This post is by guest author who won the.听
I confess. I can鈥檛 write about an historic person unless they mystify and intrigue me. I have to be brimming with questions. I have to be eager for answers. I鈥檓 drawn to famous historical figures鈥擜melia Earhart, the Romanovs, Buffalo Bill Cody鈥攑eople we think we already know. That鈥檚 because I love teasing something out of the historical record that no one has focused on before, shining a light on a side of a subject鈥檚 personality that has gone overlooked. It鈥檚 music to my ears when a reader says, 鈥淚 thought I knew everything about that person, but your book gave me a brand-new perspective.鈥� I鈥檓 not interested in heroes, but I鈥檓 very interested in people. I thrill to uncovering intimate details: Abraham Lincoln shuffling around the White House in house slippers because he suffered from sore feet; Nicholas Romanov chain-smoking Benson & Hedges cigarettes made especially for him, each stamped with the golden, imperial insignia. It鈥檚 the small moments that make them human again. It鈥檚 all in the details.
Those details are found in research. I think of research as having two interwoven paths. The first is, of course, archival. What鈥檚 already been written and collected? I focus on direct sources鈥攍etters, diaries, memoirs, interviews. This is where intimate, defining details are found. For example, while researching I uncovered an affidavit from one of the family鈥檚 former chambermaids whose job it was to change the empress鈥檚 bed linen daily. Why? Because the empress had a 鈥渇ondness for English biscuits . . . consumed between the sheets while reading her books.鈥� Ah, crumbs in the bed! Now 迟丑补迟鈥檚 great detail. In a separate memoir, the children鈥檚 nurse recalled how Alexandra鈥檚 shaggy terrier, Eira, laid on the imperial bed each night receiving 鈥渢astes of the empress鈥橻s] favored English biscuits.鈥� Isn鈥檛 that fabulous? Details from two different sources鈥攗ncovered months apart鈥攚hen put together build a tiny, yet oh so intimate, glimpse of Alexandra. Suddenly, I can see her lying beside a snoring Nicholas, feeding bits of cookie to Eira, wiping her sticky fingers on satin sheets before turning the pages of her book.
The second path is real-world research. For me, it鈥檚 imperative to visit the places where my story happened. Landscapes speak. Houses hold memories and secrets. While researching my latest biography, , I followed Bill鈥檚 trail, stopping in his birth town of LeClaire, Iowa, before heading west to his boyhood home outside Leavenworth, Kansas. I had to do some detective work using primary source materials to find the unmarked site of the Cody homestead. Once I did, I understood the family鈥檚 attachment to the place鈥攊ts streams and grassy hills and verdant meadows鈥攄espite the hostility of their neighbors. Turning my face west, I headed for Kansas and his Scout鈥檚 Rest Ranch. But it is in Cody, Wyoming, that Bill still lives and breathes. At his Irma Hotel, folks still belly up to that grandiose bar Bill insisted on installing. The Shoshone River still smells of sulfur. And the one road leading out of town is as hot, dusty, and barren as when Bill once galloped along it. No historical document could have provided such vivid moments. I had to see them, hear them, smell them, feel them on my skin for myself. And because I did, Bill Cody came alive for me.
Yes, it really is in the details.
Candace Fleming is the author of over thirty books for children. 聽Her biography, The Family Romanov was the 2015 winner of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award. 聽Her latest biography is Presenting Buffalo Bill.