Community Corner

Local Authors Tell Tales at 2011 Bookfest

A Glen Ellyn resident and Lombard native discuss life as authors during Saturday's second-annual festival.

What happened to Alice after she wandered down the rabbit hole?

Following her adventures with the Chesire Cat and the White Rabbit, what became of the little girl who inspired Lewis Carroll's character that captured the imaginations of so many?  

"It just wasn't a beloved book of mine," explained Melanie Benjamin, Glen Ellyn resident and author.  

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But when Benjamin saw a picture of the little girl, Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who inspired the beloved tale, her imagination went wild. And that's what led her to fill in the blank pages of Hargreaves' life, explaining what became of the girl everyone knew as Alice in her book  Alice I Have Been. 

Following the success of her first historical-fiction novel, Benjamin sat down to write another entitled, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

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Benjamin's newest tale will soon hit book shelves on July 26, so she talked to a small group of readers at on Saturday during the second-annual Bookfest.  

"I write because I want to be someone else, in a different place," explained Benjamin.

And Mrs. Tom Thumb is certainly different from Benjamin. First of all, the real-life character, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump, stood only 32 inches tall. Born into a world that wasn't made for her, many assumed that Vinnie would lead a limited life only to be cared for by family. 

Ironically, her height was her passport out of her small town. It led her to a lavish life, and a whirlwind tour of the world with P.T. Barnum, the legendary American entertainer.

At the center of the show, Vinnie was on public display to show the world life as a little person.

"She was a star," said Benjamin. 

Benjamin will soon be front and center on her own two-week tour that starts this summer. She'll be traveling to places across America to promote The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Mary Doria Russell was the keynote speaker at Saturday's second-annual Bookfest and in the audience was her high school English teacher. 

Richard Cima sat in a crowd at the on Saturday listening to Russell, as she captivated the audience with her wit and big personality, while explaining her latest book Doc. 

When he stood up to ask a question of the author, Russell did a double-take and realized it was her senior-year teacher from Glenbard East who was now calling on her.   

"I'm very happy and I'm very proud of her," said Cima. "I think they're well done and I enjoyed the last one immensely," Cima said later of his former student's novels. 

After rushing off stage to give her teacher a hug, the Lombard-native returned to address Saturday's sizable crowd.

Russell explained that after countless tales about the Wild West and Doc Holliday in either movies, TV shows or myths, Russell wanted to "give him his voice back" and told the story of a man who was "exiled and ill, doing the best he could to stay alive."

Like Benjamin, Russell weaved a tale of what life may have been like for Holliday based on her intense research. She's received some incredible reviews for the novel in places like the Washington Post and is a New York Times best-selling author. 

What's interesting is that Russell has written books in almost every genre except mystery. She's penned science fiction books and now adds a historical fiction tale to her list of works. She says genre doesn't matter, it's all about falling for the characters. 

"If I'm going to spend three of four years with my characters, I have to fall in love."


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