Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (and Each Other)

Historical fiction seems a contradiction in terms. History is what happened; fiction, what did not. Yet many great novelists have taken up the tools of the historian, gathering factual information to create a credible framework in which to explore a more personal concept of the past. Novel History examines the nature of historical fiction from the perspectives of both historians and novelists, shedding light on the elusive realm that lies somewhere between art and history and yet encompasses both.Organized into five topics -- biography, the West, slavery, religion and culture, and war -- Novel History presents essays by noted historians on well-known novels, followed in most instances by responses from the authors -- including John Updike, Don DeLillo, Tim O'Brien, Larry McMurtry, Jane Smiley, and Gore Vidal. Joanne Freeman of Yale University comments on the historical and "emotional" accuracy of Gore Vidal's Burr, the acclaimed Civil War scholar James McPherson takes on Cloudsplitter, Russell Banks's fictional portrait of John Brown; Eugene Genovese examines William Styron's controversial The Confessions of Nat Turner (to which Mr. Styron responds with "More Confessions"); and Tom Wicker and author Charles Frazier contemplate, in turn, the place of Cold Mountain within the tradition of writings about men at war.