Karen Harper
Encyclopedia
Karen Harper is an historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...

 and contemporary fiction author. She is a New York Times and USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

 bestselling author.

Writing career

Harper published Sweet Passion's Pain in 1984, and it was later published as The First Princess of Wales in 2006 by Three Rivers Press. It tells the tale of Joan of Kent
Joan of Kent
Joan, Countess of Kent , known to history as The Fair Maid of Kent, was the first English Princess of Wales...

 and her future husband Edward, the Black Prince
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England....

. Harper remarked in an author's note that the novel reminded her of the love affair between Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...

 and Camilla Parker Bowles, as both shared a "less than enthusiastic endorsement" from senior royal figures. Harper has stated that the Tudor era
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...

 is her favorite setting for her novels, and medieval England
England in the Middle Ages
England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Medieval period — from the end of Roman rule in Britain through to the Early Modern period...

 is a close second.

Harper has been praised for her historically accurate attention to detail. She states this is because she has built up a large Tudor library over the past thirty years, has undergone frequent trips to the British isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

, has full access to the large Ohio State University library, and has interviewed many people familiar with her chosen historical topics.

Personal life

Harper was born in Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, and obtained her undergraduate degree from Ohio University
Ohio University
Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...

 in Athens
Athens, Ohio
Athens is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Athens County, Ohio, United States. It is located along the Hocking River in the southeastern part of Ohio. A historic college town, Athens is home to Ohio University and is the principal city of the Athens, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area. ...

, and her graduate degree from Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

 in Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

. She met her husband Don in Columbus, and has lived there for thirty-five years, though they spend some time in Naples
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of July 1, 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 21,653. Naples is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated total population of 315,839 on July 1, 2007...

, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 (as she considers that state her "second home").

Harper previously taught English at Ohio State University.

List of works

  • The Amish Maple Creek Series:
  • Dark Road Home
  • Dark Harvest
  • Dark Angel

  • Down to the Bone
  • The Baby Farm
  • Shaker Run
  • The Stone Forest
  • The Falls
  • Inferno
  • Hurricane
  • Below The Surface
  • The Hiding Place
  • Deep Down
  • Down River

  • The Amish Home Valley Series
  • Into The Fire
  • Into The Darkness
  • Into The Past

  • Historical novels:
  • The Last Boleyn
    The Last Boleyn
    The Last Boleyn is a novel by Karen Harper.Previously published as Passion's Reign in 1983, The Last Boleyn tells the story of the middle Boleyn child: Mary. Unlike her siblings, Anne and George, Mary Boleyn was left wholly forgotten by history...

  • The First Princess of Wales (originally published as Sweet Passion's Pain in 1984)
  • Mistress Shakespeare
  • The Queen's Governess

  • The Queen Elisabeth I Mystery Series
  • The Poyson Garden
  • The Tidal Poole
  • The Twylight Tower
  • The Queene's Cure
  • The Thorne's Maze
  • The Queen's Christmas
  • The Fyre Mirror
  • The Fatal Fashione
  • The Hooded Hawke

  • The Irish Princess (2011)

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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