Historical Novelists Before Middle-Grade Became a Genre

Seventy years ago, when I entered the middle-grades for the first time (now you can calculate my age), there was no “Middle-Grade” genre for books. We, of course, read the traditional books by the same famous authors students read today—Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, and Jack London, to name a few. Before, during, and following World War II, I do not recall that many books were targeted to an audience of young readers. There were exceptions, of course. Esther Forbes’s Newberry Prize-winning Johnny Tremain was and still is a favorite.

This leads me to recommend young readers take a look at two historical novelists who are largely forgotten today. Probably neither of these great authors were recommended by my teachers. Popular movies of the day based upon these authors’ novels perhaps guided me to read their books. I continue to reread them. They are cracking great adventure reads that teach a lot of history in the process.

Samuel Shellabarger (1888–1954) wrote his first historical novel in 1928. During his lifetime he wrote eighteen works of fiction. My favorite of his books is Captain from Castile, written in 1946, about Hernan Cortez' conquest of the Aztecs. A movie based on the novel starring Tyrone Power appeared in 1947. The reader learns about the terrors of the inquisition in Spain and the brutal subjugation of the native inhabitants of what is now Mexico.

Shellabarger's writing usually contains a love interest, but there is no explicit sex.

Another of my favorites is Prince of Foxes, Shellabarger's next book, written in 1947. Again, Tyrone Power starred in the movie of the same name in 1949. Here, the reader is immersed in the intrigues of Cesare Borgia and his infamous family during the time of the Holy Roman Empire before Italy became the country we know today.

In 1950, Shellabarger’s The King’s Cavalier appeared. I am currently rereading this book for the umpteenth time.

My other forgotten historical novelist is Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950). He produced thirty-one novels, plus numerous short stories, a few non-fiction books, and a play. Among my favorite books by Sabatini is Scaramouche, written in 1921, about a lawyer who masquerades as a buffoon during the time of the French revolution. This great novel has been made into movies more than once, but the one I remember starred Stewart Granger in 1952.

Sabatini, like Shellabarger, includes a love interest in his novels, but no sex.

Probably the most famous of Sabatini’s historical novels is Captain Blood, written in 1922. What middle-grade boy, or girl, does not like a roaring pirate tale? Sabatini is known for adhering closely to historical facts in his books; even though, like my approach to writing, his protagonists are fictional. Errol Flynn starred in the 1935 movie, which recently played on Turner Classic Movies. After watching the movie rerun, I reread this book.

Sensing that some folks may consider these books too long or too difficult for today’s middle-grade reader, I performed some “un-scientific” research into the readability of the novels.

The Hemingway Editor software program gives a random selection of the written word from Samuel Shellabarger’s Captain from Castile a “Readability Rating” of Grade 5. By comparison, various websites rate J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as Grade 5.5. My own Bear Claws rates as Grade 5 in the Hemingway Editor.

The books by Shellabarger and Sabatini are typically longer than most on today’s middle-grade bookshelf, but no more so than many of the Harry Potter books. The stories by my two great "forgotten" authors are so compelling I’ll bet they will be read from cover to cover.

My writing has been influenced by Shellabarger and Sabatini, but I do not profess to be in the same league as they. Still, my historical novel Bear Claws, The Iron Horse Chronicles—Book Two, won the Silver Will Rogers Medallion Award for 2016, and the Wyoming State Historical Society awarded Bear Claws First Place in Fiction for 2016. Take a read and let me know what you think.

Golden Spike, The Iron Horse Chronicles—Book Three, the final book in my trilogy about Will Braddock's quest to determine his own destiny during the time of the building of the first transcontinental railroad in the late 1860s, will be released by Five Star Publishing in mid-2017.

Authenticity versus Creativity

By Suzanne Morgan Williams

I have three projects “pending” in various stages of development. One is a fictionalized memoir. (yes, I finally said, “why not?” some of my life is pretty interesting and relevant.) One is contemporary research based fiction, and one – wait for it – is definitely historical fiction. The memoir is half done and resting. The contemporary has been out to a couple of editors and is waiting for revision. The historical is in that “hot writing” stage where, working from a very rough outline, I’m just writing to the end. I’ll see what I get.

But some interesting questions have come up as I work on the historical. It’s not only based on real people, but the plot is true too. That said, there’s precious little information about these people themselves. I’m totally creating their characters. As a writer, that’s good. It gives me flexibility and I’m quite capable of researching to make them believable, and fashioned to their times. This is historical fiction. But, they were real. There are documents about them and letters. So how much will my fiction influence any subsequent thoughts about these folks? Probably not much. But I’m thinking about it.

Maybe I should just change the names. But what I find fascinating is that the story, the plot, is real. Maybe I shouldn’t embellish the plot at all. It’s pretty good as it stands. But with a couple of other characters and some more confrontation the tension is better. With the addition of specific talents and traits that I’m assigning to them, the characters come alive. So I’m probably going to go for full out for historical fiction.

The manuscript will be true to its times. The setting, history, and some extent even the voices will be researched. But the characters – they are themselves. They will be molded from my ideas, my research, and good story. Is that wrong? Do I need to change the names? Can I manage with including an end note that explains what we know is true, what is probably true, and what I cooked up in service to the story?

For now, I’m writing the manuscript, but before I submit it for publication I have to answer these questions. Your thoughts?