Learn history through fiction. For my WWI-era novel On the Shore, I researched the kinds of candy American sailors might buy at the “gedunk stand” (canteen) in 1917. It was fortuitous that life savers, a nautical emblem, had been invented only five years earlier. Of course my character, a Navy recruit, bought a roll. Most intriguing was that the candy was the brainchild of Clarence Crane, the father of poet Hart Crane. Clarence was a chocolate-maker looking for a non-melting confection he could sell in the summer. Thus was “Crane’s Peppermint Life Savers” born. Imagine my delight when a clue in the 05/28/17 Acrostic puzzle of The New York Times Magazine read: “Candy invented in 1912 by the father of poet Hart Crane.” I knew the answer!
