Eclipse: A Novel of Lewis and Clark [Hardcover]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 29, 2002

Lewis and Clark: forever paired for their epochal first crossing of the continent in 1804-1806, darlings of the young republic, and the pride of Thomas Jefferson because they made his dream of a nation between two oceans come true.

Lewis and Clark: two great but very different men.

Plain-spoken William Clark, enjoys the triumphs and acclaim of the expedition, marries his childhood sweetheart, and settles in St. Louis as superintendent of the nation's Indian affairs. His black manservant, York, who accompanied the expedition, forces Clark to confront the very nature of slavery and question the society that condoned it.

Meriwether Lewis, a man of fierce courage and brilliant intellect, returns from the Pacific a changed man. Something terrible has happened to him, something insidious, a disease with no name that erodes his health, threatens to destroy his mind--and his honor.

In Eclipse, Richard S. Wheeler has written a tour de force novel, an exploration of triumph and tragedy told in the authentically rendered voices of the two greatest American explorers.

Moreover, Wheeler provides a solution--dark in its ramifications--to one of the greatest mysteries in American history: the terrible and unexplained death of Meriwether Lewis, age thirty-five, in the wilderness of the Natchez Trace of Tennessee in October, 1809.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the prolific recipient of the Owen Wister Award for his lifetime contribution to western literature comes this latest unashamedly revisionist fiction suggesting that legendary explorer Meriwether Lewis's mysterious death in 1809 at age 35 was a suicide in response to his raging third-stage syphilis. Told alternately in the voices of Lewis and his fellow-explorer William Clark, the narrative follows the divergent lives of the two men after they return triumphant from their expedition in 1806. Under the guise of concern for his ailing men, Lewis a scholar, scientist and confidant to Jefferson secretly consults a physician and confirms he has contracted syphilis. He travels to Washington to bask in praise and collect the promised governmental remuneration for himself, Clark and their company. After both men are awarded 1,600 acres of public land, Lewis goes to St. Louis in 1808 as governor of the Louisiana Territory, and Clark newly married to his 16-year-old cousin follows, becoming superintendent of the nation's Indian affairs. The novel particularly focuses on the enigmatic decline of the once brilliant Lewis, who most likely suffered from syphilis-induced dementia at the end of his life. Wheeler bases his story on the recent research of Seattle epidemiologist Reimert Thorolf Ravenholt, who has argued that Lewis contracted the disease during his stay with the Shoshone. Short on action and long on psychological realism, the book should be appreciated by lovers of Western history and lore.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Wheeler plays historical detective, providing a fictional account of one of the most intriguing mysteries in American history. Though many writers have re-created the celebrated Lewis and Clark Expedition, few have turned their attention to its less-than-triumphant aftermath. After returning home to a hero's welcome in 1806, both Lewis and Clark embarked on new careers and undertook new challenges. Though the homespun Clark seemed to flourish in his new role as a federal Native American agent, the brilliant Meriwether Lewis floundered as the governor of the Louisiana Territory. Beset by financial and political difficulties, a depressed and despondent Lewis apparently either committed suicide or was murdered in the Tennessee backwoods in 1809. Wheeler ponders that puzzle, constructing a chilling scenario in which a delusional, syphilis-wracked Lewis feels duty bound to end his fife rather than bring shame upon his name, his family, and his beloved Corps of Discovery. A riveting re-creation of the tragic final years of an American legend. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (June 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031287846X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312878467
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,464,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Wheeler began a late-in-life career as a novelist at age fifty, and by his seventy-fifth year had written seventy novels. He began life as a newsman and later became a book editor, but turned to fiction full time in 1985.

He started by writing traditional westerns but soon was writing large-scale historical novels and then biographical novels. In recent years he has been writing mysteries as well, some as Axel Brand. His Lieutenant Joe Sonntag series occurs in 1940s Milwaukee, and focuses on life in a big, smoky industrial city just after World War Two.

He has won numerous awards, including the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in the literature of the American West, and also six Spur Awards from Western Writers of America. He has received more Spur Awards than any other living author.

He grew up in Wisconsin and migrated West, holding newspaper jobs in Phoenix, Oakland, Carson City, and Billings. His wife, Sue Hart, is an English professor at Montana State University in Billings.

He has been focusing more and more on biographical novels. One of these, published in March, 2010, is called Snowbound, and is about the explorer John C. Fremont's tragic fourth expedition. It won a Spur Award.


For a quarter of a century he's largely made his living from writing fiction. That reality astonishes him. In his mid-seventies now, he is still dreaming up new stories.

Note: There are other Richard Wheelers writing books. One is an historian of the Civil War, and another writes histories of the Marine Corps, and another is a social scientist. Richard S. Wheeler is the novelist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars wonderful biographical fiction, July 6, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eclipse: A Novel of Lewis and Clark (Hardcover)

In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson assigns his friend fellow Virginian Meriweather Lewis to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. Lewis asks William Clark to co-command the daring expedition. When they complete their mission, a country is dazzled by their accomplishments and worships the courageous duo as heroes. Clark goes on to live a productive life basking in the glory of a living legend. However, Lewis goes into a state of mental decline that culminates in 1809 when he apparently committed suicide speculated by this novelization of their post expedition lives as caused by third-stage syphilis induced dementia.

ECLIPSE is a wonderful biographical fiction that uses Lewis and Clark to narrate alternate chapters as their lives following the expedition is vividly described. The novel is well written and brings a slice of a bygone era to life through an in depth psychological drama. Fans who prefer action-packed non-stop action will find the book a tad slow, but those in the audience who want to hear the rest of the story will appreciate this early nineteenth century Americana novelization.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Way to Experience the Past, July 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Eclipse: A Novel of Lewis and Clark (Hardcover)

The historical accuracy of ECLIPSE is a credit to the author's careful research. He ties together the known events in the life of these well-known American heroes, using his extensive knowledge of the nineteenth century. Fiction it is, but it is also very true to the known facts. The book "reads well", never boring, never dull. ECLIPSE is a fine addition to the many books about Lewis and Clark, especially as we celebrate the 200th year of their expedition to the Pacific and back.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just One Little Slip, January 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Eclipse: A Novel of Lewis and Clark (Hardcover)

In 1997 a Seattle epidemiologist, Reimert Thorolf Ravenholt, M.D., did a little forensic diagnosis by looking at the Lewis & Clark journals. He concluded that Lewis was dying of advanced syphillis (complicated by malaria) when he was killed by two bullets, probably shooting himself simultaneously with his set of two pistols. I'm not qualified to pass judgment on medical matters.

Neither is Wheeler, but he takes the challenge of "what if" this theory were true, a challenge side-stepped by Ambrose, who likes his heroes stainless. The book Wheeler creates is two parallel and episodic monologues, one inside Clark's head and one inside Lewis' mind, so that we see each with the other's eyes. It's immediately clear that the two men are not alike in voice, experience, position or temperament, but that they are linked by friendship and shared adventure. They have been deeply marked and changed by the long trail to the Pacific. Clark's salient issue is what to do about York, his slave and childhood playmate, who was an equal throughout the journey, but must now return to being owned. Not easy for either man.

After the expedition both Lewis and Clark were expected to take hold of the seething and often disease-ridden Louisiana purchase and wring profit out of it while they were still celebrities. Clark had a hard time, in spite of his sturdy diligence. But Lewis went steadily downhill, making enemies, blundering -- not getting the vital journals edited and out to the public despite everyone's demands, including President Jefferson's. No one knew how to help him. He was angry and secretive.

Wheeler gives us the terrible details of a descent into hell that no one could stop, all begun in one moment of unguarded relaxation at the very moment the Shoshone supplied the horses that made the success of the expedition possible. Other men of the expedition also suffered contagion and some of them died earlier than Lewis, so he knew what to expect. They were starved, exhausted, battered and stressed, which made them especially vulnerable. In spite of access to a reliable physician, Lewis tried self-doctoring with alcohol and drugs which, on top of malaria and the brutal heavy-metal drugs of the time, assured his destruction.

This book is transparently written -- one does not stop and think, "Oh what a fine phrase!" The scenes unfold grimly and inevitably until, at the end, one thinks, "That's about how it must have been." And personally, I think Lewis comes through as a mortal hero, a man who fought death with honor, a tragic figure who paid a terrible price for his president and his country.