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As the title says. I'm writing a historical novel and I'm curious as to how you would know that your dialogue is historically accurate?
My novel takes place in 1958.
I was born that year! Historical indeed
Damned whippersnappers...
In which country is your historical novel set? Because that will affect the language as much as the era.
1958 doesn't strike me as particularly "historical", but maybe that's just me. But for heaven's sake, there are a bazillion movies made in and about that era. And TV shows. Go watch some.
And some quick facts about 1958, or its immediate temporal environs:
It was Cold War time, U.S. v. Communism.
You still dialed a telephone. And public telephone booths were everywhere.
Most TV was still in black-and-white.
Young rock stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.D. Richardson were killed in a plane crash in February of that year, the Day the Music Died.
Elvis was still thin.
The Beatles didn't exist. Bob Dylan was 17, and still known as Robert Zimmerman.
In Major League Baseball, the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, the Giants still in New York and the Braves still in Milwaukee.
Soda fountains were popular hangouts for teenagers.
The car you really wanted was a robin's-egg-blue and cream-colored 1957 Chevy. With neat tail fins.
The nation of Vietnam existed, but the American public didn't know that.
The Russians had just managed to launch the first artificial satellites, the Sputniks. The U.S. was thoroughly embarrassed and desperate to catch up.
U.S. dimes and quarters were still made of real silver.
Legally-enforced racial segregation still existed and dominated society in the southeastern states of the U.S., but the situation had become restive, especially in Arkansas.
Westerns were the most popular TV shows.
The cultural outsiders were "beatniks"; among writers those included Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Playboy magazine was the most shocking publication legally available.
You could still get your feet X-rayed at a shoe store to see what shoes would fit.
Cigarettes were about the most widely-advertised product on TV and elsewhere.
Charles Starkweather terrified the Midwest with his murder spree odyssey.
The U.S. 1-cent piece still had stylized wheat stalks on the back.
The biggest baseball stars were Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Yogi Berra, Ted Williams, Stan Musial.
A cup of coffee cost no more than a quarter, and you could get it black, or with cream and/or sugar. That was it, for choices.
No Japanese cars were sold in the U.S. You wanted a "foreign" car, you got a Volkswagen.
The most popular dog breed was the collie, thanks to the TV show "Lassie".
The most popular movie actor was almost certainly John Wayne.
If you were a guy, what you wanted to groom your hair was Brylcreem ("a little dab'll do ya, Brylcreem, you'll look so debonair")
Roller-skating rinks were a big deal for teenagers. Along with drive-in movies.
Milton Berle was considered funny. (No one today can possibly understand or explain this.)
At the beginning of the year, there were only 48 states. Alaska and Hawaii were admitted shortly after.
Seat belts in cars were a new thing, and wearing them was only an option. Only jerks and dumbshits did that.
Dual car headlights were new that year, I believe. And considered very "cool".
To great fanfare, Ford produced the Edsel that year.
Everybody in the U.S. was happy . . . at least that's the image passed down to us, now half-a-century and more beyond.
caw
But for a book set in 1958? Well, that makes your task both much easier and harder. Easier, because language hasn't changed too much in fifty years and you have a plethora of books, plays, films and television programs made during that era to use as reference guides (not too mention many people who actually lived through that time.) Harder, because the much wider range of available material (and potential readers who remember the era) means you have no excuse for getting it wrong, and because the differences in language are often in the subtle details.
And don't let's get started on whole different countries...Also, as mentioned above, different regions had different perceptions of current pop culture so what was well-known and popular in, say, Chicago, certainly may not have made its way to Miami and what was known in Miami certainly could have changed along the way it was being imported to Los Angeles (East Coast/West Coast versions of punk, anybody?)
One thing to AVOID is phrases, words, ideas, etc that came into being after 1958.
I agree. I find that an issue with all my research. I need to find research articles specifically in 1958. Its a hassle. Haha!
Magazines and newspapers too. Do you have access to ProCite?