Blind Tribute by Mari Anne Christie is a terrific, thought-provoking Civil War novel. I am in awe of her storytelling skills.
The main character, Harry Wentworth, is a native South Carolinian and the editor of a Philadelphia newspaper. Wentworth makes war-time decisions related to opportunism, familial concerns, and a principled, philosophical stance. Iowans who served the Confederacy made similar types of decisions.
I hope you’ll enjoy my discussion with Mari Anne Christie.
Where did the idea of the book come from? And what is the meaning of the title?
It all started with a picture in my mind’s eye of my great-great uncle, Percival Whaley, a famous journalist and proprietor of the Whaley-Eaton Business Newsletter, sitting at his desk writing something.
The title, “Blind Tribute,” comes from the book’s epigraph, by Jean de la Fontaine: “Every newspaper editor owes tribute to the devil.” In Harry’s case, he walks blindly into the debt that’s due, and it changes him, body and soul.
Have any Civil War sagas (such as Gone With the Wind) informed your writing?
No particular Southern fiction directly influenced this book, but I learned to love historical fiction while reading authors like Margaret Mitchell, Alexandra Ripley, William Faulkner, and Mark Twain. Once in college (and after), I added some new favorites: Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Pat Conroy (who becomes more historical by the day), Cormac McCarthy, and Colson Whitehead.
I don’t think it is possible to write a Civil War novel without someone finding comparisons to GWTW, but I am always surprised by it. To my mind, the only thing they have in common is that they are epics. Blind Tribute is more of a “thinking” book than a “triumph-against-odds” book (which is not to say there is no triumph).
How can historians (and readers) benefit by reading historical novels?
Historical novels have a particular place in the teaching of history (which is why authenticity is so important). At their best, they draw the reader into the “now” of a historical moment, making it real and tangible and emotional, bringing it to life for the reader, allowing them to perceive situations and time periods differently, to say nothing of the people who inhabited both.
As for non-fiction authors, the ideal is a symbiotic relationship—the fiction author gains knowledge to be worked into a novel, and the historian can see years’ worth of research actually be used outside academia. One thing I know for sure about historians: they are nearly always tickled pink at the very idea of talking about their subject matter to whatever extent you need.
How have you gained insights into slaves, masters who freed them, and the experiences of freedmen?
A very odd realization occurred when I needed to give all my Black characters different voices—inflection, tone, rhythm, generally reflecting a level of education. It suddenly occurred to me (seriously late in life) that “slavery” was not a monolith or an idea. It was not as simple as a big group of white people against a big group of Black (and other white) people, but that is the over-arching impression I have always had about this war. I never intended to dehumanize anyone in this way, but it was a clear blind spot I needed to address before I could adequately portray both the enslaved and the free blacks in Blind Tribute.
As far as the enslavers, who either did or didn’t free their enslaved people, and others who facilitated the economic system, while I can’t exactly embrace them (even in my own family), everyone, in every role, was an individual, with their own voices and motives and emotions and agendas. (As you can see in Blind Tribute.) The American Civil War could never be as simple as one faction fighting for freedom from another. It was a highly nuanced time and place.
Harry changed his stance toward the war over the course of the book. Did you envision the change when you started writing the story?
I didn’t envision anything when I started the book, except that image in my mind. I didn’t even know it would be about the Civil War, especially since my Great-Great Uncle Percy, the model for Harry, was famous from the 1920s to 1960s, not in the 1800s. But I guess he had something to say about Southern history (especially his—and my—family of enslavers), because he was an enormous part of writing the book.
How long did it take to write – and revise – Blind Tribute? Was it ever hard to keep writing this 600-page book?
Yes, it is a long and heavy book (both literally and figuratively). In part, this is because the book tells two stories: Harry’s public commentary in epistolary format; and his private life and correspondence.
It took me about seven years to write. I produced three major drafts, each with dozens, maybe hundreds, of versions. The two rewrites were complete turnabouts—three vastly different structures. The third and final version took about three years and 100-ish slips of paper covering three office walls for the final six months.
There is no seven-year project in the world, especially an artistic one, that isn’t hard to slog through at one point or another. At one point, right before I entered the homestretch, I had a “dark night of the soul,” convinced I could never be a good enough writer to do the story (and my great-great uncle) justice. But it passed quickly, and it turned out I was good enough. There were also times when I put it away for perspective (such as between major rewrites), but in all, it was a fascinating and compelling experience.
What interesting family story influenced your book?
There’s a funny story about Uncle Percy’s phone calls from a tiny island off the coast of Charleston (where he retired) to Washington, D.C. The local Post Office had the only phone on Edisto Island, a tiny barrier island that lives about 25 years behind the times. When Percy got the operator on the line, he identified himself at the top of his voice: “P as in Peter, H as in Hell, Whaley!” This anecdote was the only reason Harry was given the name he was, so he can say, “P as in Peter, H as in Hell, Wentworth the Third!”
If you could go back and give yourself advice before starting this project, what would you say?
- Think things through more before you start, especially structure and major plot points, but also audience, arcs, emotional context, symbolism.
- Decide early how, why, and (to a lesser extent) when you want your main character to change.
- Don’t be so much of a pantser on a project this long, complex, and nuanced. (Outlines aren’t really the devil, they just play one on TV.)
- Don’t argue when your fingers move themselves, and don’t try to take control of them.
What have you learned about the human condition?
(Doesn’t every historical novelist answer this the same way? “People across history have more in common than I expected.”)
But also, people generally make the best decisions they can with what they have—their time/era, place, physical/mental/emotional capacity, and circumstance. And they usually believe they are doing the right thing (though sometimes for the wrong reasons). When you look at it this way, assuming positive motives even for negative actions, motivations become clearer, and it is easier to empathize with your characters, even the ones you don’t like.
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