Love, Mythology or Evil?

I have three central concepts for which I want to research and eventually convey through a nonfiction piece. Firstly, I am considering telling the story of famous illustrator and author, Howard Pyle, but I wanted to particularly research the time of his life when he was writing The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903). I believe this would have great potential as an intriguing true story since, not only do the majority of people find British mythology fascinating, especially that of the Arthurian legend, but many would also be fascinated by the initial ideas of these stories and how they came to be in the writer's mind. Perhaps even, what life and cultural events occured that had further inspired him at the time. I personally would love to research the background of this man and this story since it's origin is right on my doorstep, even though Pyle is an American, the mythology is English. Just as Lee Gutkind says in his book, The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality, "In searching for a topic for a book, article, or essay, begin in the most obvious places. Look around you, where you live…"

The second concept I am considering researching is in the form of recorded dialogue between a married couple, Phyllis and Werner, which can be found online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060brhw. Within this love story can be found great conflict since Werner is German, introducing cultural conflict as the two first met during the second World War. There is much research that could be uncovered about these two, how they met, their surroundings and how the war affected or contributed to their relationship. In addition, a story such as this usually excites the general public, however, with this being a true - and successful - story with, what we would consider, a 'happliy ever after', the effect of their love would be emphasised to the readers, giving this idea a lot of potential. Also, the amount of research that could be done on this particular story would further highlight the reality, for example, using actual dialogue that has occured in real life would contribute to this effect. Kate Summerscale does this successfully in, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, e.g., "he once told Dickens, 'I couldn't do better than have a drop of brandy-and-water to keep my courage up.'"

Last of all, I want to research and explore the life of Richard Cabell, the man who's life inspired the legendary story 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', by Arthur Conan Doyle. This would make such an interesting and chilling story since, not only was this man supposedly an evil squire who murdered his wife, but this man was a real person and real people had called him evil. There is much research that can be done since this is a popular legend in Dartmoor with many versions that I could explore, leaving a lot of potential for this story to chill and excite readers with it's sense of Gothic and, also, reality.