Who knew that the indiscretions of the founding fathers would suddenly be a hot topic. Certainly not my guest when she started her historical novel five years ago. But then Hamilton happened. The smash hit, Pulitzer prize-winning musical. Now she finds herself with a well-received novel called, "The Hamilton Affair". Sometimes state just smiles. Joining me is Elizabeth Cobbs, author of "The Hamilton Affair" . Welcome to the show. Thank you morning. What is it that -- about Alexander Hamilton that's made in the soap -- subject of so much today. Immigration is such a big topic for us. Here's a man who was an immigrant who really made the country. I think it's a story of a person who comes up from nothing and who faces extraordinary obstacles and is loved by women of great wealth. She takes him into her heart and she really was a tremendous person. I think his story is one of the stories that hits all kinds of buttons. Here's the guy who was killed because of partisanship. Hears when politics really gets ugly. But at the same time, people learned a lot about the dangers of politics and cool their jets after his death. How did you feel about the enormous success of Hamilton, the musical. You had been working on the book or years before the musical came about. Did you feel your idea was being usurped in someway quick I was frightened, terrified and elated. I was elated partly because I just felt that the author gets Hamilton like I do. I loved what he did with it. I have not seen the musical, but the terrified part is just yeah you work on something a long time and then suddenly someone else comes along bash I kept saying to my publisher, they were taking their time about it. You know this is really going to be big. Pay attention. And finally they got it too. Historical novels can be tricky. How accurate is your did he get -- depiction of Hamilton analyze a quick I'm a professional historian and I get kind of ridiculous about getting actually every fact we know. I don't change. That is different from the musical who'd juices up the facts and actually changes the couple of them. He's just trying to get it all in in an hour and a half. Anything you read my book is pretty accurate. It's also connect the dots. In between the dots, in between the things we actually know, you have to extrapolate and build a character based on the way you think they are. From the little glimmers we get. Especially true of the wife, Eliza, who are just become such a fan of. She is one of the most important of the founding mothers. She is the most substantial accomplishments of the founding mothers. I get tiny glimpses and glimmers of her. But I think they were once where I could truly understand her. Her husband famously has an affair. And so the question is, why? He appears to love her but they don't have children for four years. Is the only time in their marriage were she's not having baby after baby. It continues through the affair. Maybe she didn't want to have kids and maybe they were holding off. All those things kind of come together in a perfect storm. One thing about Hamilton and Eliza, they stay together after his affair and they have more children together. Is that because Eliza had no other option or do you think they really save their marriage quick I think they really save their marriage. Eliza did something striking to me which is that after her husband's affair became public in this excruciatingly painful way, she was eight months pregnant. Is New York City summertime. It's not a fun time to be pregnant. She reads it in the newspapers bash she leaves home and she flees back to her family's home in upstate New York. When she comes back she actually steps into the public limelight. You think she'd hide under a rock. But instead, in some alchemy in her brain, she just says no I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to be just Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. She signs up for various things. She helps found an orphanage, starts a home to help women whose husbands have died. She steps out there. Have the fun of figuring out why. Exactly. You said that before this book, before this Hamilton Renaissance, he really had a rather bad reputation among the founders. You thought of him as a rather bad guy at first. How do you feel about him now? Completely different. What I discovered was that -- this is why Lin Manuel Miranda it's right. That's why the songs and what happened was Hamilton died right after George Washington. So the father of our country was gone. The people who were her rivals lives another 30 years and they never stopped badmouthing him. Even under Jefferson, Jefferson instructed his own secretary of the treasury to go find out what Hamilton had done and show how Hamilton really messed it up. And Albert [ name unknown ] was his name. He said I thought I was going to find a lot and I realized this man had created the most perfect system he possibly could. He had done nothing wrong. You'd think at that moment, Jefferson would of had the integrity to come forward and say Alexander Hamilton was a pretty standup guy. He never did. CalGang's -- "The Hamilton Affair" will speak about her book at Warwick's in the way up. -- In La Jolla.
"The Hamilton Affair" author discussion
Where: Warwick's, 7812 Girard Avenue, La Jolla
When: Aug. 17, 7:30 p.m.
San Diego historian Elizabeth Cobbs swears her latest book, called "The Hamilton Affair," isn't a quick attempt to capitalize on the success of the hit musical "Hamilton." After all, her book's been in the works for five years.
But "The Hamilton Affair," a novelization of Alexander Hamilton's life, was certainly helped by the musical's surprise popularity. Cobbs, a former San Diego State University professor who now teaches at Texas A&M, started selling the book to publishers a few years ago and was met with a universal response.
"(My agents) found it difficult to sell a book like this," Cobbs said. "Who’s interested in Hamilton?"
Once the musical took off, it got a lot easier. Cobbs, who mostly writes nonfiction but has written one other historical fiction book, said writing the novel allowed her to get inside Hamilton's head in ways a more standard history couldn't.
"Being a historian is about letting the public know what’s important about the past," Cobbs said. "Sometimes it’s just a great story and it tells us something about the human condition."
Cobbs joins Midday Edition Tuesday to discuss her theories on why Hamilton started his affair with Maria Reynolds.
