Wednesday, September 14, 2011

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: The Death of a President and What That Has to Do With My Character

On this day in history William McKinley, a beloved U.S. president died as the result of a gunshot wound.

So happens, I'm writing about that.

Just 7 days earlier my character had been at the Pan American Exhibition, waiting to catch a glimpse of the President and even to shake his hand.  But an assassin got there first. 

Photo of a drawing by T. Dart Walker used with permission under Creative Commons License


 The assassin was Leon Czolgosz.  He'd been a hard worker at a wire plant in Ohio for a number of years but became mentally unstable and began showing up at anarchist meetings.

When questioned about his motivations, he responded with, “I killed President McKinley because I done my duty. I didn’t believe one man should have so much service and another man should have none.”
Photo by unknown photographer around 1900 - in public domain


In fact, the president was not yet, dead.  But doctors failed to find the bullet that lodged in his back and, as a result, gangrene took his life.

Czolgosz was executed on the electric chair about 6 weeks later.  His final words were, " "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime."

My protagonist had nothing to do with the president's assassin.  He just happened to be standing a few feet behind him, in the same line, waiting to meet the president.  But he also had a paper and pencil in his hand. Which, in my opinion, makes things a little more interesting!  All of America was deeply affected by this tragic  incident.  But, for my character, this death of the president was much too close for comfort.

12 comments:

  1. very interesting, very interesting! I love weaving together fiction with facts.

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  2. Joyce, this sounds fascinating. Please write fast! I can't wait to read this book.

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  3. Thanks, Lorrie! I can't wait to WRITE this book. Actually I have written this scene (although I'm sure it will go through many revisions). But at the moment I am revising another manuscript entirely. I am eager to get back to this one.

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  4. What a powerful moment, Joyce! Just writing about it in your post made it seem like a true event. What a life altering experience for a child. I second Lorrie's comment--can't wait to read the book!

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  5. Life altering - yes! And this isn't something I fully grasped before writing this post. So I guess blogging contributes to stories in ways that we don't always comprehend.

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  6. I LOVE this kind of stuff, Joyce. I'm always searching for those little things I can write into my stories. This is a great one. I look forward to reading the book.

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  7. Rosi, this is why we love research, eh? It breathes life into our stories.

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  8. Thanks, Linda. And I love hearing from you.

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  9. Sounds like another fascinating book, Joyce. My husband loves sentences that begin, "On this day in history..." I'll have to ask him if he knows this one. I didn't. But incidentally, yesterday in history, the poet Anne Bradstreet, subject of my YA bio, died (339 years ago!). :)

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  10. Wow, Anne Bradstreet - Marcia, you are helping me to review my history! This sounds like a great book idea. How is it coming along? Email me at moyergirl at charter dot net if you want to talk about it.

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