Lynn Cullen Books in Order
Explore Lynn Cullen books in order, from early children's stories to historical novels, with short summaries, author background, and easy starting points.
Last updated: June 9, 2026
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Publication Order
22 books
Meeting the Make-Out King
by Lynn Cullen
1994
Seventh-grader Nora is thrilled to be part of the cool crowd, until fitting in starts to mean dating before she is ready. It is a sharp, relatable story about peer pressure, friendship, and trusting your own pace.
Ready, Set - Regina!
by Lynn Cullen
1996
Regina is sure the school talent show will be her big moment, if only she can decide what to do and pull it off. A lively chapter book about friendship, nerves, and wanting badly to shine.
The Three Lives of Harris Harper
by Lynn Cullen
1996
Twelve-year-old Harris spends a tense summer babysitting a little boy from a wealthy family while feeling newly embarrassed by his own. When the child runs off, Harris has to face what family really means.
Regina Calhoun Eats Dog Food
by Lynn Cullen
1997
When Regina lets a new girl into her "awesome threesome," she quickly regrets it as loyalties start to shift. Her plan for revenge, involving a Twinkie and dog food, turns a friendship mess into very public trouble.
Stink Bomb
by Lynn Cullen
1998
After an embarrassing moment in gym class, Kenny lets shy outsider Alice Flowers take the blame and watches the nickname Stink Bomb stick. Guilt, bullying, and an unexpected friendship push him to decide what kind of person he wants to be.
The Mightiest Heart
by Lynn Cullen
1998
In this retelling of the Welsh legend, Prince Llywelyn grows from carefree boy to ruler while his loyal hound Gelert never leaves his side. It is a tender, sad story about love, loyalty, and taking devotion for granted.
The Backyard Ghost
by Lynn Cullen
2000
After moving to Decatur, Eleanor is desperate to win over the popular kids at her new school. Then a Civil War ghost appears in her backyard, and her search for status turns into a strange lesson about friendship, history, and belonging.
From Corey Gordon's Extremely Private Diary
by Lynn Cullen
2001
Told through diary entries, Corey Gordon's story captures the private worries, awkward moments, and small victories of school-age life. It is a quick, personal read about the gap between what kids say out loud and what they really think.
Godiva
by Lynn Cullen
2001
This picture-book retelling of Lady Godiva centers on the courage behind the legend. When her husband refuses to lift a crushing tax, Godiva risks public humiliation to stand up for the people of Coventry.
Nelly in the Wilderness
by Lynn Cullen
2002
In 1821 Indiana, grieving frontier girl Nelly Vandorn is furious when her long-absent father returns with a new wife from the city. As wilderness life tests them all, Nelly must decide whether Margery is a burden, or a chance to heal.
Little Scraggly Hair
by Lynn Cullen
2003
In this warm retelling of Noah's Ark, a shabby stray dog becomes Noah's most loyal helper. His muddy paws and cold wet nose turn him into family, and the story into a sweet explanation of why dogs and people belong together.
I Am Rembrandt's Daughter
by Lynn Cullen
2007
In seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Cornelia van Rijn is left to care for her difficult father, Rembrandt, as his fame fades and scandal closes in. Torn between family duty, buried secrets, and first love, she fights to claim a life of her own.
Moi And Marie Antoinette
by Lynn Cullen
2008
Marie Antoinette's life is retold through the eyes of her vain but devoted pug, Sebastian, who follows her from Austria to Versailles. The result is a playful, child-friendly look at palaces, loneliness, and a queen seen from dog level.
The Creation of Eve
by Lynn Cullen
2010
Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola flees scandal in Rome and enters the dangerous Spanish court as art teacher to a young queen. Art, ambition, love, and palace intrigue collide as she tries to protect both her future and her name.
Reign of Madness
by Lynn Cullen
2011
Juana of Castile expects a royal marriage, not a battle for her sanity and her crown. When power shifts after her mother's death, rumors, betrayal, and the ambitions of the men around her turn her life into a trap.
Mrs. Poe
by Lynn Cullen
2013
In 1845 New York, struggling poet Frances Osgood is drawn into an affair with Edgar Allan Poe just as his frail wife, Virginia, insists on friendship. The deeper Frances falls, the more the romance takes on the menace of a Poe story.
Dear Mr. Washington
by Lynn Cullen
2015
When George Washington sits for Gilbert Stuart, the painter's lively children keep turning the visit into chaos. Told through Charlotte Stuart's apology letters, this picture book turns a famous portrait into a funny story about manners, history, and human nature.
Twain's End
by Lynn Cullen
2015
After Mark Twain unexpectedly turns on his loyal secretary Isabel Lyon and her new husband, the people closest to him are left sorting through love, power, and grievance. This novel reimagines the bitter final years of a legend from the inside.
The Sisters of Summit Avenue
by Lynn Cullen
2019
During the Great Depression, two estranged sisters are forced back into each other's lives, one on an Indiana farm and the other in St. Paul's Betty Crocker test kitchens. Old betrayals and family secrets make their reunion anything but simple.
Arthur Ashe
by Lynn Cullen
2020
This biography follows Arthur Ashe from segregated tennis courts in Richmond to the top of the sport. It also highlights the grace, courage, and public purpose that shaped his life far beyond championship wins.
The Woman With the Cure
by Lynn Cullen
2023
Dorothy Horstmann wants one thing, to stop polio. As rival researchers chase fame and the virus keeps striking children, she follows the evidence wherever it leads, in a tense historical novel about science, sacrifice, and a woman history nearly forgot.
When We Were Brilliant
by Lynn Cullen
2026
In 1952, documentary photographer Eve Arnold is pulled into Marilyn Monroe's orbit and into a friendship that changes both women. The novel looks past the icon to the ambition, vulnerability, and bargain behind a very public image.
Where should I start?
If you want a strong first taste of her historical fiction: Mrs. Poe → Twain's End → The Woman With the Cure
If you like women artists and royal intrigue: I Am Rembrandt's Daughter → The Creation of Eve → Reign of Madness
If you prefer family-centered historical drama: The Sisters of Summit Avenue → When We Were Brilliant
If you're reading with younger readers: Ready, Set - Regina! → Regina Calhoun Eats Dog Food → Dear Mr. Washington
Author bio
Lynn Cullen was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and grew up there in a big family with seven children. History came to her early and naturally. Her father turned summer camping trips into rolling lessons about the past, and Cullen spent plenty of library hours reading biographies and wondering what famous people were like when no one was writing them into legend.
One small family story seems to have set her on her path. When she was about nine, an aunt took her to the Ohio countryside where earlier generations of the family had lived, then told her to sit down and write about what she had seen. Cullen has said that this was the real start of her writing life, even if it took years for her to understand how much that afternoon mattered.
She later attended Indiana University in Fort Wayne and Bloomington, and went on to study writing with Tom McHaney at Georgia State. Her route into publishing was not especially neat or glamorous. Before readers knew her for historical fiction, she was raising three daughters, working part time in a pediatric office, and later doing editorial work for a psychoanalytic journal at Emory University, all while writing books for children and young adults.
She came to fiction from ordinary life, not from a straight line.
That early stretch matters because it helps explain the range of her work. Books like Meeting the Make-Out King and the Regina titles show how alert she is to the social pressure and embarrassment of childhood. Then I Am Rembrandt's Daughter made a bigger leap, bringing seventeenth-century Amsterdam to life through Cornelia van Rijn, the daughter of Rembrandt. What readers often like in that novel is the way Cullen brings a giant historical figure down to human size, making him not only a genius but also a difficult father.
Her adult novels keep building on that same instinct. In The Creation of Eve, she follows Renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola into the danger and gossip of the Spanish court. Mrs. Poe moves into 1845 New York and the uneasy triangle among Edgar Allan Poe, Frances Osgood, and Virginia Poe. The Woman With the Cure turns to science and public health, putting Dorothy Horstmann and the race to stop polio at the center of the story. And in When We Were Brilliant, Cullen looks at Marilyn Monroe through her bond with photographer Eve Arnold. Readers may come for the famous names, but Cullen tends to hold their attention with the private fears, ambitions, and compromises behind them.
She also returns again and again to women who have been flattened, sidelined, or misunderstood. Reign of Madness reconsiders Juana of Castile from inside her marriage, her family, and the political hunger around her. Twain's End looks at Mark Twain through the experience of Isabel Lyon, the secretary whose loyalty curdled into public scandal. Even The Sisters of Summit Avenue, which centers more on a fictional family than a single historical icon, shows Cullen's interest in rivalry, buried hurt, and the ways women carry whole households through hard years.
She likes the overlooked person in the room.
That shapes her research, too. Cullen has said that every novel begins with a question, and she likes to travel to the places where her characters lived and worked. She has written about Amsterdam, Spain, Belgium, New York, Tuscany, Minnesota, Denmark, and Manhattan, and that sense of place shows up on the page. Her books are often about the gap between public myth and private truth, but they are also about rooms, streets, weather, work, family habits, and the details that make the past feel close.
Cullen lives in Atlanta with her husband, and she has joked about sharing the house with a dog and two cats. She still travels for research, still follows the trail of the next person from the past she wants to understand, and still writes the kind of historical fiction that asks a simple question: who was the real person behind the story everyone thinks they know?
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
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