[davem]

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/317959

“When I began this publishing house, I had no idea that the question of whether one could libel the dead was still moot,” Ms Robinson comments about the recent, now settled, libel case lodged by the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien against Steve Hillard, the American author of fiction novel "Mirkwood" as reported in The Guardian.

“Coming from an academic background, I can attest that for those who research history, academic works are a mixture of fact and conjecture. Indeed, if we can no longer imagine how historical figures may have made the decisions they made during their lifetimes or delve into the aspects (both good and bad) of their lives, then history as a discipline is dead,” she states.

The Tolkien case has been of particular interest to the managing director of Knox Robinson Publishing as the ruling had the potential to set a precedent for or against an author’s rights to create fictional works involving real people and the powers of an estate to control the use of names and reputations in works of fiction or even historical accounts. And although the case has now been settled, the door to litigation has been opened and more cases could follow. Several of the titles Knox Robinson intends to release this year contain fictionalizations of actual historical figures....

“Historical fiction is not just another form of personal expression; the genre offers a perspective on the past that academic or even popular history cannot provide. Fictional representations can breathe life into the past and foster an organic link with the present through a common language. Historical memory in societies past was maintained through story-telling, a recognizable and easily understood medium that helped give meaning to existence as well as entertained. To inhibit or suppress the creation of fictionalized accounts of persons or events, whether past or present, would undermine an age-old form of human expression and close the door to a valuable means to interpreting life. Had the Tolkien estate succeeded in suppressing the fictional variant of the paterfamilias, it would have opened the door to further interference in the free exchange of ideas and images in the literary world. It would have been especially threatening to the growing industry of historical fiction, since authors would be hesitant to create works that might be subject to litigation.”

Mary Anne Lane is also an author at Knox Robinson and her book "Blood Banner", the first book in a trilogy on the Landsknechts, is scheduled for release in December. She agrees with Ostryzniuk’s assessment. “Not being able to use people from history in books would damage the world of literature because recent history could not be written,” she comments. “No war films could be made, nor books written about it. No cowboy films could be shown, no courtroom dramas. That means no 'They Died With Their Boots On', no 'Inherit the Wind', no 'Valkyrie'.”

Worth contemplating how dangerous a victory for the Tolkien Estate could have been. This was much bigger than whether an author could write a novel with Tolkien as one of the characters. The damage that could have resulted (for authors of both fictional & non-fictional works) could have been extreme.