Historical Fiction: How recent is too recent?

[evanaharris]

How recent is too recent for historical fiction? Could I use, say, popular entertainment figures from the 60s and 70s in non-libelous manner, in a very obviously *fictional* context, and get away with it? What are the rules about this sort of thing?

[evanaharris]

*shameless bump*:o

[HConn]

When the question is: "How far can I go before I get sued?" you need to take that question to a lawyer. If you're an American, check out your state bar association web site and see if they have a lawyers for the arts program, where lawyers will answer a limited number of questions pro bono.

Keep in mind that anyone can sue for any reason, no matter how ridiculous. All you can do is try to follow the rules.

Good luck.

[evanaharris]

Much thanks. The Texas Bar Association's website seems to be down at the moment, but I'll call around for the local office.

[sugarmuffin]

Write the book the way you want to. Send it to a publisher, and they'll deal with the slander stuff -- tell you what's too much, what isn't. Besides, if you use a publisher, and they have the copyright, aren't they the ones to deal with the heat?

And if it gets a little heat (aka attention), doesn't that sell more books?

Lisa

[ChicagoWriter]

In the United States, works of fiction and parody are protected under the First Amendment. Several recent Supreme Court cases have upheld the rights of authors to write fiction and parodies containing real people as "characters" in fictional works, as well as authors parodying the characters created by other authors. (A recent case that went before the Supreme Court was for a black author who wrote a parody of Gone With The Wind from the black perspective; Margaret Mitchell's estate sued, claiming copyright infringement upon Mitchell's character properties--Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, etc. But the court ruled unanimously in the parody author's favor, saying that parody of existing works is protected under the First Amendment.)

As far as real people used in fictional ways are concerned, as long as you are writing fiction (and presenting it as such), libel/slander rules don't apply. (They only apply if you are asserting what you say is true, like journalism). Best example of where the Supreme Court upheld the rights of authors to use real people in a fictional way was The People vs. Larry Flynt. The court ruled unanimously in Flynt's favor that he had the constitutional right to lambaste Jerry Fallwell in one of his cartoons.

So, as long as you're writing fiction, you're fine. There are plenty of legal precedents that would protect you even if you did get sued.

[Maryn]

If your book set in the recent past uses public figures in passing as a part of its setting, you're quite safe. Go ahead and mention singers, actors, politicians, world leaders, people in the news, broadcast journalists, athletes, etc.

If you're considering making one of these real people more than a passing character doing something other than whatever it is they do to make them household names, then perhaps you should proceed with caution.

You'd be safe if, for instance, you had Walter Cronkite report fictional news about your plot and characters on TV, but not if you made him a cross-dresser, or the host of an inane TV show.

Maryn, who drops in pop-culture references all the time

[evanaharris]

Thanks, Chicago. I thought that was probably it.

[cluelessspicycinnamon]

How recent is too recent for historical fiction?

The Life History of a Star takes place in the 70s. So I'd say anything up to there is far enough in the past.

[maestrowork]

If your story spans decades -- say, starting in the 50s and going into the present (or even future) -- is it still considered "historical"?

[pdr]

I've just recently reviewed a couple of novels for the Historical Novel Society - www.historicalnovelsociety.org - and they were set in the 60's and 70's. So it seems the
term historical has become much more flexible.

[James D Macdonald]

I think the question is whether the target audience lived through the period in question.