SOURCE: Taber, Ronald W. “Vardis Fisher: New Directions for the Historical Novel.” Western American Literature 1, no. 4 (winter 1967): 285-96.

In the following essay, Taber asserts that the works of Fisher were at the forefront of efforts to free the historical novel from its ties to romantic literature, paving the way for greater realism and historical accuracy.

The terms “romance” and “historical novel” were, for a long time, practically synonymous, as novelist MacKinlay Kantor has noted.¹ There had long been murmurs of protest against the romantic and prudish historical novel, but nineteenth century tradition continued to influence the historical novel until the 1930's produced novelists, such as Kantor and Vardis Fisher, who were determined to portray the past realistically. American historical novelists began to feel the need to tell the truth about history, convinced that the novel could elucidate and extend man's knowledge better than the works of professional historians...