Connections Through Reading
In preparing to write A Death in Hartsend I read lots of historical books from the period of time it is set. This is a synopsis of what helped me.
A Death In Hartsend is historical fiction but not a history. It is also a character-driven story with a lot of details. An important character is a Korean War veteran. Other parts of the story deal with 1970s school desegregation and high school sports. Although I had some life experience to draw upon, I learned writing the early drafts that memory is not reliable as a resource tool. At best, it could confirm what I found elsewhere. Once I started viewing this as a course of discovery, it became easier. I'm going to share a few of the books that I found essential to the process.
1. From Brown to Meredith: The Long Struggle for School Desegregation in Louisville, Kentucky, 1954-2007 by Tracy Elaine K'Meyer, The University of North Carolina, Press, Chapel Hill, 2013
Tracey Elaine K'Meyer is a professor of history at the University of Louisville. Her research is concentrated on modern U.S. social developments, especially those relating to racism, poverty, and violence. Her narrative is bookended by two U.S. Supreme Court decisions relating to public schools, Brown v. Board of Education and Meredith v. Jefferson County. K'Myer uses excerpts from oral interviews, newspaper accounts, and other historical records to enable readers to visualize the period in between.
For further details:
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469627250/from-brown-to-meredith/
2. Going to School in Black and White: A Dual Memoir of Desegregation by Cindy Waszak Geary and Lahoma Smith Romocki, Top Reads Publishing LLC, Durham, North Carolina 2017
In 1970, two teenage girls in Durham, North Carolina began attending the same high school due to a court-ordered desegregation plan. One was black, the other white. Going to School in Black and White is their combined memoir. Geary and Romocki also discuss their lives after high school and how they felt changed as a result of their experiences. By turns it is frank, wistful, and thought-provoking.
For further details:
https://www.goingtoschoolinblackandwhite.com
3. On Desperate Ground: The Epic Battle of Chosin Reservoir-the Greatest Battle of the Korean War by Hampton Sides, Anchor Books-A Division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2018
Chosin Reservoir was the site of a brutal struggle between the United Nations and Chinese Communist Forces during the Korean War. In his sixth book, author Hampton Sides does a thoroughly effective job of recreating this atmosphere using archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with survivors. This is a compelling true story of ordinary men who accomplish extraordinary feats of heroism.
For further details:
https://hamptonsides.com/on-desperate-ground/
4. Hilltop Doc: A Marine Corpsman Fighting Through the Mud and Blood of the Korean War by Leonard Adreon, 2020
In contrast to On Desperate Ground, this is a self-published memoir by a Korean War veteran. What is more, Leonard Adreon waited until he was ninety years old to write it. Although Hilltop Doc may be unpolished in places, I found that Adreon's honesty and facility with words more than compensated for any technical issues. He includes several examples of his poetry, which are both powerful and eloquent. I found Hilltop Doc a moving complement to On Desperate Ground.
For further details:
https://store.bookbaby.com/book/hilltop-doc?format=ebook
5. Remember This Titan: The Bill Yoast Story: Lessons Learned from a Celebrated Coach's Story As Told to Steve Sullivan, Taylor Trade Publishing Lanham, New York, Toronto, Plymouth UK, 2007
Bill Yoast is the real-life coach at the center of the hit movie Remember the Titans, the hit film about the struggles of football players in a newly desegregated Virginia high school in 1972. Yoast and Head Coach Herman Boone worked together, inspiring the players to an undefeated season. The book also deals with Yoast's early life in Alabama and how it prepared him for the challenges he would face as a coach.
For further details:
These books were invaluable for historical background, period detail, and character development. Still, my task wasn't complete. My characters needed to interact with their environment and each other. They had to speak two types of slang, 1970s and southern, often in quick succession. I'll describe my background work for characterization and dialogue in another post.
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