Real Women in Historical Fiction

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, 2008.

It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States.

The Black Rose by Tananarive Due, 2000.

The dramatic story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's first black female millionaire.

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates, 2000.

In her most ambitious work to date, Joyce Carol Oates boldly re-imagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker -- the child, the woman, the fated celebrity and idolized blonde the world came to know as Marilyn Monroe.

Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry, 1990.

McMurtry here takes on Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary, 1852?-1903)--who confesses in a series of letters to being a drunken hell-raiser but never an outlaw--and sundry larger-than-life cohorts.

Dolley: a novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War by Rita Mae Brown, 1994.

She had the president's ear and the nation's heart. She's the wife of the fourth president of the United States ; a spirited charmer who adores parties, the latest French fashions, and the tender, brilliant man who is her husband. But while many love her, few suspect how complex Dolley Madison really is.

The Emancipator's Wife: a novel of Mary Todd Lincoln by Barbara Hambly, 2005.

Fictional account of the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, one of the most maligned and misunderstood First Ladies in American history.

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min, 2004.

Empress Orchid sweeps readers into the heart of the Forbidden City to tell the fascinating story of a young concubine who becomes China 's last empress.

Etta: a novel by Gerald Kolpan, 2009.

The sketchy details of the life of Etta Place , outlaw and paramour of William Sundance Kid Longabaugh, are imaginatively filled in by first-time novelist Kolpan in this winning tale of the Wild West.

Flying Blind: a novel of Amelia Earhart by Max Allen Collins, 1998.

For Chicago P.I. Nate Heller, guarding Amelia Earhart against death threats has its side benefits. But when Amelia goes missing in the South Pacific, Heller mounts a one-man search that will lead to success, heartbreak…and revenge.

Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon, 1994.

Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris were engaged to be married, when they were invited to share the Presidential box with the Lincolns at Ford's Theater on the evening of Good Friday, 1865. When John Wilkes Booth crept into the box, the young couple became witnesses to a central tragedy in American history.

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde, 1992.

Revising the legend of a slave woman accused of practicing witchcraft and imprisoned in Salem , Mass. , in 1692, Conde freely imagines Tituba's childhood and old age, endows her with what Davis calls a contemporary social consciousness, and allows her to narrate the tale.

Lucy: a novel by Ellen Feldman, 2003.

Details the love affair between Franklin Roosevelt and his wife's secretary, Lucy Mercer Rutherford.

An Ordinary Woman: a Dramatic Biography of Nancy Kelsey by Cecilia Holland, 1999.

In the spring of 1841, a courageous young woman named Nancy Kelsey set out her husband, Ben, and infant daughter, Martha Ann, from their Missouri homestead on a harrowing track that would lead her into the pages of history. With a small band of pioneers, Nancy and Ben blazed a trail across a wild and unforgiving continent to find a new life in the golden lands of California .

Those Who Love: a Biographical Novel of Abigail and John Adams by Irving Stone, 1965.

The true story of Abigail Smith and John Adams, who met and loved and married and became leading protagonists in events which were to change the whole concept of the Western world.

Truth: a novel by Jacqueline Sheehan, 2003.

Born a slave, survived a free bondwoman, reborn an outspoken abolitionist, Sojourner Truth died a heroine of graceful proportions. But the story of her inner struggles is as powerful and provocative as her accomplishments.

Warrior Woman: a novel: Based on the Life of Nonhelema, Shawnee Woman Chief by Dark Rain Thom, 2003.

Her name was Nonhelema. Literate, lovely, imposing at over six feet tall, she was the Women's Peace Chief of the Shawnee Nation–and already a legend when the most decisive decade of her life began in 1774.

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