Representations of Judah Benjamin in fiction

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Former Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin appears in a number of works of fiction:

  • Robert D. Abrahams', Mr. Benjamin's Sword (1948) is juvenile historical fiction which covers the period of Benjamin's escape from Union forces after the loss of Richmond.
  • Benjamin is featured as a politician and amateur detective in John Dickson Carr's Papa La-Bas (1968), a mystery set in New Orleans in 1858.
  • Benjamin is a major character in the alternate history novel Gray Victory (1988) by Robert Skimin, taking place in 1866, in which the Confederacy has won independence. A mixed-race woman, who is a member of a secret abolitionist underground, has an affair with Benjamin.
  • Benjamin, along with other historical figures, is a character in Harry Turtledove's alternate history novel The Guns of the South (1992).
  • He is featured in Southern Victory Series, which chronicles an alternate history world after the South wins the Civil War. The Confederacy which Benjamin helped create is portrayed as an analog of Nazi Germany in the 1930s–1940s.
  • In the 2004 mockumentary film C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, Benjamin convinces France and Britain to side with the Confederacy, which wins the war.
  • Benjamin figures prominently in the award-winning writer Dara Horn's short story "Passover in New Orleans" and her mystery novel, All Other Nights (2009). The story is a fictional account of an attempt to assassinate a New Orleans Jewish Confederate official before he can assassinate Lincoln.
  • Benjamin appears in the alternate history novel By Force of Arms by Billy Bennett, where he reprises his role as the Confederate Secretary of State, this time under President Robert E. Lee. Benjamin is instrumental in getting Great Britain to sell the Confederacy vital weapons for its new war with the Union.
  • Benjamin is a character in a fictional mystery trilogy by the author and intelligence analyst W. Patrick Lang, a former US Army officer. The first two books of the trilogy are The Butcher's Cleaver (2007), and Death Piled Hard (2009). In them, the role of Benjamin as the effective head of civilian Confederate covert operations and intelligence is a central feature of the plot. This interpretation of Benjamin's place in history is based on the historical study, "Come Retribution", a study of the Abraham Lincoln assassination.
  • Benjamin is the main character in Beloved, a novel in which author Viña del Mar depicts a stormy relationship between Benjamin and his wife Natalie, who is portrayed as incorrigibly unfaithful. Beloved was published in hardback by Harcourt, Brace in 1956 and in paperback by Dell in 1965.