The legend of Victor, an 11-year-old boywho was raised by wolves until his discovery inAveyron, France, in 1799, is historical truth —however fantastic the story may be. But inJoan Connor’s new short story collectionHistory Lessons, he’s a fictional character withhis own voice. “I do not know your right andwrong. I do not know your hot and cold. Igambol naked in the snow. I roast potatoesin my hands,” he declares.

The short story “Victor Learns to Speak,” like others in Connor’s collection published last fall by the University of Massachusetts Press, uses a historical figure, anecdote, or incident to jump start the writer’s imagination. Adam and Eve discuss the perfect apple pie and disenchantment with love at an automat. Ray Charles takes an obsessed fan for a joy ride. Villagers reminisce about Bridget Cleary, a real Irish woman who was burned to death in 1895 for alleged possession by fairies.

“Sometimes it’s just an image or an idea that will snag me,” says Connor, an associate professor of English at Ohio University who previously has published the collections Here On Old Route 7 and We Who Live Apart (“A Long Journey to a Short Story,” Perspectives Autumn/Winter 2000).

Connor, who confesses to being weak at generating plots for her stories, used the historical tidbits as a framework for creating fictional characters. She conducted research on some of the figures — including a trip to Ireland to visit Cleary’s cottage — but avoided over researching the incidents to “leave fictional space.” In other cases she used some figures for metaphors for more personal experiences. The wild child Victor holdsemotional significance for Connor, whose sonovercame early learning disabilities andtoday is a high school honors student.

But the writer also notes that the collection is emblematic of our current obsession with history — prompted, she believes, by the turn of the millennium and our struggle to make sense of whom we’ve become. We’ve become a bit paranoid about history, she argues, as competing versions of the facts emerge.

“They’re fictions, essentially, and that’s what my collection is addressing,” says Connor, who won the Associated Writing Program award for the book in 2003.

For more information about Joan Connor’s work, visit
http://www.english.ohiou.edu/faculty/connor/index.html.