Novel uses Lewis’ sad fate to explore effects of depression

“The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis” (Unbridled Books. Hardcover $24.95), by Michael Pritchett

Of Capt. Meriwether Lewis, we know this: Three years after returning from the Lewis and Clark expedition, he was dead of gunshot wounds, probably a suicide, at Grinder’s Stand, an isolated inn in rural Tennessee.

He was a national hero, governor of the upper Louisiana Territory, former private secretary to President Jefferson and by most accounts, seriously depressed. While murder theories persist, most assume what nobody will know for sure — that he took his life in October 1809.

Now comes Bill Lewis, high school teacher and descendant of the explorer, obsessed with the death of his forebear and desperately trying to finish a book about it in time for the 200th anniversary.

But in a new historical novel by Michael Pritchett, his first, Lewis the teacher — a fictional character — finds himself dragged into the same depressive depths that plagued Lewis the explorer, and bit by bit we see their lives and identities intertwine.

Those who know depression first hand, or are close to someone who does, may see the novel as something other than historical fiction. But Pritchett, who teaches fiction writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, adds up the demons in the lives of the two men and we see how they feed the powerful, debilitating hopelessness and helplessness that accompanies depression.

It isn’t a history, although the book relies heavily on the journals of the explorers.

Both teacher and explorer were frustrated by affairs of the heart, felt they had done all they would do and were heading down, into a time that was no longer their own.

It kept Capt. Lewis from whipping into shape for a publisher the journal he and William Clark kept, and it didn’t appear until eight years after their triumphant return. By then, at least one other journal had appeared, the War of 1812 was on and what should have been a publishing bonanza was a bust.

Depression and writer’s block also kept Lewis the teacher from finishing his book.

Capt. Lewis felt the expedition that would define him forever was a waste, a failure, because he was unable to comply with President Jefferson’s orders to find a waterway to the Pacific and the lost tribes of Israel. Neither were there but he didn’t know it.

Lewis the teacher, Pritchett writes, would lie awake with his depression, “that siege engine of mental illness,” contemplating his professional setbacks, knowing that “Lewis the explorer was lying in his grave in Tennessee and not worrying about a single thing.”

Prichett’s Lewis, the explorer, was hopelessly mashed on Indian translator Sacajawea, whose lout of a husband, Charboneau, was also on the voyage, making her unobtainable. Lewis, A-listed for the ubiquitous lavish balls of the day, could never connect with the abundant Belles despite his yearning for a wife and family. “I have lost the art of female company,” he says to one.

Lewis the teacher, married 13 years to Emily, was similarly enthralled by Joaney, a pregnant former student who “always danced out of reach, who ducked his kiss.”

Signs of Meriwether Lewis’ despondency were many and he went months at a time without writing in his journal. He wrestled with the journals for years, was deeply in debt and Pritchett leaves the impression that while Lewis was the man of the hour for years, happiness eluded him as he knew it must.

Pritchett writes that Lewis’ depression followed him across the continent and back, “always there, waiting for its moment. And after he’d taken the governor’s job in St. Louis, and had to stay in one place and do it, it caught him.”

Bill Lewis tells Joaney, the former student, that he’s having trouble with the book. She asks if he’s sad because the hero dies.

“No, not so much,” he answers. “On the contrary, I’m watching it happen. I’m not helping it along but I’m definitely clearing away the obstacles in his path. He’s got no choice and never did.”

But which Lewis is he talking about here?

The book has some complicating baggage, and a frequent reversion to the language style of the day can slow things down, but as a whole, it works. “Clarkies” will enjoy it because they tend to enjoy anything about the Voyage of Discovery.