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About Frances Perkins

Cover of DEAR MISS PERKINS by Rebecca Brenner Graham

Rebecca Brenner Graham’s DEAR MISS PERKINS

by Stephanie Dray | June 23, 2025 | Frances Perkins, News | 48 Comments

Perkins navigated an American climate of antisemitism, capitalism, misogyny, xenophobia, and more. Her positionality as a Christian, educated, relatively privileged descendant of English settlers made her encounters even more unsettling and stark. As a historical figure, she’s a unique tour guide for contemporary readers interested in the history of the U.S. in the 1930s.

Blue and stars background with the cover of Becoming Madam Secretary on it

NPR’s Throughline: The Woman Behind the New Deal

by Stephanie Dray | June 5, 2025 | Becoming Madam Secretary, For Readers, Frances Perkins, Interviews, News | 0 Comments

I'm tremendously honored to have been interviewed as part of the tremendous Throughline program on Frances Perkins available from NPR right now. It's so well done. So interesting. You need to give it a listen!

What’s New In Historical Fiction? – Event Sign Up

by Lisa Christie | May 12, 2024 | Becoming Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins, Fun Stuff, Historical Fiction Genre, My Works, News, Upcoming Events | 0 Comments

What's New in Historical Fiction is a regular panel series featuring historical novelists with new and upcoming titles. Mark your calendars for this event that you can attend in your pajamas! Join Stephanie Dray as she...

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Bed Linens and Bloopers

by Stephanie Dray | May 7, 2024 | Becoming Madam Secretary, Bloopers, Frances Perkins, Historical Fiction Genre, My Works, News | 0 Comments

In historical fiction, you can't take anything for granted. Not even, as it turns out, the making of a bed! Longtime readers know that whenever I make a mistake in one of my novels, I come clean here in my blooper file. Well, we're only two months out from the...

Screenshot of the article in question.

Local News Matters talks about Becoming Madam Secretary

by Stephanie Dray | March 4, 2024 | Becoming Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins, Historical Fiction Genre, My Works, News | 0 Comments

I especially love this article because it goes into how historical fiction lends psychological depth to the historical record.

About The Lafayettes

Lafayette and the Champs de Mars Violence

by Stephanie Dray | July 13, 2021 | Adrienne Lafayette, Heroines, My Works, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

This week marks a sad anniversary of the so-called Champs de Mars Massacre in Paris France, on July 17, 1791. The country was ostensibly a constitutional monarchy, but the king and the royal family had just fled Paris, only to be recognized on the road, and returned...

Chocolate in the 18th & 19th Centuries and Other Bloopers

by Stephanie Dray | April 24, 2021 | Adrienne Lafayette, America's First Daughter, Bloopers, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

Here's one for the blooper file. As I understand it, the chocolate we know it today was not invented until 1847. Until then, chocolate was known and enjoyed as a drink. So why, then, do edible chocolates appear at the end of the 18th century in both America's First...

Tasting History with Max Miller & The Women of Chateau Lafayette

by Stephanie Dray | March 30, 2021 | Adrienne Lafayette, Food, Fun Stuff, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

My fabulously talented friend Max Miller and I were talking about his popular food show, "Tasting History" when I suggested that he do an episode featuring some food from Lafayette's day. I provided him with a wedding menu that was posted to the wall at the Chateau de...

Lafayette We Are Here

by Stephanie Dray | March 15, 2021 | Adrienne Lafayette, Articles, Beatrice Chanler, Research, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

The Marquis de Lafayette was not only instrumental in helping the United States to win independence; his memory also played a role in America embracing her destiny as a world power. On July 4, 1917, General Pershing and his staff visited Lafayette's tomb at Picpus...

About Beatrice Chanler & Her World

We All Come to the Same Night

by Stephanie Dray | June 14, 2021 | Beatrice Chanler, My Works, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

On June 19, 1946 Beatrice Chanler passed away. She was traveling by train with French diplomat Alexis Leger, also known as Nobel prize winning poet Saint-John Perse. The two had spent summers together at her home in Islesboro, Maine since his exile from France after...

Lafayette We Are Here

by Stephanie Dray | March 15, 2021 | Adrienne Lafayette, Articles, Beatrice Chanler, Research, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

The Marquis de Lafayette was not only instrumental in helping the United States to win independence; his memory also played a role in America embracing her destiny as a world power. On July 4, 1917, General Pershing and his staff visited Lafayette's tomb at Picpus...

Research on Beatrice Chanler

by Stephanie Dray | October 5, 2020 | Beatrice Chanler, Heroines, My Works, News, Research, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

While writing The Women of Chateau Lafayette, the research kept shifting under my feet, in part due to what I discovered in Beatrice's private letters, provided to me by her grandson William A. Chanler, partly due to what I found in her papers at the New York...

The Musical World of Minnie Ashley

by Stephanie Dray | October 5, 2020 | Beatrice Chanler, For Readers, My Works, News, Research, The Women of Chateau Lafayette | 0 Comments

Those of you who have read The Women of Chateau Lafayette will know why I'm so interested in the world of the stage of the late 19th and early 20th century. For everyone else it will be a spoiler, so let me just say that a fabulous reader who has requested to remain...

About The Jeffersons & Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph

Martha Jefferson Randolph

by Stephanie Dray | July 13, 2016 | Martha Jefferson Randolph | 0 Comments

Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph’s relationship with her father, the third president of the United States, not only defined her life but also shaped the identity of our nation. For everything we know of the author of our independence was shaped by what she let pass...

The Women Behind Thomas Jefferson

by Stephanie Dray | June 3, 2016 | America's First Daughter, American Revolution, Martha Jefferson Randolph, My Works, News, RevolutionEssays | 0 Comments

Cross-posted from DrayKamoie.com Thomas Jefferson was the voice of the American Revolution, the author of the Declaration of Independence, the founder of the University of Virginia, and the third president of the United States. But he was also a man famously ruled as...

About Eliza Schuyler Hamilton and Her World

A Tour of the Schuyler Mansion in Albany

by Stephanie Dray | October 10, 2017 | American Revolution, Eliza, For Readers, Heroines, My Dear Hamilton, My Works | 0 Comments

My co-author Laura Kamoie and I had the pleasure of visiting this historic site early in our research process to get a feel for the place in which Eliza Schuyler Hamilton grew up and where she spent her early marriage. Where her family lived. And the place that was to...

James Madison on Alexander Hamilton

by Stephanie Dray | February 7, 2017 | American Revolution, Eliza, For Readers, Research | 0 Comments

I'll be putting quotes here from one Founding Father about the other. These particular ones are written after Hamilton's untimely death in 1804 at the hands of Vice President Aaron Burr. On Hamilton's Honor and Integrity "Of Mr. Hamilton I ought perhaps to speak with...

About Arsinoe II

Frequently Asked Questions about My Ancient World Books

by Stephanie Dray | July 27, 2013 | A Day of Fire, A Year of Ravens, Arsinoe II, Book Clubs, Cleopatra Selene, Daughters of the Nile, FAQ, FAQ for SONG OF THE NILE, For Readers, Heroines, Lily of the Nile, Song of the Nile, THE PRINCESS OF EGYPT MUST DIE | 0 Comments

Hippos are vegetarians, so how can they be dangerous? It's true that hippos don't want to eat you. But they do want to kill you. Hippos are one of the deadliest creatures on planet earth. That's a fact. So, I know you may have seen cute videos of baby hippos that have...

Arsinoe II of Egypt

by Stephanie Dray | March 13, 2013 | Arsinoe II, For Readers, Heroines | 0 Comments

Queen Arsinoë II was born into the Greek-Macedonian Ptolemaic Dynasty that ruled Egypt. Because I was invited to write The Princess of Egypt Must Die for an anthology, it gave me the opportunity to imagine a condensed origin story for the ruthless woman who would...

About Cleopatra Selene

31 Titles for Women’s History Month

by Stephanie Dray | February 27, 2025 | Book Clubs, Cleopatra Selene, Historical Fiction Genre, Lily of the Nile, News, Other Writers | 0 Comments

Hey everybody, it's time to celebrate women's history. Learn more here! And if you want to turn this into a fun bingo game for your book club, see instructions and examples here!

Cleopatra Selene, Queen of Mauretania

by Stephanie Dray | March 13, 2014 | Cleopatra Selene, Daughters of the Nile, For Readers, Lily of the Nile, My Works, Song of the Nile | 0 Comments

Cleopatra Selene is primarily remembered for being the daughter of Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman Triumvir, Marcus Antonius. But as the Queen of Mauretania, Cleopatra Selene should be remembered for more than this if only because she was the last Ptolemaic...

Would Cleopatra Selene Really Have Considered Herself Egyptian?

by Stephanie Dray | March 3, 2014 | Cleopatra Selene, Daughters of the Nile, FAQ, FAQ for SONG OF THE NILE, Lily of the Nile, My Works, Song of the Nile | 7 Comments

One of the criticisms sometimes leveled at my Nile series is that because the Ptolemaic Dynasty considered itself Macedonian, the emphasis I place on Egyptian culture--and Cleopatra Selene's awareness of it--is somehow historically inaccurate or anachronistic. I...

Frequently Asked Questions about My Ancient World Books

by Stephanie Dray | July 27, 2013 | A Day of Fire, A Year of Ravens, Arsinoe II, Book Clubs, Cleopatra Selene, Daughters of the Nile, FAQ, FAQ for SONG OF THE NILE, For Readers, Heroines, Lily of the Nile, Song of the Nile, THE PRINCESS OF EGYPT MUST DIE | 0 Comments

Hippos are vegetarians, so how can they be dangerous? It's true that hippos don't want to eat you. But they do want to kill you. Hippos are one of the deadliest creatures on planet earth. That's a fact. So, I know you may have seen cute videos of baby hippos that have...

Book cover of Song of the Nile set on a background of the Palatine Hill

Discussion Questions for Song of the Nile

by Stephanie Dray | July 27, 2013 | Book Clubs, Cleopatra Selene, For Readers, Historical Fiction Genre, Song of the Nile | 0 Comments

On the Story Is Helios alive or is he a manifestation of the part of Selene’s soul that helps her survive the worst moments of her life? After Selene was violated, Livia to offer her a cup of poison to wash away the dishonor. Did Selene have anything to be ashamed...

Who Were Cleopatra’s Grandchildren?

by Stephanie Dray | January 19, 2012 | Cleopatra Selene, FAQ for SONG OF THE NILE | 7 Comments

I’ve spent the past few years writing about Cleopatra’s daughter--a fascinating young woman that most people don't even know existed. Today I want to talk about the next generation, the children that the infamous Queen of the Nile may have bounced on her knee if she’d...

Keeping it in the (Ptolemaic) Family

by Stephanie Dray | January 12, 2012 | Cleopatra Selene, My Works | 13 Comments

There are a whole slew of fantastically good reasons why incest is illegal and taboo, including the lasting psychological damage it does, and the dysfunctional family dynamics it creates. That said, there’s a good chance that the Ptolemaic Dynasty would have been...

Photos of Cleopatra Selene’s Lost World

by Stephanie Dray | November 15, 2011 | Cleopatra Selene, Daughters of the Nile, Lily of the Nile, Research, Song of the Nile | 6 Comments

The ancient kingdom of Mauretania, once ruled by Juba II and Cleopatra Selene, is lost to the sands of time. But there are the ruins. I've posted photos of the area near Selene's capital city, Iol-Caesaria, modern-day Cherchell Algeria. Now, thanks to Aaron Sakulich,...

How Rain, Grain & Cleopatra’s Daughter fed the Roman Empire

by Stephanie Dray | November 2, 2011 | Articles, Cleopatra Selene, Daughters of the Nile, For Readers, Heroines, Lily of the Nile, Miscellany, Research, Song of the Nile | 5 Comments

For much of its history, Rome depended upon Egypt for grain. While the Romans considered themselves an agricultural nation, and paid great homage to farming in literature, poetry, and art, the simple truth was that they couldn’t feed themselves. By the time Cleopatra...

World of Juba II & Kleopatra Selene Map

The World as Cleopatra Selene & Juba II Would Have Known It

by Stephanie Dray | May 20, 2011 | Cleopatra Selene, Daughters of the Nile, Lily of the Nile, Research, Song of the Nile | 6 Comments

Many thanks to the Ancient World Mapping Center for giving me permission to post this map in anticipation of the release of Song of the Nile, my forthcoming novel about Cleopatra's daughter. I'm delighted to be able to share it with readers.

Further Reading

Bibliography for the Nile Series