Katherine Howe

Last updated

Katherine Howe
Born1977 (age 4647)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
Education Columbia University (BA)
Boston University (MA)
Genre Historical fiction
Spouse Louis Hyman
Website
www.katherinehowe.com

Katherine Howe (born 1977) is an American novelist who lives in New England and New York City. [1] She specializes in historical novels which she uses to query ideas about "the contingent nature of reality and belief." [2] Her debut novel was the New York Times Bestseller The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009), related to the Salem witch trials. Its success led to her being a guest on several TV news shows, as well as "Salem: Unmasking The Devil" on the National Geographic Channel.

Contents

She has also written The House of Velvet and Glass,Conversion, The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen (2015), [3] [4] and A True Account (2023). [5] Her fiction has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Biography

Howe was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Her mother is a longtime curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. [6] [7] She graduated from the Kinkaid School and earned her undergraduate degree in art history and philosophy at Columbia University. She began writing fiction while doing graduate work; she earned an MA in American and New England Studies at Boston University. [2] She teaches at Cornell University. [1]

In 2016 she was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where she was finishing a novel set "among the corsairs of the Gulf Coast that imagines Texas’s role within the broader Caribbean diaspora. It is tentatively titled The Galvez Grand. It will build on archival research about patterns of trade and settlement on Galveston Island in the 1820s while engaging with the legacy of magical realist fiction in the American Southwest and in Mexico." [2]

Howe and her husband, the economic historian Louis Hyman (author of Debtor Nation ), are core members of a group informally known as the "Springfield Street Table." This batch of Cambridge-area writers and scholars gather to play poker, while trading barbs and debating culture and ideas. [8] The bestselling novelist Matthew Pearl, who also started writing fiction as a graduate student in English studies, is a core member of this group. He is sometimes credited with helping to launch Howe's literary career. [8]

Howe's ancestors settled in Essex County, Massachusetts in the 1620s. She is related to both Elizabeth Proctor and Elizabeth Howe, women convicted of being witches during the Salem witch trials. Proctor was spared because she was pregnant at the time of her scheduled execution, and later among prisoners released. Howe was executed. [9] Another of her relatives was Edward Howe, a ship captain, and his wife Hannah Masury, who took over his ship after his death on a Pacific excursion in the 19th century. Hannah Masury is the great aunt of Katherine Howe and her story became the inspiration for Howe's 2023 novel A True Account, which tells the story of a woman dressing up as a cabin boy on a pirate ship, which she eventually takes command of. [10]

Bibliography

Fiction

YearTitlePagesNotes
2009 The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane 384
2012The House of Velvet and Glass417
2014Conversion432
2015The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen379
2019The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs352
2023A True Account288

Non-fiction

YearTitlePagesNotes
2014The Penguin Book of Witches320Editor
2021Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty368with Anderson Cooper

Related Research Articles

<i>The Crucible</i> 1953 play by Arthur Miller

The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salem witch trials</span> Legal proceedings in Massachusetts, 1692–1693

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in jail.

John Proctor was a landowner in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He and his wife Elizabeth were tried and convicted of witchcraft as part of the Salem Witch Trials, whereupon he was hanged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Barker</span> British writer and novelist

Patricia Mary W. Barker, is a British writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken. In 2012, The Observer named the Regeneration Trilogy as one of "The 10 best historical novels".

Ann Putnam was a primary accuser, at age 12, at the Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts during the later portion of 17th-century Colonial America. Born 1679 in Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, she was the eldest child of Thomas (1652–1699) and Ann Putnam (1661–1699).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tituba</span> 17th-century enslaved woman involved in the Salem witch trials

Tituba was a Native American slave woman who was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692–1693.

<i>The Crucible</i> (1996 film) 1996 American historical drama film

The Crucible is a 1996 American historical drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Arthur Miller, based on his 1953 play of the same title. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor, Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams, Paul Scofield as Judge Thomas Danforth, Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor, and Bruce Davison as Reverend Samuel Parris. Set in 1692 during the Salem witch trials, the film follows a group of teenage girls who, after getting caught performing a ritual in the woods, band together and falsely accuse several of the townspeople of witchcraft.

<i>The Crucible</i> (1957 film) 1957 film by Raymond Rouleau

The Crucible is a 1957 French-language historical drama film directed by Raymond Rouleau with a screenplay adapted by Jean-Paul Sartre from the 1953 play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller.

<i>Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow</i> Series of childrens books, prequels to the Pirates feature film series

Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow is a series of novels for young readers written by Liz Braswell, Carla Jablonski, Tui T. Sutherland and other authors under the shared pseudonym of Rob Kidd. The series is published by Disney Press and was written as a literary companion to the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The books are about Jack Sparrow's teen years before he becomes a pirate. It is followed by Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom and the series Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court, set thirteen years before the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercy Lewis</span>

Mercy Lewis was an accuser during the Salem Witch Trials. She was born in Falmouth, Maine. Mercy Lewis, formally known as Mercy Allen, was the child of Philip Lewis and Mary (Cass) Lewis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Nurse</span> Convicted witch in Salem, Massachusetts (1621–1692)

Rebecca Nurse was a woman who was accused of witchcraft and executed by hanging in New England during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. She was fully exonerated fewer than twenty years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials</span>

Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. The literary and dramatic depictions are discussed in Marion Gibson's Witchcraft Myths in American Culture and see also Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692

This timeline of the Salem witch trials is a quick overview of the events.

Abigail Hobbs was a girl of about 14-17 years old when she was arrested for witchcraft on April 18, 1692, along with Giles Corey, Mary Warren, and Bridget Bishop. Prior to living in Salem Village, she and her family had lived in Falmouth, Maine, the frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a time when there were many attacks by the Wabanaki Native Americans. Her father William and mother, Deliverance Hobbs, were also both charged with witchcraft.

Elizabeth Howe was one of the accused in the Salem witch trials. She was found guilty and executed on July 19, 1692.

<i>The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane</i> Novel by Katherine Howe

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (2009) is the first novel of American author Katherine Howe. It was published by VOICE, an imprint of Hyperion (publisher).
It debuted at number two on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list on June 20, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Booth</span>

Elizabeth Booth was born in 1674 and was one of the accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. She grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, as the second eldest of ten children. When she was sixteen she was accused of being a witch. When she was eighteen, she began accusing people of practicing witchcraft, including John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Sarah Proctor, William Proctor, Benjamin Proctor, Woody Proctor, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, Job Tookey, and Wilmont Redd. Five of these people were executed due to Booth's testimony. Elizabeth Proctor would have been executed as well if she was not pregnant. After the Witch Trials, Booth married Israel Shaw on December 26, 1695, and had two children named Israel and Susanna. Booth's death date is unknown.

<i>I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem</i>

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem is a French novel by Maryse Condé published in 1986. It won the French Grand Prix award for women's literature.

Paula Brackston is the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch's Daughter and other historical fantasy novels. She also writes the fantasy crime Brothers Grimm Mystery series under the pseudonym P. J. Brackston.

References

  1. 1 2 "About Katherine | Katherine Bygrave Howe". Archived from the original on July 9, 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "Katherine Howe" Archived 2017-06-14 at the Wayback Machine , 2016 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, accessed 28 April 2016
  3. "Katherine Bygrave Howe". Archived from the original on August 25, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  4. Howe, Katherine (July 1, 2014). Conversion. G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers. ISBN   978-0399167775.
  5. Kemp-Habib, Alice (November 27, 2023). "'She took control of the ship with a pistol': the high seas heroine who inspired a savage pirate tale". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  6. "Katherine S. Howe to retire, after 41 years at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston". The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
  7. "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Katherine Howe, Louis Hyman". The New York Times. June 29, 2003. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 1, 2022.
  8. 1 2 "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Katherine Howe, Louis Hyman". June 29, 2003 via NYTimes.com.
  9. Elizabeth Howe Archived 2013-11-27 at the Wayback Machine , Physick book website
  10. Kemp-Habib, Alice (November 27, 2023). "'She took control of the ship with a pistol': the high seas heroine who inspired a savage pirate tale". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved January 2, 2024.