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Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast
Grief, Love, and Connection: The Missing Pages with Alyson Richman
00:29:50
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to Civics and Coffee, a history podcast. The show all about United States history delivered to you in the time it takes to enjoy your morning cup of coffee. I'm your host, Alicia, a historian trained in United States history with a passion for telling both the known and unknown parts of America's past. So grab your coffee and get ready for some bite sized history.
- [00:28]
B
Hey everyone, it's my birthday week and in honor of that, I am giving you a week filled with content, starting with today's fantastic conversation with Alison Richman, who recently wrote an incredible historical novel, the Missing Pages. Richman is the author of 12 books and she is an accomplished painter and her novels combined her deep love of art historical research and travel. Alison's novel have been published in 25 languages and have reached the bestseller lists both in the United States and abroad. I hope you all enjoy the conversation. Hello everyone. Joining me today is Alison Richmond. She is a painter and author of several novels, including the Lost Wife, the Thread Collector, and the Missing Pages, which will be the focus of our conversation today. Before we dive into this wonderful book, I'd love to learn a little bit more about what drew you into writing and specifically how you became interested in writing historical fiction. Welcome, Allison.
- [01:38]
C
Thank you so much for having me, Alicia. Today on your podcast, I'm thrilled to tell you a little bit about how I came to start writing historical fiction. I was an art history major in college and I absolutely loved learning about different artists and looking at their paintings as portals into history. And it was one of my professors when I was in college who said to me that I had a gift for telling the story behind the painting. And I think what she kind of pinpointed in, you know, when I was so much younger than I am now, is that I just was infinitely curious about how an artist chose their particular subject, what historical clues they were putting into their painting, what was the psychological, you know, relationship between artist and muse, everything from what people were wearing during that time, you know, doing a deep dive into that to learn. And so it just sort of, you know, tapped into my curiosity, but also my powers of observation and then trying to weave that into a narrative for an essay, for the classes that I was taking for my major. So when it came time to graduate, and it was sort of this running joke in my family of very practical people that what was I going to do with my art history career? I thought to myself, if I could do anything in the world, what it would be, it would be to write novels about creative people against historical backdrops and So I actually was very, very fortunate to get a grant after I graduated college to research Japanese artists who painted with Impressionists during the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. And that became the beginning research for my, for my first novel that was published in 2001 called the Mass Carver's Son. So I've been writing ever since. And usually if you pick up one of my historical novels, one of the main characters will be some, someone who is creative, who has a very specific interest, whether there is a artist, a painter, a cellist. In the case of my latest book, the Missing Pages, there's a book collector, but someone with sort of a, you know, a refined taste. And what happens when history is, you know, unfolding against their backdrop.
- [03:49]
B
Yeah, and the Missing Pages does talk about or kind of center around the story of the sinking of the Titanic. And so I'm curious, what drew you to that story' specifically?
- [04:03]
C
So it was sort of an unexpected story. How it found me. I certainly wasn't searching to write about a book about the Titanic, but my, my youngest child, Charlotte, was doing college tours the summer after her junior year in high school and I was not with her. She was doing a summer program in the Boston area and it allowed students to sign up for different tours of universities and colleges and in the Boston Cambridge area there. And when I came to pick her up that the end of the summer, she told me that the tour guide at Harvard University had shared with the prospective students this incredible story that she thought that I would find very interesting. Wink, wink. Possible story there that the largest library, the hub of library life at Harvard College is the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. And he shared with the students that Harry widener was a 27 year old Harvard graduate who was an avid book collector. And he and his parents had gone over to Europe prior to boarding the Titanic home. He was going over there to purchase more rare books. His parents were going over there to buy furniture and his mother was getting things for his sister's dowry. And on the way back, when the Titanic hit the iceberg and tragedy ensued, there was this legend surrounding Harry that his mother had room in her lifeboat for him and she implored for him to get on the lifeboat with her. And he told his mother he was just going back to his cabin to retrieve a rare and precious book and he was never seen again and the book was never found. His mother subsequently went on to build this absolutely magnificent library to her son. Inside is a memorial room specifically for his book collection. His original desk and chairs from his study. And in her behest, she stipulated that every week fresh flowers were to be put on his desk to conjure up the sensation that at any moment he might pull one of the, you know, his beloved books from his bookshelf and sit down at his own desk and read. And I was so drawn to this story immediately because of it being a story about a mother and son. Not really, because it was a Titanic. You know, I could see that on, you know, as I said, unfolding in the backdrop. But, you know, one of the interesting things about being a novelist is being able to shift perspective and to show how every angle and every character brings with it its own distinct emotions and character traits and all sorts of things like that. So I could clearly see his mother, who's desperate to save her child, Even though he's 27 years old, he's still her baby and she wants to save him. But I could also see the perspective of her son wanting to give him her the gift of hope that, oh, he was just going back to his cabin to get a boat, you know, a book. He was going to get the next boat out of there. She shouldn't worry, but she needed, you know, there was urgency to get on that boat and be lowered down into the Atlantic safely while he was, wink, wink, going to stay behind with the gentleman and do the right thing. But the more I started thinking about it, in the days that ensued, I couldn't shake it up out of my head. And I started to think, well, was there any credibility that in fact he actually had gone back to his cabin to retrieve a rare and precious book? And if so, what was that book? And I would learn that it was a 16th century copy of Francis Bacon's essays. It was so small, it was the size of a baseball card. You could fit it in the palm of your hand. So there was some credibility that he might have gone back for that. And so that was how I came to write about the Titanic. It was that I was drawn to this emotional scene and wanting to explore, you know, what. What was true, what could be imagined. And it also led me to think that the best way to explore this story was to have Harry be a ghost inside his little library his mother built in his honor, giving him the opportunity, in his own words, to tell the reader what really happened in those moments.
- [08:00]
B
Yeah. And I thought what was so. I mean, there were so many great things about this book that I. I just truly, truly loved. But I. I loved that it's a story of so many different perspectives and Challenges. You have Harry's kind of through line and then you're. You switch perspectives. Right. It's, it's a historical fiction, but it's also kind of a contemporary historical fiction because you also have a student, Violet, who is kind of meets Harry. And so I'm curious as to kind of how did you decide to kind of do that as your entryway into learning about Harry.
- [08:47]
C
Right. And having a dual timeline. So as I mentioned, I do have a first person voice of Harry telling the story of what happened in those last moments. But I also wanted to explore how this library, this creation of his mother, that where you have a gilded age woman who financially undertakes this creation of this incredible million dollar endeavor to create this library for her son and that it's for her as a way to process her grief and give healing to herself after the death of Harry. But I wanted to show in the modern day storyline, which is 1992, how the library continues to be a space of healing and learning and discovery of books and discovery of other things. And that's where you have Violet Hutchins coming into play. I create a parallel of a student at Harvard who has suffered her own personal tragedy. She has not really giving away a tremendous spoiler, but she's lost her boyfriend due to a tragic accident and she finds herself employed as a page inside the library. A page is someone who is responsible for transporting the rare books in the rare book collection to readers in the Houghton Reading Room at Harvard. And so they, you know, she has to take them from the stacks through the tunnels to get them where they're, they're going to be read by scholars. So she has access to these rare books and she starts to sense that there, the Harry's ghost might be trying to, trying to communicate to her from the other side. She's not sure why, but that kind of prompts the reader to learn that Harry actually has an untold chapter, some missing pages of his story that he wants told to complete in the missing pages of who he was when he lived in the mortal world. So I feel like I wanted to show the parallels how books, how libraries continue to be spaces and objects of healing and learning and discovery and. Yeah, and that's how you have Violet coming into the storyline.
- [10:41]
B
And there's another character by the name of Ada. And so this next question I think will allow you to kind of expand on her as well. I'm curious. As you know, it's historical fiction, there's some truth, right. There's a real character in Harry Widener So what were some of the challenges you faced in kind of developing this story about Harry, about Violet, and then this other character, Ada.
- [11:06]
C
So Ada is Harry's love interest when he goes to London to purchase what's called the Little Bacon. This book that was the size of the palm of your hand. That was the only one, only edition of its kind. I wanted to create a very spunky woman who knows her own mind, someone who's not seeking to become the wife of a wealthy man, but someone who truly loved books. And that was going to be the language that connected Harry and Ada. This mutual affection for a wonderful novel, a wonderful book, or just collecting in itself that thirst of discover a book that had been overlooked, that was rare and meaningful. I really pride myself in trying to write historically accurate characters. And so, of course, one of the challenges of writing about a Gilded Age woman is to show, like, were there people who actually did work outside the home who just weren't homemakers or, you know, they weren't teachers or nurses? Did they. Were there women who had these very unusual professions even in 1912? And the answer is yes. And where I. What I discovered was the bookstore where Harry purchased the Little Bacon was called Quaritch Limited. It was started by Bernard Quaritch, his son, Bernard. Alfred Quaritch is working there when Harry arrives, wanting to purchase these books prior to boarding the Titanic. And his sister Charlotte actually worked in the bookstore at that time. And she was educated. She was a book collector herself. She was very savvy in the business. And as a matter of fact, when her brother subsequently died, she took over the family business. So I felt that there was credibility that there were women working in the antiquarian book world, and I couldn't use the inspiration of Charlotte Quaritch to create the heroine of Ada.
- [12:53]
B
And kind of that helps me segue into the next question that I have for you is what does researching a historical novel look like? What does that process look like?
- [13:04]
C
Well, this laptop around and show you what my house looks like in the house where I go out the door. It. Yeah. It means living like a misfit. So it is something that is all encompassing and you have to love what you're writing about because you get through down into so many rabbit holes that take you to another rabbit hole to another rabbit hole, and you start discovering things that you're like, well, how can I put this in? Or this is so interesting. And I could do this. And it just becomes to swell and swell and swell. So I have a tremendous thirst to uncover as much, you know, historical detail as I can. And then, like a civ. What I find so fascinating and what kind of imprints itself in my mind, I. It kind of bubbles to the top. And I know that I have to find a way to incorporate it. So, for example, I went over to Quaritch Limited to look at their archives because they still have existing letters from Harry Widener prior to him coming to their store to purchase the book that he wanted to buy, including the Little Bacon. And so, you know, I write to them. I explain that I'm. I'm researching Harry Widener, I'm writing a historical novel. I've really never had a problem where people say, you know, don't answer me. I'm really lucky that for the most part, people open their doors and welcome me to start digging around to see what I can find. And as I was reading through his letters, which in themselves are kind of essential to understand how someone speaks, you know, what their cadence of their voice sounds like. You know, I think it's very easy to think that people are super duper frank, formal in the Gilded Age when they're writing letters. But in fact, they were very informal. They were almost whimsical. I mean, they were writing so many letters. They're like the equivalent of people, you know, texting today. Sometimes, you know, sentences aren't even. Sometimes full sentences. There's tons of, you know, ellipticals and all sorts of things. So that was really essential to get a sense of how he expressed himself or where he was traveling, because you could see the stationary if he was on his grandfather's yacht or if he was in the family, build, you know, office building on the landmark building in Philadelphia. But then there are these really wonderful tidbits of information that you just see, and you're like, I have to figure out a way to put this in the book. So, for example, after Harry tragically dies in the Titanic, Bernard Quaritch writes to Harry's personal bookseller In Philadelphia, Rosenbach, A.S.W. rosenbach, and says to him, I was devastated to learn that Harry perished on the Titanic. And I want you to let you know, and maybe you can share this with his mother, that as he was leading, leaving my store, he said the only book he took with him, because the rest were being shipped to Philadelphia, was that he took the little bacon and he said, I'm going to put it in my dinner jacket. Basically, by my heart. I mean, I'm embellishing that. He said, by my heart, but basically in the pocket of my dinner Jackets, in case I'm shipwrecked, I'll have something to read. And so he said, not only is this like very ominous and foreshadowing, but I just want the family to know that in case a body is found with a book on person, this can be used as a way to identify him. Because these were the last words he said to me. And so, you know, I knew I had to find a way to put that in the book. And in the scene when Harry's leaving that he says that, because we know for a fact he did. And it plays into like, you know, what happened with the bacon. So those are the type of things that you find and you're like, oh, you know, wonderful. And then there's these, you know, other little things. You know, how supposedly people saw his father take off his pinky ruby ring and give it to Eleanor before she got on the Titanic. I mean, on the lifeboat, and that there's a relative to this day who still wears it. So I wanted to make sure that that was in, you know, that scene that, you know, everyone said that that happened, or you know, what Aster said when he was trying to get on the boat. Those things, you know, you know, right away I have to use them and
- [16:51]
B
then kind of expanding on that. Where is that line when you're developing that story of fact and fiction?
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C
You know, I really don't like to invent things that there is no way that that could have happened. It really, really bothers me. So anything that I write in my mind, I feel that it possibly could have happened. And I try to use as much historical, historical fact as the armature for writing the story that that is going to structure it and it's going to be there. And if you start googling all these different things, you're going to actually discover that they are true. People's emotions and their feelings, those have to be invented. Unless you're taking like someone declares love for, you know, particular character in a certain way, in a certain letter, and you're lifting that, then I mean, obviously that's true, but for the most part, I think emotions and relationships, particularly at that time, where people weren't really bit about how they felt about people, is invented. So there's always what I would say, what I'd like to say in my mind. I like to say it's 80% true, 20% imagined. Sometimes maybe it might be 70%, 30, you know, 30% imagined, but never 50. 50. I would never even say 60, 40. There's a little bit Enough to give it a. A twist or give it a, you know, give it a little bit of a narrative poll for something. But otherwise, I really try and make it really permeated with historical fact. I mean, even the descriptions of Harry's childhood home, Lynwood hall, which is not at this moment open to the public. It's, you know, being renovated. It's an enormous estate. It's going to take years to renovate it. And it was in really, really bad disrepair. Going in there and meeting with the historian where they're trying to reconstruct the rooms and learning how those rooms were decorated. You know, that when you went into the reception room, there was a Pekingese yellow silk sofa with purple cushions, or that in Eleanor's, you know, bedroom there, you know, the walls were this particular shade of blue. You know, that those things I use because they were gifted to me, that information. Why would I change that? Because you can visualize the world in which he really did inhabit.
- [19:06]
B
And I think one of the strong points for me about historical fiction is that I always feel like it can. It can serve as a gateway to the past. It can. It open up a world for folks. And so I'm curious for you, how do you think historical fiction can help people understand and connect with the path?
- [19:26]
C
Well, we know that history, unfortunately repeats itself. And I think if you are a student of history, it can be terrifying when you see the parallels of how things just always constantly seem to, you know, happen again and again. But to your point, reading historical fiction and seeing history unfold through the lens of a character and feeling emotionally tethered to that character and rooting for that character makes you feel more empathetic to their plight in whatever they're experiencing during that difficult historical time. I mean, no one kind of sets out to write a historical fiction novel where there's no dramatic history occurring. I mean, obviously in this case, it's the Titanic. But if you're writing a World War II book and your character is living in, you know, Czechoslovakia or Austria, Germany, you know what they're. You know, for the most part, the stakes are high for trying to survive against that backdrop. So how do you forge a relationship with that character and feel and root for them, even if they might be outside your own demographic or background, to create this universal sense of compassion and hopefully that you want the good person, good guy to win against the bad guy? So I think that's important. I think anything that makes the brain make connections with things that are not necessarily always the most familiar to people is a good thing to push you outside your comfort zone and to think to. To walk in another person's shoes and their plight and their, and their. And their struggle for survival is really important, especially in a world where so many people are so me focused. Right. So to make you think about another person and that's what you're doing. If you're turning the next page, you're thinking about a character and their family and everyone who's encircling them. That's a good thing.
- [21:21]
B
Yeah. I thought the book was a perfect reminder of, you know, that regardless of background, regardless of experience, everybody needs kind of the. The core basics. Right. Everybody wants to be loved, everybody wants to be remembered, everybody wants to be supported. And I think it was a very poignant and beautiful reminder.
- [21:46]
C
And I think for me writing this book, and it is a departure for me from my other typical historical novels, because there is this voice of a ghost, and it's a soulful voice that Harry basically meditates on mortality and immortality and grief and wanting to somehow show the people that he loves that he's still omnipresent. And so for me, one of the most moving scenes is when you see Eleanor grieving and unable to get out of her bed. And you see these birds that he has tried to summon to her garden so that he can show that in this, like, miraculous setting that he's still there, that it could never have happened without him basically conjuring them up for her to see. And you see him working behind, you know, in the other chapter of how he did this. It. It shows sort of that thin veil between the spiritual world and the mortal world. And that love is that connective thread. Right. That we continue to love after we're gone. We continue to love those who are gone. And that was really special, like, for me, a special thing to do, especially having lost friends and lost relatives and do. And also believing that there have been signs sometimes when I just need to know that they're still with me. Yeah.
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B
And this might be the. The same. The same response, but I'll ask the question anyway. What, what do you hope that readers take away from your book?
- [23:15]
C
Well, I hope they learn something that they didn't know before they began reading. That's always really important to me. So I think taking a. A real life passenger who perished on the Titanic, who had this really passionate love for books, who even at the age of 27 had made a last will and testament gift, making sure his mother was the steward for his book collection, that he had that foresight, it was that important to him and perhaps even, I don't know, maybe he knew, like inside that something could happen to him at a young age and that he might not outlive his own mother. But I want them to learn about Harry and about his mother. I think his mother, Eleanor, was this incredibly strong and resilient woman. I think I try and show that grief sometimes brings part out, part of ourselves that we're not necessarily always proud of. None of us are flawless. I think that's important to State, but that here this woman undertook something and ensured something that her son's name was never forgotten. When you think about how many tours are given at Harvard every day, I mean, there's dozens of tours that every time I'm in Harvard Yard or I'm doing something in Boston and I stop and walk through there, I'm hearing that legend told. And so his name continues to be reminded. It's not just on the edifice of the. Of the. Of the library. People are, you know, the tour guides are constantly sharing his story and his love of books. And so for me, that's so important that you learn about Harry. But I also think I would love my readers to meditate on the importance of books in their own lives and the books that connect them to other people, the books that have been gifted to them and that they give as gifts as well. I've had a lot of readers say that they've started to gift more of their favorite books to their friends when they think that they need a little boost. And I'm trying to do that myself. Like when we discuss a book and then saying, you know what? I'm going to actually send it to you, and then someone does it to you, and it's just like, beautiful. Paying it forward with books. So I would love that. I would love that to be the takeaway.
- [25:12]
B
Well, that's a lovely sentiment. I like that idea. And I know that you've just finished a book, and so no pressure, but I thought I'd ask. Are you working on anything that you can share?
- [25:23]
C
I am. I am working on a novel that is tentatively entitled the Golden Ribbon. It is about the author Gil, the author Edith Wharton and her time in Paris during World War I, when she was actually doing a tremendous amount of humanitarian work helping Belgian children, refugees. She transported several hundred to Paris and had these hostels there where she had lay schools enabled to teach them a craft that would able to. Or, you know, a skill that would enable them to survive after the war ended. So it focuses on her humanitarian work in Paris. And there is a dual timeline that takes place in Lenox, Massachusetts, at her country home, the Mount, in 2005, as they're trying to get back her existing library to their bookshelves there.
- [26:10]
B
Oh, that sounds very good. Well, I'll be on the lookout for that. Okay, so now that we've got everybody really excited about the missing pages and the forthcoming book, where should readers go when they've finished the book and they want to learn more about you and the work that you do and they want to follow for all of your projects?
- [26:34]
C
Oh, that's very kind. Thank you for asking that, Alicia. So my books are available everywhere. They should be at your independent bookseller. They're at Barnes and Noble. They're on online. They hopefully are at your library. If they're not, make sure to ask the librarian to see if they can order it for you. So it should. They should be widely available. You know, the missing pieces should be widely available. If you want to connect to me, I have a website, my name A L Y S O N Richmond R I C H M A N dot com. It has a list of my events, my past books. It has book club questions in case you choose the missing pages or any of my other novels for a book club discussion, there's a way to contact me there. There's a little prompt there. I'm also on Instagram, just at my name and also at Facebook, Alison Richmond, author. So you can find me in those places.
- [27:24]
B
Lovely. And I'll be sure to include all of that stuff for the show notes when the episode goes live.
- [27:31]
C
Thank you.
- [27:32]
B
And so we've. We've tried to maintain the integrity of the story. We haven't given away too many spoilers, so we've only scratched the surface. But before I let you go, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you really, really want future readers to know?
- [27:47]
C
I feel like we, we, we, you know, hit all the right notes. I think. 1. The only thing that I love to describe to my. To my potential readers is that the memorial room inside Harry's library is really this sacred room. And I love to. Just because you don't have access to it to the public. So when I try and recreate it within the pages of the novel. But just to describe that, if you were to walk into this library, you get to this white marble vestibule with this central staircase that leads up towards his memorial room. And the room is all varnished oak with a black marble. And above is this beautiful painting of Harry, his desk and chairs, obviously, with the flowers there. And it really feels, when you walk into his library, that it's the beating heart of the library. It doesn't feel static. It doesn't even feel like a shrine. It feels alive. It feels, you know, vital. And I think that's what Eleanor wanted because of the flowers, you know, to make it feel that he still lived there. And so I think it's a beautiful image to sort of end on that. How a mother is able to still keep her son's spirit alive in the most beautiful way.
- [28:55]
B
I think that's a beautiful sentiment to end on. And so for the listeners out there, be sure to pick up your copy of the missing pages. It is simply a beautiful story exploring grief, love, and it highlights a fascinating story from the past to boot. You won't want to put it down, so definitely grab yourself a copy. Thank you again, Alison.
- [29:18]
C
Thank you, Alicia. Thank you so much.
- [29:20]
B
Thanks again to Alison for sharing her work with me. And as a friendly reminder, you can pick up Alison's book in my affiliate shop on bookshop.org I've put a link to it in the show notes for the episode. Thanks, everyone. I'll see you next time.
- [29:37]
A
Thanks for sitting down with me as I explored this chapter of American history. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe and share with your friends. I look forward to our next cup of coffee together.