Alison Bass—Rebecca of Ivanhoe

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Cover of the book Rebecca of Ivanhoe by Alison Bass showing a portrait of a woman with dark hair and eyes wearing medieval-era clothing and large silver hoop earrings. She stands in front of a white-washed red-tiled roof building with a wrought-iron balcony.

Rebecca of Ivanhoe

REBECCA OF IVANHOE
Alison Bass
Bedazzled Ink Publishing, November 19, 2024
Paperback, $18.99, eBook, $9.99
Paperback ISBN: 978-1960373526, eBook ASIN: B0D96N7S6B

Bass reports:

Rebecca of Ivanhoe is my fictional account of the life of Rebecca, a Jewish healer and a character in Sir Walter Scott's classic tale of the life of Ivanhoe, a medieval knight in England. In Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe rescues Rebecca as she is about to be burned alive as a witch.

Portrait photo of Alison Bass

Alison Bass
Photo by Lois Raimondo

I had read Ivanhoe in college. More than 40 years later, during the pandemic, Rebecca came to me in a daydream. I reread Ivanhoe and began writing about Rebecca's life after Ivanhoe saved her.

She and her father flee to Cordoba, Spain, where they have relatives. But Cordoba is no longer safe for Jews, so she and her extended family move to Toledo, which is under the protection of the Christian King Alfonso VIII. Rebecca becomes a well-respected healer in Toledo, even though 12th century Spain is a tumultuous time for Jews caught between the Moors and Christians battling for control of the country.

I did a lot of research as I wrote. I discovered, for instance, that Alfonso VIII, the King of Castile and Leon, had a Jewish mistress in Toledo, Rachel of Esra. In my novel, Rebecca and Rachel become friends. Church officials hate Rachel's influence over the king and constantly scheme to undermine her.

After a series of deadly anti-Jewish riots in Toledo, Rebecca and her family escape to Egypt, where the Muslim rulers are much more tolerant of other faiths. Indeed, Maimonides, the famous Jewish philosopher, was a physician to the Sultan. In my novel, Maimonides recruits Rebecca to become a midwife for the Sultan's harem.

Women were respected healers in both Spain and Egypt at the time, and most women relied on midwives rather than doctors to help them give birth.

After writing several drafts of the novel and getting input from friends and other professional writers, I sent the manuscript to agents and publishers. It found a home with Bedazzled Ink Publishing, a small women's press in California, the same press that published my memoir Brassy Broad: How one journalist paved the way to#MeToo.

Contact info:

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Banner image adapted from original photo by Alison Bass.

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

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Publication of NASW author reports in Advance Copy does not constitute NASW's endorsement of any publication or the ideas, values, or material contained within or espoused by authors or their books. We hope this column stimulates productive discussions on important topics now and in the future as both science and societies progress. We welcome your discussion in the comments section below.


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