You know, every Women’s History Month there’s a spike in Kate Warne content online, which makes me very happy as a charter member of the Kate Warne Awareness Society! But every once in a while I see people online responding to the great basics of Kate’s story — first woman detective, first female Pinkerton, Union spy during the Civil War, woman who saved Abraham Lincoln’s life en route to his inauguration — with some variation on “OMG WHY ISN’T THERE A BOOK ABOUT THIS WOMAN?”

I do not think it’s appropriate to write back to them individually and say, “Actually, there is.” So I’m writing this post instead.

And if you’re wondering why there’s no full-length biography of Kate, it’s because the historical record really doesn’t offer enough detail to support a chapter or two, let alone 200 or so pages of content. So if you want all of Kate’s story, imagination will definitely have to be a part of it.

There are lots of great takes on Kate, fiction and non-fiction, and I encourage everyone to explore them. Obviously, I’m a bit partial to my own take on Kate, but the more Kates the better, if the end result is that more people know her name. (And spell it correctly, unlike her gravestone.)