History Happy Hour: Writing Historic Fact and Historic Fiction

David O. Stewart writes straight histories about the American past, as well as historical novels. How do research methods differ depending upon the type of book to be written? Does the fiction writer look to different sources than the historian does? And how has the digital revolution changed research for both? David Steward will describe the different research processes that apply to fiction and nonfiction writing during this monthly History Happy Hour. After practicing law for many years, David O. Stewart began to write history, too. His first book, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, was a Washington Post bestseller and won the Washington Writing Award as Best Book of 2007. Two years later, Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy, was called by all means the best account of this troubled episode by Professor David Donald of Harvard. The Society of the Cincinnati awarded David its 2013 History Prize for American Emperor, Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America, an examination of Burr's Western expedition, which shook the nation's early foundations. The Lincoln Deception, an historical mystery about the John Wilkes Booth Conspiracy, was released in late August 2013. Bloomberg View called it the best historical novel of the year, while Publishers Weekly said it was an impressive debut novel. Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America,was released in February, 2015. The Washington Post called it a portrait, rich in empathy and understanding by an acknowledged master of narrative history.