Hi shagoob-ga:
You asked:
"My friend and I where wondering if Lewis & Clark were gay? Was this
the result of having been gay to begin with, or was it due to the fact
that they traveled together for years in the absence of women?"
I could not find any theory -- let alone evidence -- that either Lewis
& Clark were gay. It appears the love they clearly shared was strictly
of the brotherly variety.
However, Meriwether Lewis's death IS cloaked in mystery and scandal.
But his death doesn't appear to be related to any sort of unrequited
love for Clark.
In reading various synopses of UNDAUNTED COURAGE (New York: Simon &
Schuster; 1996), the acclaimed account of the Lewis & Clark
expedition, written by acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1NS38H6H43&isbn=0684826976&itm=1
I could not find any suggestion in the excerpted reviews that Ambrose
suspected that Lewis or Clark were gay. (Though Ambrose did believe
Lewis's death was a suicide.)
Again, Meriwether's death, more than his -- or Clark's -- sexuality,
is the real mystery. According to this PBS site concerning Lewis:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/lewis.htm
President Jefferson believed Lewis committed suicide, while Lewis's
family aruged his death was the result of foul play. (Lewis died at
Grinder's Stand, which is alternately described as a tavern and a
roadside stand, 70 miles outside of Nashville.)
For another theory, see David Leon Chandler's book THE JEFFERSON
CONSPIRACIES: A PRESIDENT'S ROLE IN THE ASSIGNATION OF MERIWETHER
LEWIS (Quill: 1995), at:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1NS38H6H43&isbn=0688122256&itm=6
Here's a March 1999 Salon Magazine article on the mysteries
surrounding Lewis's death. (Note the theory that Lewis was killed by a
jealous husband):
http://www.salon.com/it/feature/1999/03/22feature2.html
A November 29, 1998 New York Times Company article, found at:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/cogito/Gr11/beethoven_hair.html
profiles the same researcher noted in the Salon article, James E.
Starrs, who wants to exhume Lewis's body to prove his theory that
Lewis celebrated "the crossing of the Continental Divide in the summer
of 1805 by sleeping with a Shoshone woman from whom he contracted
syphilis." That citation, like the preceeding one, tends to refute the
homosexuality theory.
(Here's an item from the Lewis County (TN) Museum: "Did Lewis,
distraught over his finances, and rumored alcoholism and drug use,
commit suicide? Or was he murdered during an attempted robbery? . . .
. all information on his death is based on unsubstantiated rumors."
http://www.visitlewis.com/lewisdeath.html
Using the search string "Lewis & Clark gay," I found this page:
http://www.lclark.edu/~us/about.html
which notes that Jason Calhoun, Resident Director at Lewis & Clark
College, is openly gay. (Is it possible a news story about this
somehow sparked confusion among the media and/or public re: Lewis's
and/or Clark's sexuality?)
Using the string "Meriwether Lewis closet gay" I did find this page:
"Who's Who?" at Calamus Books:
http://www.calamusbooks.com/newsletters/v2_6/
which contains this off-handed remark: "All this was news to
me--Robert Fulton, Pierre L'Enfant; I was still getting over the
outing of Meriwether Lewis."
This is intriguing, but the site doesn't offer any material to back up
that quote, which was in reference to a November 25, 2001 C-Span "Book
Notes" program about inventor Robert Fulton, who appears to have been
gay. There was a brief reference to Meriwether Lewis during that
interview, but not in the context of sexuality:
http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1646
That same string led me to the History News Network and this item on
Lewis: "Meriwether Lewis Was Crazy" (dated 1-20-03)
http://hnn.us/articles/866.html#lewis1-24-03
The article discusses Lewis's suicidal tendencies, but makes no
reference to his sexuality -- whatever it was.
For a wealth of information on Lewis, check out:
http://www.meriwetherlewis.org/
All in all, I can't conclusively say if Lewis and/or Clark were gay or
heterosexual. The research I found suggests both men were straight,
and not repressed or practicing homosexuals.
Search Strings:
"Lewis & Clark love"
"Lewis & Clark homosexual"
"Merriweather Lewis gay"
"Meriwether Lewis suicide murder"
"Meriwether Lewis repressed homosexual"
I hope this helped answer your question!
Sincerely,
nancylynn-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
nancylynn-ga
on
10 Feb 2003 07:24 PST
Hi shagoob-ga:
I found more information re: Lewis's and/or Clark's alleged
bisexuality/ homosexuality: a new book: "I Should be Extremely Happy
in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and Clark" (Viking: 2003) written by
Brian Hall, depicts Lewis as having feelings of attraction and
romantic love toward Clark. This is a work of historical fiction and
has been well-reviewed overall.
The title comes from Lewis's written invitation, asking Clark to join
him on the expedition. It is Hall's assertion that Lewis committed
suicide over his many failures after his famous expedition; failures
compounded by his unrequited love for Clark.
Historian Douglas Brinkley praised the book in the 2/2/03 edition of
The Los Angeles Times. In the review Brinkley doesn't address Hall's
claim that Lewis was bi or gay, but he does write: "Lewis, a confirmed
bachelor, is portrayed in this narrative as a solitary figure full of
ungodly anguish. By the novel's end, it is clear why Lewis, full of
crazed hubris and opium pills, put a pistol to his head, committing
suicide on the Natchez Trace."
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/cl-bk-brinkley2feb02,0,481594.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbooks%2Dmanual
The review cited below, by Carol Doup Muller in the Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel's 2/1/03 edition, doesn't take the claim of Lewis's
alleged sexual feelings too seriously: "Hall also speculates that, in
regard to the companionship of the sunny-natured Clark, Lewis suffered
from an unrequited love that dared not speak its name. He adds
ill-at-ease sexuality to the ruinous debt, writer's block, malaria and
depression customarily cited as reasons for Lewis' suicide in 1809 . .
. that should give Lewis a chuckle in his grave."
http://www.jsonline.com/enter/books/reviews/jan03/114760.asp
This book received two reviews in The New York Times and Hall's
suggestion that Lewis was sexually attracted to Clark isn't even
mentioned in these critiques, although it is noted that Lewis was more
fond of Clark than vice versa. Here are some excerpts:
From Janet Maslin's Times' review of 1/16/03: the book "draws upon
linguistic and historical source material . . . [b]ut what do these
facts have to do with fiction? . . . . Mr. Hall sometimes seems to be
shoehorning actual written observations into Lewis's conversation."
http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?res=9807E0D61031F935A25752C0A9659C8B63
From Bill Barcott's NY Times' review of 1/26/03: "Did President
Jefferson insist on a chaste expedition? He did not. In Hall's
chronicle, the corps's enlisted men pull into native villages like
sailors into port. Better than sailors, actually, as the husbands of
Lisbon rarely offered up their wives for the honor of carnal service
to the fleet. Lewis and Clark themselves don't indulge. Well, Clark
does once . . . . Upon his return to civilization, Lewis, the
cultivated man of letters, failed in love and spiraled into depression
and suicide. Clark, the greater woodsman, married well and thrived in
St. Louis society."
http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?res=9407EFDD1E31F935A15752C0A9659C8B63
Reviewer Laura Miller, in the 1/17/03 edition of Salon says of the
book: "Despite their different dispositions, or perhaps because of
them, Lewis loves Clark, possibly in the romantic if not the erotic
sense of the word, and Clark's devotion, though more ordinary, is
still powerful."
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2003/01/17/hall/
None of the reviews I found, aside from Muller's, really examined
Hall's thesis that Lewis was gay or bisexual. That assertion probably
can never be proven, although there is evidence that Lewis loved Clark
more (at least platonically) than Clark cared for him.
This theory is linked to what remains the core mystery surrounding
Lewis: did he kill himself or was he murdered? Hall's new book argues
it was a suicide and it was prompted, in part, by Lewis's repressed
homosexuality and romantic love for Clark. But this is just a theory.
While Lewis *might* have been bisexual and *might* have been attracted
to Clark, Clark appears to have been completely heterosexual and, I
think it's safe to say the two men never had a sexual relationship.
nancylynn-ga
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