The Books That Helped Mary Glickman Write ‘An Undisturbed Peace’

For many lovers of historical fiction, a well-researched novel is a must. Luckily, there are plenty of authors like Mary Glickman who dig deep into their subjects, taking the time and effort to discover and include time-accurate details and facts in their otherwise fictional stories. Though the characters in her novel An Undisturbed Peace never existed, the world she wrote about certainly did.
Below, find out why Mary Glickman decided to write this novel—and the books she used to help tell the story.
Related: 10 Absorbing Novels You’d Never Guess Were Historically Accurate
Often the first glimmer of inspiration is an unremarkable spark that grows into a great consuming flame with the slightest breeze. After I finished my third novel, on the African American and Southern Jewish experience in the 20th century, one image kept repeating itself, that of a young Jewish foot peddler plying his lonely trade in the Appalachian mountains caught in an intimate moment with the older woman who will command his fate. But who was this woman?
It occurred to me she might be Native American and the fate these two lovers might face was the Trail of Tears. But what did I know about the Trail of Tears beyond dimming memories of the PBS documentary We Shall Remain? I decided to investigate the era further.
Instantly, I was hooked. If the history of American racism is my palette, the abominations leveled by white men against the Five Civilized Tribes provided me with an incredible range of colors, vibrant, hard, and bright.
First I had an obstacle to clear. Unfortunately, many texts on Native Americans are bunk, portraying Natives as noble, magical types, preternaturally adept at all kinds of New Age-y ‘wisdoms’. I bought a few useless books and despaired of ever locating reliable records of the social and domestic life of the Cherokee, which Nation was to be my primary concern.
But I did find them. I found them in Cherokee, North Carolina at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. I found them in Oklahoma City, after speaking to Cherokee scholars and visiting the Oklahoma History Center. An Undisturbed Peace is the fruit of those discoveries. The following is a sampling of my sources on my journey writing the Trail of Tears.
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