Monday, October 17, 2016

Twelve authors of historical fiction who were originally famous for something else

It’s said that everyone has a novel inside them. The dozen writers mentioned in this post first became famous for other reasons – politics, show business, royal heritage, and more – but each has also written at least one work of historical fiction.

Who else can you name that belongs on this list?

Lorenzo Borghese, the star of the 9th season of The Bachelor, is the owner of a high-end cosmetics firm for pets. He also descends from the noble Italian Borghese family, and in 2010 he wrote his first novel, The Princess of Nowhere, based on the life of a woman from his 19th-century family tree: Princess Pauline Borghese, sister of Napoleon.

In 2003, Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, published The Hornet’s Nest, a novel of the Revolutionary War in the Deep South. It was the first work of fiction penned by an American President.

Lynne Cheney, wife of George W. Bush’s VP Dick Cheney, is the author of numerous books, including one historical novel, Sisters (1981), that evoked women’s experiences in the Old West; it’s set in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1886. It made headlines in 2004 because sections of the book depicted a lesbian relationship. Although the original publisher planned to reissue the book, which was long out of print, those plans were later scrapped.

Fannie Flagg may be an exception in this group, because she’s primarily known today as a bestselling author of Southern-themed fiction, including 1987’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, a multi-period novel set in Alabama that was made into a popular movie. Her newest historical saga, The Whole Town’s Talking, will be published in late November. Before her writing career took off, she was an actress and a regular on TV game shows, including Match Game.

Newt Gingrich, the Republican politician who served as Speaker of the House from 1995-99, and who was in the running to be Donald Trump’s VP pick, has written multiple works of historical fiction and alternate history with William R. Fortschen, including a 4-volume series on the Civil War (alternate history), two on WWII’s Pacific War, and a trilogy on the American Revolutionary War.

A native of Danville, Illinois, actor Gene Hackman has co-written three historical novels with Daniel Lenihan: the nautical adventure Wake of the Perdido Star; Escape from Andersonville, set around the infamous Civil War prison in Georgia; and Justice for None, a tense crime novel set in and around his home county during the Depression. He’s also written a Western, Payback at Morning Peak.

Retired physician Sam Halpern’s creative, salty observations on life first gained attention through his son Justin’s Twitter feed and subsequent book, Sh*t My Dad Says. Back in May 2013, Justin tweeted this comment: “My dad's been working on a novel for 40 years that's finally coming out.” Inspired by his childhood as the son of sharecroppers in rural Kentucky in the ‘40s, Sam Halpern's A Far Piece to Canaan was published by HarperPerennial.

David Johnston currently serves as Canada’s 28th Governor General. In 2015, his wife, Sharon Johnston, PhD, published a historical novel, Matrons and Madams, with Dundurn Press; this projected first novel in a trilogy was a Globe & Mail bestseller. Set in small-town Alberta in the post-WWI years, it delves into the social and political issues of the day.

Princess Michael of Kent, who is married to Queen Elizabeth II’s first cousin, is a writer and lecturer on historical topics, mostly about members of royal families; she descends from both Catherine de Médicis and her rival, Diane de Poitiers. In addition to her historical biographies, she’s written two historical novels set in the 15th century: The Queen of Four Kingdoms, about Yolande of Aragon, and Agnès Sorel: Mistress of Beauty, about a favorite mistress of France’s Charles VII.

When I was growing up in the ‘80s, I knew Ally Sheedy for her roles in War Games and The Breakfast Club. Before her movie career, when she was only 12, she (as Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy) wrote a children’s book set in Elizabethan times. She Was Nice to Mice (1975) imagines Elizabeth I’s court from the viewpoint of a mouse who lived there.

Today William Weld, former governor of Massachusetts, has been in the news as Gary Johnson’s VP running mate on the Libertarian ticket. His third book, which received positive reviews after its 2002 publication, was Stillwater, an elegiac novel set in Massachusetts’ Swift River Valley in 1938, just as five towns are set to be flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir (a true incident).

The late actor Gene Wilder, who died on August 29th, may have been best known for starring in films like Willy Wonka and Blazing Saddles, but he also wrote three works of romantic historical fiction: My French Whore (set in Wisconsin during WWI), Something To Remember You By (WWII-era Belgium and London), and The Woman Who Wouldn’t (featuring an American violinist finding love in Germany in 1903).

10 comments:

  1. What an interesting post! I had no idea so many of these people had written historical fiction novels - I may have to look some up. Great post!

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    1. Thanks, Jordan! The only one I've read of the titles above is Justice for None, by Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan, and it's pretty good - I read it because it's local history.

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  2. Who would have thought it? To be honest, though, I've never heard of any of these novels, so I suspect these people will continue to be best known for the other things. ;-)
    Richard Dreyfuss co-wrote an alternative universe novel with Harry Turtledove, The Two Georges, but it was not historical fiction as such. And actor Thomas Tryon was writing Stephen King-type horror fiction before Stephen King got started - it was so successful he was able to retire from acting. But again, not historical fiction, though Harvest Home employed the sacred king theme.

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    1. Some of these novels are on the obscure side today, so not surprising you haven't heard of them! Fannie Flagg's books in particular are very popular in the US, and I suspect many readers have no idea she got her start in television.

      I confess I didn't realize Thomas Tryon was an actor. Thanks for that info! He has written two epic historical novels set in early Connecticut - The Wings of the Morning and In the Fire of Spring, so they belong on this list, too. Strangely, very few historical novels take place in Connecticut (where I'm from). I own copies of both and will read them someday. Both are very long with small print - that's my excuse for the delay.

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  3. I think Thomas Tryon won an Oscar at one stage! :-) He also played the first husband of Ruth in the Biblical epic, The Story Of Ruth. A nice looking man, a good actor, but a better novelist. I hadn't heard about his historical fiction, must see if any if it is on iBooks. But he was a fine horror novelist, and he did the kind of stuff we are familiar with in Stephen King BEFORE Stephen King's first book came out.

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  4. PS Alexander Knox, who did a lot of films and wrote several historical novels!

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    1. Clearly my knowledge about actors is lacking :) Alexander Knox is new to me too, both his films and his novels, but they do fit. Thanks!

      If Tryon's historical novels are in e-format, that'd be the way to read them. I found his obit in the NY Times.

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  5. Fun post - we've read Jimmy Carter and Gene Hackman. Here's another - Julie Andrews Edwards. We had two of her middle-grade books at our elementary library, a sweet little story called "Mandy" and another I have not read called "The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles."

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    1. I once saw Julie Andrews doing a book-signing at BookExpo a few years ago for one of her new children's books. It was a very long line! I haven't read Mandy and can't tell from the blurbs when exactly it's set - do you know? It looks like it might be historical.

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    2. I realize after I posted this that you were looking for primarily historical books - I don't think the location of "Mandy" was specified, so it probably doesn't really count. The only others that come to mind would be autobiographies, but of course many of them were written with some help!

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