In this Tall Poppy Writers article, author Denny S. Bryce shares her fascination with the Jazz Age, some sensational headlines from the era, the research and archive-combing required to write a novel set in the 1920s, and some recommendations of other great books set in the era.
What is it about the 1920s that makes them one of the most written-about decades in the 2020s? Novelists are gobbling up the 1920s, seizing headline news stories and some of history’s most fascinating women, men, and crimes of the early 20th century to write about. Honestly, I have no idea if I’m telling the truth about the 1920s being the go-to decade for historical fiction. It could be that since I’m fascinated by the Jazz Age, I’ve written three novels (so far) in which the lion’s share of the story happens in the 1920s. But one of the things that fascinates me about that decade is the newspaper headlines that captivated its readers with some of the most sensational configurations of words.
It’s like every newspaper from the New York Daily News to the New Amsterdam News (a weekly in Harlem) to the Standard Star, Chicago Defender, or the Chicago Daily Tribune — this was the era when citizens devoured newspapers, and the headlines weren’t that different from what you might find today on TMZ, TikTok or X, formerly known as Twitter.
Also, did you know that some daily newspapers had up to three editions daily and special editions when the news warranted (like a prize fight or the Kentucky Derby winner)?
Here are some headlines from the past:
“Prohibition Begins” (January 16, 1920)
“Women Win the Vote” (August 18, 1920)
“Lindbergh Lands in Paris!” (May 21, 1927)
“Wall Street Lays an Egg” (October 30, 1929)
“Scopes Guilty: Fined $100 and Costs” (July 21, 1925)
“King Tut’s Tomb is Opened” (February 1923)
“Babe Ruth Hits 60th Home Run” (September 30, 1927)
“First Talking Movie, ‘The Jazz Singer,’ Premieres” (October 6, 1927)
“Dempsey KOs Firpo in First Round” (September 14, 1923)
As an author of novels focused on Black and African American protagonists, I spend a significant amount of time combing through the 1920s archives of Black-owned newspapers such as the Chicago Defender, Philadelphia Tribune, California Eagle, and Amsterdam News.
Some of these headlines in the 1920s were as follows:
“Negroes Flee Oppression of the South” / “Thousands Head North for New Opportunities”
“Another Lynching in the South” / “NAACP Demands Federal Anti-Lynching Law”
“Harlem’s Artistic Explosion” / “New Negro Movement: A Cultural Awakening”
“Black Athletes Break Records”
“Jazz Takes America by Storm”
All of this is to acknowledge the importance of benchmarks when writing historical fiction and the wealth of information available (for the most part) about the events of the 1920s.
Okay, now for the book recommendations. I had to trim this list down, but these are some fabulous reads you must grab whether you are a devotee of the 1920s or not — good storytelling is good storytelling, no matter the decade featured!
Listed in no particular order:
Queens of London by Heather Webb
The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham
The Winged Tiara by J’Nell Ciesielski
A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams
The Last Twelve Miles by Erika Robuck
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia
In closing, I mentioned my three novels. They are: Wild Women and the Blues, In the Face of the Sun, and coming July 23, The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander. But I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to share more about these books and Jazz Age history!
