On researching The Velveteen Daughter, a guest post by Laurel Davis Huber

Following my review of The Velveteen Daughter from last week, I'm happy to welcome Laurel Davis Huber to the blog today -- her publication day -- with an essay about her research into primary sources from the lives of her two heroines: writer Margery Williams Bianco and her artist daughter, Pamela Bianco.

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On Researching The Velveteen Daughter

Laurel Davis Huber

Researching The Velveteen Daughter was, I admit, an obsession. I imagine this must be true of any writer of historical fiction. Still, each author’s journey is unique.

Here are just a few of the stops I made along the way: The archives of the Museum of Modern Art in Queens and the Smithsonian in Washington, both of which held many of Pamela Bianco’s forgotten paintings; the Tate Library and Archive in London (via the postal service only, alas), which provided a poignant letter written by Margery Bianco expressing concern over her daughter finding fame so early in life; Vassar College, where I unearthed Bianco family letters and hand-drawn Christmas cards; and the Lilly Library in Indiana, home to boxes and boxes of letters and photographs from Wales and England and New York in the Richard Hughes collection.

Every discovery was fascinating. However, three stand out as my “Indiana Jones” moments: treasures unburied, the Holy Grail found!

The first was the discovery that just before I began my research, an art historian in London had happened upon a Pamela Bianco drawing and, like me, was immediately entranced. Her interest had led to writing the catalogue essay for a retrospective exhibition in 2004. This essay provided a chronology of Pamela’s life and art. Voila! My guessing about the sequence of events was over. Not only that, but information in the catalogue also led me to a woman in Brooklyn who had known Pamela—a delightful lunch conversation provided personal details I could never have found elsewhere.

The author's research bookshelf.

The second was finding, online, a reference to New Yorker memos about Pamela. But I had to request copies before I could read them. One day a plain brown envelope arrived. The return address: Room 222, The New York Public Library. Instantly I envisioned a mysterious room at the end of a long dark hall, full of wonderful secrets. When I tore open the envelope, I was not disappointed. Inside were memos dated 1935-36 describing interviews with Pamela when she was no longer famous. She was struggling to “to get on her feet again.” These memos became a critical piece of the novel.

The third was perhaps the most thrilling. The character of Robert Schlick (Pamela’s first husband) was difficult to write, as very little is known about him. One day I found online an entry from a rare book dealer in California, a book of poems by Robert published in 1930. At the end of the scholarly description were these enticing words: “Tipped into the back of the book is a pocket with a label reading 'Letters.'”


The book dealer kindly sent me copies of these papers, which turned out to be vivid descriptions of Pamela’s wedding in Harlem. The music, the attendees, the clothes, the conversation! The result, I’m happy to report, is that the wedding scene in The Velveteen Daughter is quite authentic.

And now I can’t wait to lose myself researching my next book (which may or may not take place in New York City in the 1830s)…

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Laurel Davis Huber grew up in Rhode Island and Oklahoma. She is a graduate of Smith College. She has worked as a corporate newsletter editor, communications director for a botanical garden, high school English teacher, and senior development officer for both New Canaan Country School and Amherst College. She has studied with the novelist and short-story writer Leslie Pietrzyk (the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner for This Angel on My Chest) and has participated in several writing residencies at the Vermont Studio Center. She and her husband split their time between New Jersey and Maine.  Visit the author's website at www.laureldavishuber.com.