Author who elevates overlooked women in history to speak in Naples this month

Allison Pataki figures the overlooked women of the past will captivate today’s public as much as they fascinate her. Millions of readers of her historical novels have proved her right.

Her subjects range from the unlucky-in-love Midwestern cereal heiress who built Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, to the French beauty who briefly captured Napoleon’s heart, to a once-towering now-forgotten trailblazer in 19th century American literature.

Pataki will be in Naples on Monday, Feb. 19, to speak in the Nick Linn Lecture Series for the Friends of the Library of Collier County.

The Nick Linn Series luncheons and lectures are fundraisers by the nonprofit Friends group, whose efforts benefit the Collier County Public Library system’s 10 branches. (Tickets for this year’s series are sold out. To become a Friends member and learn about next year’s series, go to www.collier-friends.org.)

Allison Pataki's next book publishes in March

Pataki, who is the daughter of former New York Gov. George Pataki, will see her 10^th book, “Finding Margaret Fuller,” published March 19.

The historical novel details the brief life of Fuller, a feminist journalist who was at the center of America’s 19th century Transcendentalist movement, with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott.

A featured review in Publisher’s Weekly called “Finding Margaret Fuller” a “star-studded and gripping account” and noted that “this is one to savor.”

Along with historical fiction, Pataki has written children’s books and one memoir, “Beauty in the Broken Places,” a riveting account of her husband’s near-fatal stroke at age 30, while she was pregnant with their first child.

Although her books are technically fiction, she spends a lot of time on research. Often, conversations she creates for her characters are based on historical records and letters.

In an exclusive interview, Pataki discussed her work and inspiration.

Q: You choose to write your heroines — Margaret Fuller, Marjorie Merriweather Post — in first person. Do you find yourself “becoming” your subject?

Such an interesting question. “Finding Margaret Fuller” is my 10th book, and “The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post” was my ninth, and those two are among the only books that I have written in the first person. In both cases, it was a deliberate choice. These two heroines came to me in such an immediate and accessible way, to the point where I could hear their voices clearly as I was writing.

Surely a part of that intimacy stems from the fact that during my research on these two projects, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in their language, either written and/or spoken, and so they came to life for me as vibrant characters. I don’t feel that I necessarily “become” my subjects, but I reach a certain point during the research process when the historical figure transforms into a walking, talking, breathing character in my imagination. Marjorie Post and Margaret Fuller began to inhabit my imagination, and they took over the stories that became these two novels. I begin with the research and then I let the history and its heroines lead me — that’s how the process works for me.

Q: What do you consider the most important thing for your readers to know about Fuller and Post?

In the case of Marjorie Post, I would say that not only did I enjoy learning and working with her story, but I really enjoyed her as a person. I have such admiration for the way Marjorie Post served as a leader in business, in society, in politics, in philanthropy. Marjorie built Mar-a-Lago, entertained Kennedys and Roosevelts and royalty, but there is so much more to her story. She lived her life with purpose, always striving to leave the world a better place than she found it. And she treated others with such dignity, which feels novel and refreshing today. Marjorie Post was a class act who used her talents to make the world a more beautiful place.

'Margaret Fuller went under the popular radar'

With Margaret Fuller I want people to see the immensity of her legacy as a trailblazer, a thinker, a champion for women and humanity. Margaret Fuller was so unapologetically brilliant and brave in a time when society did not yet celebrate those characteristics in women. I don’t know that people today realize the fact that Margaret Fuller was at the center of this clique of great thinkers with Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. We know all of the names of her contemporaries, and yet Margaret Fuller went under the popular radar — though I would argue her story is the most interesting one of all.

Q: Since you’ll be talking in Naples to a group that supports the local public library system, could you share what libraries mean to you? 

Libraries are a cornerstone in my life, they always have been. I grew up right across the street from a small public library and have so many childhood memories of learning and exploring and studying there. When I got to Yale, some of my happiest days were when I could get to the library early and stake out a little reading nook for myself, and just remain there all day to read and write. I joke to my husband that when I go, if my soul decides to linger any place, it’ll be at the Yale library. Just walking into that place, the quiet air of purposefulness, the smell of the old books, I have a visceral reaction to the happiness I found inside that cathedral of learning.

Now that I am a mama to little children, the library is our happy place in a new way! We visit libraries often, and I hope my children will always feel as though a library is a home away from home. Libraries are such treasures to their communities, and I’m so thankful to the support that librarians give to us as authors. I was so honored last week to receive a starred review for “Finding Margaret Fuller” from Booklist, which is the official book review magazine of the American Library Association. It means so much, especially for this book, since Margaret made history as the first woman permitted to study in the Harvard Library!

Q: You’ve published 10 books and you’re not even 40 years old yet! Do you have a subject for your next book?

I suppose I have a bit of an obsession with books, you might say. It’s the old adage: “If you find what you love to do, you never work a day in your life.” I can’t believe I get to write books and talk about books, and I can call this work.

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Yes, I do have my next book subject! It will be in the genre of historical fiction, inspired by the life of Evelyn Nesbit, the enchanting artist’s model and Broadway star, the woman who made the “Gibson Girl” famous and was in the center of the “Crime of the Century” at the dawn of the 20th century. I’m so excited to tell her story in a fresh way for readers. I also have a lot more that I would like to do in the area of children’s books! And I’m working to adapt my work to the screen. Lots to keep me busy.

21st Annual Nick Linn Series

What: Author lectures and luncheons that raise funds for the Collier County Public Library system

Where: The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, 2600 Tiburon Drive, North Naples

When: Luncheons begin at noon. The author takes the stage at 1 p.m. Book signings begin at 1:50 p.m. after a Q&A session with the audience.

Author lineup: Allison Pataki, Monday, Feb. 19; Pam Jenoff, Monday, March 11; and Geraldine Brooks, Monday, March 25

Tickets: Tickets are no longer available for this year’s series. Friends memberships begin at $40/year and also provide access and discounts to other programs. To become a Friends member and get information about next year’s series, contact Marlene Haywood at mhaywood@collier-friends.org or 239-262-8135.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Allison Pataki, author of overlooked women, to speak in Naples