I love to do research.

Karen Cushman — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 16:12:01 +0000

There is no one reviewing or editing or criticizing my research. It is just me and a hundred thousand interesting bits of information. And I discover things I love knowing, like the fact that an unknown Egyptian laborer invented beer when his bread fermented. Or that Saint Simeon Stylites lived for thirty-seven years atop a pillar. Or that in the eighteenth century, children were punished for not smoking, it being thought that tobacco smoke warded off plague germs.

Although I now can do much of my research online, a shelf in my study still holds the basics: The Oxford Book of Slang, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval England, The Oxford Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms, The Oxford Historical Thesaurus, and, of course, the invaluable Oxford English Dictionary.

And here are the books I used frequently to research my medieval books:

Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages, Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, Ian Mortimer

Growing Up in Medieval London, Barbara A. Hanawalt

A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, William Manchester

A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the14th Century, translated by Tania Bayard

Lost Country Life, Dorothy Hartley

Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony, Madeleine Pelner Cosman

Gerard’s Herbal: A History of Plants, Marcus Woodward, editor

Castle, David Macaulay

Oxford Dictionary of Saints

Fabulous Feasts Medieval Cookery and Ceremony – Karen Cushman

I love to do research.