I'm reading a historical nonfiction book about Custer. In the book the author talks about the tone of Custers voice, as being "high pitched". I'm trying to write a book about the Mormon Trail. My question is, when an author is writing a historical nonfiction book, is it allowed to describe the subjects of his book has he invisions how they were? Obviously, the author of the book on Custer was not there to hear his voice. If this is allowed or preferred, it changes my whole way of writing. Thanks
Historical Nonfiction
- Thread starter Triggermagee
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No - not allowed to describe subjects as the author envisions them, unless, it is stated to be conjectural and it's a collective group being described (the travelers were undoubtedly a haggard bunch as an example). For individuals you have to stick with what's been recorded by contemporaries and in histories.
Custer wasn't really that long ago - if it hadn't been for Little Bighorn there's a very good chance my Mother would have seen him periodically. By the 1880s historians were paying a lot more attention to physical characteristics like voice and hair color (and I noticed you didn't challenge his golden hair color even though the author would never have seen him
). Puma
Custer wasn't really that long ago - if it hadn't been for Little Bighorn there's a very good chance my Mother would have seen him periodically. By the 1880s historians were paying a lot more attention to physical characteristics like voice and hair color (and I noticed you didn't challenge his golden hair color even though the author would never have seen him
). PumaWelcome Triggermagee. Good question. I advise being careful about beloved or larger than life historical figures, especially if what you propose turns a hero timid etc.
Letters are great places to get information like you've mentioned, and I suspect the author found some type of documentation on the sound of Custer's voice. A private may have written it to a mother or relative after Custer disciplined him, which is why it's nice to have more than one source.
I've found some startling character-type info in a letter and I'm researching it to use in a future story. What I plan to do is have my main fictional character react to the character flaw I discovered, or have a moment of private amusement, or joke about it with a friend. etc But, I'm not making it up, as I have it in a document from a woman present at the event. But I'm searching for a second source.
My thoughts on the subject are: You can't envision and write something negative about famous people without documentation to back it up. However, you can do what you want with a fictional character's thoughts as he relates to said historical person-re:my comment about the private above.
Good Luck!
Letters are great places to get information like you've mentioned, and I suspect the author found some type of documentation on the sound of Custer's voice. A private may have written it to a mother or relative after Custer disciplined him, which is why it's nice to have more than one source.
I've found some startling character-type info in a letter and I'm researching it to use in a future story. What I plan to do is have my main fictional character react to the character flaw I discovered, or have a moment of private amusement, or joke about it with a friend. etc But, I'm not making it up, as I have it in a document from a woman present at the event. But I'm searching for a second source.
My thoughts on the subject are: You can't envision and write something negative about famous people without documentation to back it up. However, you can do what you want with a fictional character's thoughts as he relates to said historical person-re:my comment about the private above.
Good Luck!
Was it...
non-fiction? Was the book called non-fiction or was it faction?
Non-fiction is as Puma says.
However faction uses the true events, but allows the author to tell it like a story and use fictional tricks. But the book will be, should be labelled faction.
non-fiction? Was the book called non-fiction or was it faction?
Non-fiction is as Puma says.
However faction uses the true events, but allows the author to tell it like a story and use fictional tricks. But the book will be, should be labelled faction.
My first thought when reading the OP was 'narrative non-fiction'. It reads like a novel, but is primarily non-fiction. Probably the most famous examples are 'In Cold Blood' and 'The Perfect Storm', but there are many others. Information is included which cannot be known, but has been extrapolated from known facts.
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I have read numerous biographies on historical people (dozens and dozens) and I can immediately recall three of them that describe the pitch or tone of the voice which the subject had. One of these books Dark Horse by Kenneth D. Ackerman, described the pitch of Charles Gateau’s voice (the man who assassinated James A. Garfield in 1882). In short, if doing so is bad form, there are a lot of disfigured authors out there.
I don't think the question is whether it's bad form to do so, rather, how would a current author know what the person's voice sounded like. There are sources for that information for some historic figures. Puma