history Feature
Where history and imagination meet In Tracy Rombough’s Immortal Air, fact becomes fiction By Laurie Glenn Norris
B
y intertwining history and fiction, Kingston, Ontario, writer Tracey Rombough joins the rank of authors Emma Donoghue and Hillary Mantel in contributing to the ongoing intellectual debate about the nature and efficacy of recently coined literary categories such as “historical fiction,” “fictional memoir” and “non-fiction novel,” among others. In fact her new book, Immortal Air, which tells the story of little-known Nova Scotia-born poet George Frederick Cameron is marketed as “biographical fiction.” And it all started with a ruby ring.
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atlanticbookstoday.ca
Rombough’s property was undergoing renovations when she found the ring, inscribed with “Ella Mae,” in her backyard. Intrigued, she began to search for its former owner. It didn’t take long. Among a number of uncatalogued photographs at the local archives, Rombough found a photo of Ella Mae Emigh, the former occupant of her home and wife of George Cameron. Rombough’s subsequent search for the couple led her on an international chase. “During the process I often sifted through the documents historians typically use: journals, letters, newspaper accounts, marriage and death records,” she commented
Ella Mae Emigh, original owner of the ring author Tracey Rombough found in her backyard.