Posted on 06/26/2005 5:19:24 PM PDT by wagglebee
There is a photograph of the painter who painted the famous portrait of Pres G. Washington. Our time scale is kind of compressed, too.
Do a Google
Lew Wallace
Edwin Booth (yes, John Wilkes brother)
Robert Todd Lincoln
Interesting tie ins.
Not the least of which is the headline "Booth Saves Lincoln"
It involves Mark Twain, The Players Club (no, not that Players Club), President Grant, The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Queen Victoria, the death of three presidents, Billy the Kid, the Civil War, Andersonville, The Pullman Company, Nicola Tesla, and much more, including the heart of the "Gilded Age."
I've always wanted to write a novel with these folks (and a few others) wandering in and out of my central character's life. It would span from about 1840 to 1940. Perhaps the most incredible and dangerous period in human history.
It's been a while since Schroedinger's Cat. I liked the tavern scene with Einstein and that Finegan's Wake author, what's his name, the Dubliner.
A man after my own heart!
One of my favorite TV shows ever was Connections. The guy who did it was annoying as hell, but the idea just resonated with me.
We don't have a clue where we've come from, do we?
It's the casual relationships that we know nothing about (but were common knowledge "back then") that we've lost entirely.
Context. It's all context.
"It involves Mark Twain, The Players Club (no, not that Players Club), President Grant, The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Queen Victoria, the death of three presidents, Billy the Kid, the Civil War, Andersonville, The Pullman Company, Nicola Tesla, and much more, including the heart of the "Gilded Age."
I've always wanted to write a novel with these folks (and a few others) wandering in and out of my central character's life. It would span from about 1840 to 1940. Perhaps the most incredible and dangerous period in human history."
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Just try to keep it historically plausible. I saw "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" blech.
"Fortune came with the publication of "Papillon", after which he bankrolled a flop film -- The Queen of Diamonds with Claudia Cardinale -- moved to Spain, wrote the follow-up "Banco", and died of throat cancer in 1973."
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I read "Banco" years after "Papillon". "Banco" was his all own and in it (through flashbacks) he basically admits he was an awful, self-destructive juvenile delinquent and a low-life crook who was lucky to live long enough to mature sufficiently to go straight. Essentially, the murder was the only crime of which he claimed to be innocent.
The point is that the people, and a good many other equally well known names and events, really did come into contact. The trick would be coming up with a plausible central character.
It might be easiest to use one of the real individuals. Most likely the younger Lincoln, though he's not 100% sympathetic.
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