Related Links
One of the exciting things about offering a historical novel via the internet is the easy access readers have to related information, to pursue related interests or questions evoked or raised by the book itself.
The links are ones I found useful, interesting, sometimes amusing. They'll be updated over time.
They're not arranged in a particular order or grouping.
(1) http://www.fashion-era.com/la_belle_epoque_1890-1914_fashion.htm
The story takes place at the close of the Victorian and opening of the Edwardian era. Most readers told me women's fashion of the period was what most strongly evoked the period.
(2) http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/gibson.htm
At one point, the manuscript makes a reference to Teresa as a "Gibson girl." Here she is.
(3) http://www.wentworth.com/
The new Wentworth by the Sea Hotel....The hotel as it has been recreated today. The building and the setting continue to evoke its earlier era.
A great place to stay when you visit Portsmouth.
(4) http://portsmouthpeacetreaty.org/
The centennial year just passed (1905-2005) and a lot of information is on this centennial site. In a way, it is the "front stage" of the treaty negotiations where
Portsmouth 1905 is a journey into the "back stage."
(5) http://www.twainquotes.com/Revolution/revolution.html
Even before all the fruits of the Portsmouth conference were known, Mark Twain damned the treaty as "...the most conspicuous disaster in political history."
Shortly after the conference ended, many others began to offer severe criticism of the deal.
(6) http://www.nytimes.com/
Search the NY Times under "Treaty of Portsmouth", select "Archives 1851-1980" and you'll find a great deal of coverage both during the negotiations and after. Fascinating view. Be careful to note entries that begin in the Fall of 1905 and beyond.
(7) http://www.russojapanesewar.com/index.html
The Russo-Japanese War Research Society offers many details into the campaigns, their outcomes. For military historians, I think the Tsushima campaign is especially interesting. The Russian Black Sea Fleet made a long voyage to get to Tsushima and the coal they loaded pushed their armor banding below the water line making them vulnerable to the more nimble Japanese ships.
(8) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/mckamcen.html
America at the turn-of-the-century helps to provide context. The era contained almost everything familiar to us today: automobiles, telephones, flight, electricity. But they were all new technologies and people struggled to control them and integrate them into their daily lives. It's easy to see how intense excitement and obvious dangers accompanied all this.
(9) http://www.thecorner.org/hist/russia/revo1905.htm
The Russian revolution of 1905, the event that Lenin referred to as the "Blueprint for the Bolshevik Revolution." For many Russians, the Portsmouth treaty was a cri de coeur and provided more fuel for dissatisfaction that led to October 1917.
(10) http://www.portsmouthnh.com/
Modern Portsmouth seacoast tourism. A beautiful region of the state anytime of year. Worth visiting. The notorious red light district on Water Street (now re-named Marcy) was obliterated by the Prescott sisters.
(11) http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1906/roosevelt-acceptance.html
TR's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize was delivered by Herbert Peirce, TR's man at the conference, in 1906. TR did not get to Sweden until 1910.
(12) http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/1204/potemkin.htm
The 1925 Film "Battleship Potemkin". The Potemkin and all the struggle surrounding it began the week before the book opens. The 1925 film, part of the new Russian/Bolshevik mythology, made this early action by mutinous naval crews in Russia a touchstone of political thinking for the new century.
(13) http://www.historicalfiction.org/
A website for historical fiction.
(14) http://home.comcast.net/%7Eljochsner/
Historical fiction review
(15) http://www.angelfire.com/il/ofagespast/
"Of Ages Past" An on-line magazine for historical fiction
(16) http://seacoastnh.com/History/As_I_Please/Tapping_Old_Spirits_at_Frank_Jones_Brewery/
Seacoast NH.com offers lots of juicy information about the Portsmouth area. This link refers to the Frank Jones Brewery, the one the Russians travel through the evening of their arrival for the conference.
Actuality Films of the Conference. See the delegates arrive in Portsmouth.
(1) Video 1
