Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast · Alycia Asai

Grief, Love, and Connection: The Missing Pages with Alyson Richman

·30 min·2 clips

Richman says she was drawn to Harry Widener's story as a mother-son story, not as a Titanic story.

Alicia opens the conversation warmly. She introduces Alison Richman as a painter and author, then steers the discussion toward The Missing Pages, art, research, and travel. The book comes first. Alicia asks what drew Richman into writing and how she found her way into historical fiction, giving the guest room to trace the early shape of her craft. Women at work matter here. Richman and Alicia talk about whether women in 1912 could hold unusual jobs outside the home, and that question leads them into the antiquarian book trade. Quaritch Limited appears. Richman explains that the bookstore where Harry purchased the books before boarding the Titanic was Quaritch Limited, and that Charlotte Quaritch worked there, knew the business, and later took over the family company after her brother died. That real example gives Richman a firm basis for shaping her heroine, and it helps the novel feel grounded in the lived presence of women who worked with books and ideas. Research is never tidy. Richman describes her process as all-encompassing, full of rabbit holes, and dependent on real affection for the subject because every discovery seems to lead to another one. She keeps what sticks. The details that stay with her rise to the top, where she can weave them into the novel instead of letting them fade back into the archive. The work spills everywhere. Richman jokes that her house would reveal the process, because researching a historical novel means living with notes, detours, and a stubborn urge to follow whatever looks interesting. Alicia stays with the theme. The conversation circles back to the novel's emotional center, where grief, love, and connection sit beside the historical material instead of being kept apart from it. The ending is tender. Richman and Alicia close on the idea of keeping a son's spirit alive in a beautiful way, and the episode leaves The Missing Pages sounding like both a historical inquiry and a story of memory.

As heard by us

A thoughtful history conversation that traces the research behind The Missing Pages.

Civics & Coffee frames Alison Richman's The Missing Pages as a conversation about grief, love, art, and research, with Alicia keeping the focus on how the novel is built as much as what it says.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a thoughtful interview about a historical novel that treats grief and love as part of the story, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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