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The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory A fictional portrait of Henry VIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon, follows her through her youthful marriage to Henry’s older brother, Arthur, her widowhood, her marriage to Henry, and the divorce that led to Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. Catalog Link |
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The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory Fiction |
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The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory A fictional portrait of the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I follows the young queen as she copes with intrigues aimed at placing Mary, Queen of Scots, on the British throne, and her passion for the traitorous Robert Dudley. Catalog Link |
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I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and Clark by Brian Hall A fictionalized account based on the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Ocean seeks to convey what was happening in the minds of the explorers and to bring life to the collision of white and Native American cultures of the period. Catalog Link |
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The Emancipator's Wife: A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln by Barbara Hambly In 1865, in the wake of her husband’s assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln struggles to cope amid the animosity and confusion that surrounds her, in a historical novel that captures the saga of one of the most misunderstood women in American history. Catalog Link |
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Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris A tale inspired by the writings of Tiro, Cicero’s confidential secretary, traces the life of the ancient Roman orator from his beginnings as a young lawyer through his competitions with Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus in the political arena. Catalog Link |
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The Painted Kiss: A Novel by Elizabeth Hickey Meeting painter Gustav Klimt at the age of twelve, Emilie Floege, the youngest daughter of a Viennese businessman, matures into a sanguine adult and becomes the artist’s mistress as well as the owner of an exclusive fashion house. Catalog Link |
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The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks A story based on the true experiences of a Civil War heroine finds Carrie McGavock witnessing the bloodshed of the Battle of Franklin, falling in love with a wounded man, and dedicating her home as a burial site for fallen soldiers. Catalog Link |
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Loving Frank: A Novel 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. Catalog Link |
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Thunderstruck by Erik Larson Fact |
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Anything for Billy : A Novel by Larry McMurtry The dime novelist Ben Sippy tells the story of Billy Bone whom he named Billy the Kid after meeting him in 1878. Catalog Link |
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I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn Amelia Earhart discusses her fate on a remote Pacific island in the log she writes after she and Fred Noonan crash in 1937. Catalog Link |
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Empress Orchid: A Novel by Anchee Min Fiction |
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Just Jane by Nancy Moser Based on historical records, a novel presented as a journal written by Jane Austen follows the author’s life from her first love affair at age twenty until she is a respected author in her late thirties. Catalog Link |
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Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath by Kate Moses A fictional account of the last months of Sylvia Plath’s life and the painful creation of her Ariel poems finds her moving with her two children to London after divorcing Ted Hughes, who works to remind her about happier times. Catalog Link |
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Frida by Barbara Mujica A historical novel centered around the life of Frido Kahlo—the colorful, contentious Mexican painter who married Diego Rivera—introduces readers to Mexico in the first half of the twentieth century and the characters that shaped Kahlo’s life. Catalog Link |
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Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund Fiction |
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Dancing in the Dark by Caryl Phillips A fictional re-creation of the life and times of Bert Williams, the first black entertainer in the United States to achieve success, a man who dons blackface to become a headliner in the Ziegfeld Follies. Catalog Link |
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Katharine of Aragon: The Wives of Henry VIII by Jean Plaidy Fiction |
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Jack's Widow: A Novel by Eve Pollard Fiction |
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Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War by Steven Pressfield Presents the story of the great Athenian warrior and general Alcibiades, from his great victories on behalf of Athens to his later alliances with Sparta and Persia and his role in the eventual downfall of Athens. Catalog Link |
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Douglass' Women : A Novel by Jewell Parker Rhodes A novel focusing on the life of Frederick Douglass explores the romantic passions that drove the abolitionist to love two women—one black and one white. Catalog Link |
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The Blackest Bird: A Novel of Murder in Nineteenth-Century New York by Joel Rose Fiction |
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As Above, So Below: A Novel of Peter Bruegel by Rudy Rucker This novel unveils the life and times of the sixteenth-century master as Bruegel and his companions, the cartographer Ortelius and Williblad Cheroo, an American Indian, make their way from Antwerp and Brussels to Rome. Catalog Link |
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Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China by Sterling Seagrave Fact |
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The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall, Per Wahloo Nine people are brutally murdered on a double-decker bus. The clues suggest a motiveless crime of violence. Catalog Link |
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The Volcano Lover: A Romance by Susan Sontag Sir William Hamilton lives in Naples with his wife Emma, mistress of Admiral Nelson, while serving as the British envoy to the Bourbon Ferdinand IV. Catalog Link |
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The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower Fact |
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Chang and Eng: A Novel by Darin Strauss A fictional retelling of the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker—the original “Siamese twins”—from their lives of poverty in Siam to their success in the United States. Catalog Link |
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The Master by Colm Toibin Nineteenth-century writer Henry James is heartbroken when his first play performs poorly in contrast to Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” and struggles with subsequent doubts about his sexual identity. Catalog Link |
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The Book of Salt: A Novel by Monique Truong Considering whether he will accompany his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to America, a personal cook remembers his youth in French-colonized Vietnam and his days cooking for the doyennes of the Lost Generation. Catalog Link |
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The Jungle Law by Victoria Vinton Chronicles the 1892 arrival of a nearly penniless Rudyard Kipling and his pregnant young wife in Vermont, and his struggle to bring to life his story of a feral child raised by wild animals, a work that became “The Jungle Books.” Catalog Link |
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The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland Presents a fictional portrait of pioneering artist Emily Carr, whose independence, boldly original artwork, and unconventional approach to life overcame Victorian restrictions to blaze a new path for twentieth-century women artists. Catalog Link |
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Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle Fact |
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All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren Jack Burden, a young journalist, becomes involved with Willie Stark’s quest for power while serving as a Southern governor. Catalog Link |
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Triangle: A Novel by Katharine Weber Fiction |
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Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir A fictional portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, follows her turbulent life against the backdrop of Tudor power politics and religious upheaval, from her youth, to her nine-day reign as Queen of England, to its tragic aftermath. Catalog Link |
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir Fact |
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Fanny: A Fiction by Edmund White A fictional account based on the life of Fanny Wright is presented from the perspective of social critic and biographer Frances Trollope, who remembers young Wright’s utopian idealism and move to mid-nineteenth century America. Catalog Link |
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The Shadow Catcher: A Novel by Marianne Wiggins A series of tales about a photographer’s developing relationship with the Native Americans he astonishes by showing them pictures of themselves is interspersed with parallel tales about an unsung soldier, a husband, and a father. Catalog Link |