Authors of historical fiction can be prone to over-sharing in their novels, when it comes to research. I totally resemble understand this. Would we be writing historical fiction if we didn’t, to some degree, find history in all its sweeping events and day-to-day minutia fascinating? And aren’t readers equally fascinated with all that setting and culture and “otherness” that makes the past the foreign country that it is?

Not at the expense of bringing a story to a screeching halt to indulge in a history lesson.

An author’s job is to weave history seamlessly into the narrative of story. It’s a balance I work to achieve from the first draft to the final copy edit. Not too much, not too little. But now that The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn is out on shelves (I hope yours is one!), I’d like to share with readers and anyone inclined to learn a little more about the history behind the novel… more of the history behind the novel, for you to dig into at your leisure.

Here then is the bibliography* for The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn.

State Of Franklin

THE LOST STATE OF FRANKLIN, America’s First Secession. Kevin T. Barksdale. Lexington, KY; The University Press of Kentucky, 2009.

HISTORY OF THE LOST STATE OF FRANKLIN, Revised Edition. Samuel Cole Williams. Philadelphia, PA; Porcupine Press. 1974.

THE MYSTERIOUS LOST STATE OF FRANKLIN, The Story of America’s First Secession (DVD). East Tennessee PBS; Humanities Tennessee; Nolichucky Pictures.

Scots-Irish

BORN FIGHTING, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. James Webb. New York, NY; Broadway Books. 2004.

CHASING THE FRONTIER, Scots-Irish in Early America. Larry J. Hoefling. Lincoln, NE; iUniverse, Inc. 2005.

Tennessee/North Carolina Frontier

BOONE, A Biography. Robert Morgan. Chapel Hill, NC; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 2007.

FLOWERING OF THE CUMBERLAND. Harriette Simpson Arnow. Lincoln, NE; University of Nebraska Press. 1963.

TENNESSEE FRONTIERS, Three Regions in Transition. John R. Finger. Indianapolis, IN; Indiana University Press. 2001

BLUE RIDGE RANGE, The Gentle Mountains. Ron Fisher. National Geographic Society. 1992.

AMERICA’S FIRST WESTERN FRONTIER: EAST TENNESSEE, A Story of the Early Settlers and Indians of East Tennessee. Brenda C. Calloway. Johnson City, TN; The Overmountain Press. 1989.

THE WATAUGANS, First “free and independent community on the continent…” Max Dixon. Johnson City, TN; The Overmountain Press. 1976.

THE OVERMOUNTAIN MEN. Pat Alderman. Johnson City, TN; The Overmountain Press. 1986.

DANIEL BOONE, The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer. John Mack Faragher. New York, NY; Henry Holt and Company. 1992.

SEEDTIME ON THE CUMBERLAND. Harriette Simpson Arnow. New York, NY; The MacMillan Company. 1960.

Cherokee & Shawnee Culture/History

THE SHAWNEES AND THE WAR FOR AMERICA. Colin G. Calloway. New York, NY; Penguin Group. 2007.

CHEROKEE WOMEN, Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835. Theda Purdue. Lincoln, NE; University of Nebraska Press. 1998.

WEAVING NEW WORLDS, Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry. Sarah H. Hill. Chapel Hill, NC; The University of North Carolina Press. 1997.

BLUE JACKET, Warrior of the Shawnees. John Sugden. Lincoln, NE; University of Nebraska Press. 2000

NANCY WARD, Cherokee Chieftainess & DRAGGING CANOE, Cherokee-Chickamauga War Chief. Pat Alderman. Johnson City, TN; The Overmountain Press. 1978.

TRAIL OF TEARS, The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. John Ehle. New York, NY; Doubleday. 1988.

THE CHEROKEE. Barbara A. McCall, Illustrated by Luciano Lazzarino. Vero Beach, FL; Rourke Publications, Inc. 1989. (children’s book)

CHEROKEE. D. L. Birchfield. Milwaukee, WI; Gareth Stevens Publishing. 2004. (children’s book)

THE CHEROKEES, People of the Southeast. Eileen Lucas. Brookfield, CT; The Millbrook Press.1993.

THE CHEROKEE NATION: Life Before the Tears. Madeleine Meyers, ed. Lowell, MA; Discovery Enterprises, Ltd. 1994.

CHEROKEE HISTORY, MYTHS AND SACRED FORMULAS. James Mooney. Cherokee, NC; Cherokee Publications. 2006.

BEGINNING CHEROKEE. Ruth Bradley Holmes & Betty Sharp Smith. Norman, OK; University of Oklahoma Press. 1977.

18th Century, General

THE REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER, 1775-1783. C. Keith Wilbur. Old Saybrook, CT; The Globe Pequot Press. 1993.

FRONTIER LIVING. Edwin Tunis. New York, NY; Thomas Y. Crowell Company. 1961

*These are the books and resources specific to the writing of The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn. I didn’t include titles about 18th century life that I read and absorbed a decade ago, and often refer back to in order to refresh my memory, and that certainly contributed to the writing of this and every 18C book I write. If I had, this would be a very long post!

Photo by aussiegal (Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License), text added by me.