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Brown Bag Lecture Series: October 6, 2004
WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION
Jon R. Bauman, Dallas author
Dallas author, Jon Bauman, will talk about the challenges of writing historical fiction. In November, St. Martin's Press will publish his first novel, Santa Fe Passage. The story begins in the early 1800s, when Santa Fe was part of Mexico and the city's landed gentry, the hacendados, had little to do with American settlers in the east. This changed, however, when the Santa Fe Trail opened in the early 1820s, linking the city to St. Louis. Matthew Collins recognized the opportunity and soon arrived with his wagon train and began to build business and personal relationships with the hacendados and their families. By the mid-1840s, when war loomed between the United States and Mexico, Matt was called to Washington by President Polk and asked to help the U.S. conquer New Mexico and Santa Fe without causing great bloodshed.
Mr. Bauman will discuss how he struggled, on the one hand, to not do violence to historical figures and on the other, to create historical context without overwhelming the characters. And, he will focus on the added challenge, faced by writers of both fiction and non-fiction when dealing with the Southwest: how to represent Indians, Anglos, and Hispanos as fully realized people without falling into stereotypes.
Jon Bauman, for many years an international lawyer, is the author of two nonfiction books, The Sovereigns and the Admiral and Pioneering a Global Vision. Santa Fe Passage is his first novel. Bauman majored in Latin American history at the University of Texas and received his law degree from SMU.
In the Texana Room, DeGolyer Library
(6404 Hilltop Ln. & McFarlin Blvd).
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Last updated September 29, 2004.