Max Byrd: The Historical Novel

Bliss Carnochan Visitor

Novelist Max Byrd delivered the annual Bliss Carnochan lecture to a full house at the Humanities Center, engaging the audience with reflections on historical fiction from Homer to Gore Vidal. Byrd has taught English at Yale and UC Davis and is the author of a number of scholarly books on eighteenth century English literature, including "Visits to Bedlam" (1974) and "London Transformed" (1978). He is also the author of four historical novels ("Grant: A Novel," "Jefferson: A Novel," "Jackson: A Novel," and "Shooting the Sun") and winner of the Shamus Award for best paperback private detective novel.