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BRICK PLAYS HOST TO PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR
By Keith Hagarty
 | | --Photo By Keith Hagarty Author and presidential historian Feather Schwartz Foster speaks to the captivated crowd at the Brick Historical Society this week about her latest novel "Garfield's Train," a fictional depiction of factual events in the assassination death of President James Garfield. |
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The 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, was only president for six months. Three of those months were spent dying after an assassin's bullet claimed his life in 1881 at the Jersey Shore.
As author of the novel "Garfield's Train," presidential historian Feather Schwartz Foster spoke to the Brick Historical Society this week about the events leading to the death of the second shortest-term president in history.
"I read heavy, but I write light," Foster told the standing-room only crowd gathered to hear her speak at the Herbertsville Fire Station.
Although her book is based on historical characters and factual events surrounding Garfield's death in Long Branch, Foster said her novel blends the interaction of fictional characters with a supporting cast, including historical figures such as Roscoe Conking, James G. Blaine, General Grant, Susan B. Anthony and the Garfield family.
Much of Foster's story focuses on the life and series of events leading to the attempted assassination of Garfield in Washington, D.C. and eventual death in Long Branch at the hands of Charles J. Guiteau, an unstable follower of Garfield who was disgruntled towards the president after being passed over for a federal post.
"If you look in your history books, it will tell you that Guiteau was a dissatisfied or a disillusioned office-seeker, but that's not really the truth," she said. "The truth is- he was a nut, a certifiable lunatic."
The local angle of Garfield's story focuses on the Monmouth County town of Long Branch, which in the late 19th century was one of the most highly-coveted locations in America for its relaxing oceanfront setting. It was here that Garfield died following a train ride from Washington, D.C. where he was attempting to spend his final moments with his wife and family at the shore.
While an assassin's bullet is cited as the cause of Garfield's death, Foster believes the antiquated medical treatment of the late 19th century probably was a key factor in the president's death.
"If it happened today, his injuries probably would've been just a little bit worse than Reagan's," said Foster. "But Garfield was 20 years younger than Reagan. He was in prime condition. He was in good health. He was only 49 years old. He was in good shape: 6-feet tall, 200-210 pounds, a good-sized fellow and very athletic."
However, because of the medical treatment available at the time and the lack of clean and sterile equipment and practices, complications from massive infections eventually led to Garfield's death.
"If they did absolutely nothing, he would've gotten better," Foster said of the his medical treatment, pointing to thousands of Civil War veterans with similar bullet wounds who lived long lives with a bullet simply lodged inside them.
"He was doctored to death," she said. "He had some of the worst medical doctors. I call them the Keystone Cops."
Following a long career in advertising, Foster, of Scotch Plains, took her three decades worth of passion for presidential history and turned it into a successful writing career, with the three published books and over 100 speaking appearances throughout New Jersey.
While she originally intended to write a non-fictional story of Garfield's death, Foster said newspaper accounts only went so far back, and instead of re-telling the same tried and true historical account of the events, she decided to take a different approach. She told the story through the eyes of a young girl aboard the train with the president before his fateful day.
"I kept getting these retreads. I got no new information. It was just the same old information just reworded," said Foster. "I had no meat, no juice, no anything, so I decided that if I wrote a novel and I invited a fictional family to interact with Garfield and some of the other notables of that day, then I could do anything I wanted with the story. What I could do was I could make the movie in my mind of what I thought it looked like, what I thought would happen and how I thought people would behave."
When writing any piece of historical fiction, Foster said the most important element is the story must be plausible.
"It has to be basically: does this make sense?" she said. "Would people actually do this?"
To get in the proper writing mood, Foster said she still likes to work at her local library, where she also serves on the board of trustees.
"I can focus better there than I can in the house," she said. "I go there and bring my own books and just write."
Foster is also the published author of "Ladies: A Conjecture of Personalities," a novel of imagined conversations between first ladies throughout history, and the children's book "T: An Auto-biography" about the adventures of the creation of the first automobile.
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