by Greer Macallister

Women’s History Month is a great time to learn more about the amazing women of history whose stories were left out of our high school textbooks. We know Charles Lindbergh’s name and Amelia Earhart’s, but what about Beryl Markham, whose adventures in aviation were just as groundbreaking? Everyone has heard of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Lincoln, but what about Kate Warne, who saved Lincoln from an assassination attempt en route to his inauguration?

When I ran across Kate Warne’s name only a few years ago, I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of her before. Not only was she hired by Allan Pinkerton as the first female private detective way back in 1856, but she spied for the Union during the Civil War, as well as foiling the aforementioned attempt at killing then-President-Elect Lincoln in Baltimore. Pretty impressive stuff!

My novel Girl in Disguise takes the recorded facts about Kate’s life – there aren’t many – and uses fiction to flesh out the tale of a fierce, determined woman who didn’t let the constraints of 19th-century society stand in her way.

There are countless other stories like Kate’s just begging to be told, many of which have been recently told in the form of historical fiction. Of course you can learn about these women from many sources, even Wikipedia, but novels can make their stories more compelling and complex – the equivalent of connecting with them not just as figures in sepia-toned photographs, but in living color.

Here are six of my recent favorites that take us into the minds and lives of history’s groundbreaking women.

Beryl Markham, aviation pioneer — Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

Markham’s story is fascinating even without the planes – it includes an unconventional girlhood on her family’s farm in Kenya and a reputation as a successful horse trainer established before she turned 18, not to mention (a bit later) three marriages and an affair with a British prince.

In 1936, she became the first person to successfully fly across the Atlantic from east to west nonstop – Lindbergh and Earhart had taken the less-windy eastbound route – ending in a crash-landing in Nova Scotia.

Is it any wonder Paula McLain picked Markham’s story for her follow-up to the enormously successful The Paris Wife?

Christina Olson, muse – A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

You’ve probably never heard Christina Olson’s name and wouldn’t know her face, but you’d instantly recognize her in Andrew Wyeth’s most famous painting, Christina’s World: lying in the grass in a pink dress, her blonde hair whipped by the wind, her body twisted and yearning toward a farmhouse in the distance.

Kline followed up her beloved bestseller Orphan Train with this richly detailed novel about a woman whose circumstances kept her body in Maine, but whose keen, curious mind roamed free, and whose image travels the world even today.

Camille Claudel, sculptor – Rodin’s Lover by Heather Webb

Making art about artists can be a challenge, but Webb makes it look easy – you’ll feel the clay under your fingers when her heroine Camille Claudel presses and smooths it into shape.

Claudel was Auguste Rodin’s student, contemporary, and yes, lover, but only enjoyed a fraction of his acclaim both during their lives and after. She was also diagnosed as schizophrenic and committed by her brother to a mental asylum, where she remained for 30 years until her death.

Love 19th-century Paris? Art? Passion? Madness? This one’s for you.

Louise de Bettignies, Queen of Spies – The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

All historical fiction requires the knitting together of invented people and plots with recorded historical fact, and Quinn’s bestselling novel – a selection of Reese Witherspoon’s book club – adds another layer of complexity with a second storyline.

The earlier storyline is the more fact-influenced, and bases a character on Louise de Bettignies, a very real and very brave woman who ran a World War I spy ring in occupied France. The second storyline concerns Charlie St. Clair, a young American woman with a “little problem,” as she searches for her missing cousin – and finds a lot more than she bargained for with a hard-drinking, angry Englishwoman whose connection to the Alice Network (the real name of the spy network headed by de Bettignies, code-named Alice Dubois) is gradually, heartbreakingly revealed.

Bonnie Parker, notorious criminal – Becoming Bonnie and Side by Side by Jenni L. Walsh

Groundbreakers aren’t always good role models. That goes double for Bonnie Parker, half of the notorious criminal duo Bonnie and Clyde (not Clyde and Bonnie, you’ll notice).

Jenni L. Walsh has put together a compelling duology about Bonnie. The first book, Becoming Bonnie, provides a compelling arc that follows Bonnie as a teenager from the church choir to the speakeasy stage and beyond; the second, Side by Side (coming in May), is the story of the couple’s descent into the criminal spree that made them famous – and infamous.

Romaine Brooks, painter; Joe Carstairs, heiress/powerboat racer; and more – Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman

This is a book of short stories, not a novel, and it’s one of my favorite collections ever. Bergman takes you into the lives of these “almost famous” women – artists, sideshow performers, mothers, daughters, friends – with intimate, striking portraits.

Almost Famous Women makes an especially good book club selection, particularly with fellow book clubbers who prefer their stories bite-size.

Bonus: another appearance by Beryl Markham, famous aviatrix, for fans of Circling the Sun.

Want more reading suggestions on the interesting, impressive and totally bad-ass women of history? All March long, I’m interviewing one author a day on my blog for the #WomensHistoryReads series. Check it out at greermacallister.com/blog or follow the #WomensHistoryReads hashtag on Instagram or Twitter.

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Greer Macallister writes novels inspired by the bad-ass women of history, including USA Today bestseller The Magician’s Lie (“A richly imagined thriller” – People Magazine) and her new novel Girl In Disguise (“A spunky spa saga” — NPR). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Millions, Writer’s Digest, Chicago Review of Books, and elsewhere. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram @theladygreer or find out more at www.greermacallister.com.