The Real Belle Boyd

Between the Lines

Researching A Rebellious Woman was a lot of work – of course! – but also tremendous fun. I kept making amazing discoveries. Her “almost name” that she carved into the window of her school when she was twelve. The letter she wrote to her Cousin Willie bragging about her looks when she was sixteen. The brief document ordering her confinement in Old Capitol Prison. The sad doctor’s report that temporarily committed her to the Asylum for the Insane in Stockton, California. The posters advertising her performances as “The Famous Rebel Spy.” Census records (God bless the census!). Maps. They not only gave me the information I needed but stirred my imagination, helping me manage that mysterious transformation in which historical fact becomes historical fiction.