Author Gossip: Q & A with Melanie Benjamin

On her website, Melanie Benjamin answers some great questions about her book "Alice I Have Been." Here are some of my favorites.

Q: Were you a fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a child?

Surprisingly, not really. I don't recall reading the book, although I know that at some point, I must have. I really only knew the Disney movie, and what I knew of that mainly came from riding the Mad Tea Party ride at Disney World.

Q: What drew you to writing a novel about Alice Liddell, then?

I saw an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago several years ago, titled "Dreaming in Pictures: the Photography of Lewis Carroll." I did not know that Lewis Carroll was a pioneer in photography; I did not even know that Lewis Carroll was a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Certainly I had no inkling that there had ever been a "real" Alice! Once inside the exhibit, however, I was startled by the images Carroll—Dodgson—had taken; they were all prepubescent little girls. One photograph in particular captured my fancy; it was of a girl clad in rags, staring at the camera with a very frank—very adult—gaze. The caption informed me she was 7-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of Dean Liddell of Christ Church, Oxford, where Dodgson taught mathematics. The caption also said she was the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Q: As a historical novelist, are you more concerned with sticking to the absolute historical truth, or telling a good story?

Story first, always! Sometimes you have to condense known facts or dates, or maybe move them around a little, in order to put focus on the story you want to tell. Or you have to leave them out, if they don't really move that story along. That said, I would never introduce, knowingly, any anachronisms, nor would I have the audacity to plunk known historical characters down in situations or events where it is absolutely recorded they were not present. I tend to concentrate on what happens between these well-known events and situations. And I do think I strive for an emotional truth, at least as I see it, at all times. But yes—in the end, there's a reason why this is called fiction, not biography. Readers want to learn, that's true; they also want to be entertained or moved or transported. That's my first responsibility as an author—to tell a good story. Hopefully, then, it will inspire the reader to want to do more research about these people after they read the book.

Q: Do you think it's possible for children who have been immortalized in fiction to lead "normal" lives? Or are they always overshadowed by their fictionalized characters?

Well, the Llewelyn-Davies boys—whose lives were changed forever by J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan—certainly had their share of troubles growing up; at least one of them—Peter himself—later committed suicide (the circumstances surrounding the drowning death of Michael remain mysterious). Christopher Milne, the inspiration for Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh stories, also had difficulties with his legacy; he grew to resent his father for what he saw as the exploitation of his childhood and was practically estranged from him in the end. So no, I'm not sure it is ever possible for them to live a normal life. I tried to show Alice Liddell making peace with her legacy, but she only did so at the very end of her long life. For much of it, it really appeared to me she was trying to do her best to escape Wonderland.




Q: Is there one thing you would like to say to authors? One piece of wisdom or insight?

Open your eyes—get out of the house! I think that authors, very often, get stuck in a rut; they spend their time alone, concentrating on one thing—one story, one novel, one idea—and fixate on it. Some spend years and years reworking the same idea. I was close to being in this place—and then I took the train into Chicago and wandered into a photography exhibit, which changed my life as an artist. Authors need to experience life, and art, and keep their minds—and eyes—open to every possibility. We can't remain chained to our computers all the time. 

For more of the Q & A, visit Melanie Benjamin's official website.


Photo courtesy of melaniebenjamin.com, taken by Todd Rennels.