It takes many years for me to write a novel and it challenges more than anything else in my life. At times I think I’m not up to it. Then I remember why I do it: to tell the sort of stories I like to read, stories that are well written, hard to put down, written with beautiful prose, played out with full-bodied characters, books that usually come highly recommended.
Each story sets itself up in its own particular way, comes with its own particular place and time, with its own particular voice and character. There’s where things get delicious and all of this is what I try for.
With Come the Morning, I thought I wanted to tell the story of the struggles of a group of American artists working at the beginning of the Twentieth century. But it wasn’t the group, after all, just one of them yanked me by the scruff (a seduction, really).
Robert Henri became one of the most inspirational and important artists America has ever produced. I fell in love with him, a man who died almost a century ago. I wish I had actually known him, smelled him, asked him questions, gone with him where he went. I feel I do know him now, at least a bit.
Though Henri and most of his group of artists are real, the story is told through the eyes of Ezekiel Harrington, a fictional gallery owner. Both Harrington and Henri are characters readers might think are controversial, agreeable, disagreeable, courageous, wrong-headed, or likeable. No matter, they both face life with tremendous verve.
My fondest wish is that Come the Morning sweeps readers up into the times at the turn of the century and brings with it an intimacy with the characters’ peculiar drives, wants, successes and foibles. And I hope Come the Morning grants readers some understanding of their own lives.
Is Soap a real artist?
If so who is she?
Hi, Carol,
Thanks for the question about Soap. She’s the character in the book who has stirred more interest than any other.
Alas, she is the only one of the artists who is fictional. The rest of Henri’s compadres (like Luks, John Sloan, Glackens, Shinn, etc.) were not fictional.
When I wrote Soap, I had in mind her courageous independence and her talent in producing the powerful sort of art Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt did, though Soap saw thing through a bit rougher lens. She was very real to me, and still is.
Thanks again for asking about her.
Kind regards, Jeannie