Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade

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The problem of the book is pretty fascinating. Historical nonfiction is researched pretty vigorously, but how does an author relate or read into a story in which one particular aspect can only be guessed at through innuendo and assumptions? That's the problem here. There is no overt homosexuality in play here, most likely because it was closeted and unmentioned in letters and documents. All Benemann has to go on are suggestions viewed from the vantage point of the present day. As he chastises ot The problem of the book is pretty fascinating.

As he chastises other historians for reading Stewart as heterosexual, he falls victim to the reverse, of assuming him to be obviously gay and sexually active when there is just too little evidence on display to justify it. The question becomes is this Benemann's failing for reading a history that's not there or his failure to thoroughly convince the reader? The book has some interesting episodes, but ultimately I think it fails to do what Benemann hopes it does, which is paint a picture of homosexual culture in early America and correct the historical record.

I think he's right in most of his assumptions, but the book fails to convince on its own. He did the best he could with the material he had. If anything, I wish he'd been a little more self-aware of the problem he had in tackling this book and gaps in the historical record.

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That would have made for some intriguing meta-narrative. Dec 21, George Ilsley rated it it was amazing Shelves: Fascinating, even if much out of necessity is speculation and reading between the lines.

Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade

How to write about history when the narrative thread is unspoken, and meaning deliberately obscured? Benemann does it well. The result is surreal at times, and those are the parts that are historically documented. What Benemann does is construct a narrative that makes it all seem less surreal, and more understandable. Oct 04, Rob rated it liked it Shelves: Well written and thoroughly researched. What dissatisfaction I have springs from the inherent difficulties of wringing definite conclusions from historical evidence—a daunting proposition under the best of circumstances, and doubly so for the present subject matter.

In any event, this is a comprehensive account of Sir William's life, notable as a treatment of an under-appreciated historical figure in addition to the more nebulous but also interesting matter of the same-sex dynamics in question Well written and thoroughly researched. In any event, this is a comprehensive account of Sir William's life, notable as a treatment of an under-appreciated historical figure in addition to the more nebulous but also interesting matter of the same-sex dynamics in question.

In this Book

The author has some pleasant turns of phrase, as when he suggests "The American West for these men became the land of the special dispensation, and many who journeyed there discovered a prelapsarian paradise, an Eden filled only with Adams Mar 30, Gerry Burnie rated it it was amazing Shelves: Gerry B's Book Reviews 5. William Stewart was a Scottish nobleman—19th Laird of Grantully and 7th Baronet of Murthly—with an adventurous spirit, and a larger than life personality.

Being gay, and at odds with Gerry B's Book Reviews 5. Being gay, and at odds with his older brother John the 18th Laird , he hied himself off to North America where men were men; women were scarce; and not just a few of the men were open to a bit of manly sex. Altogether, Stewart spent approximately seven years in America, returning to Scotland only briefly between — with Antoine Clement in tow when his brother John died—making William the 19th Laird of Grantully. When he returned with a trunk full of costumes , he arranged for an elaborate, invitation only, huntin g party.

It was a modest affair with only thirty-or-so guests, as well as cooks, servants, doctors, lawyers and such, but whether this was a bit beyond what frontier America was willing to accept, or whether times were changing, a fast-running scandal preceded him back to civilization, and from there he hastily returned to Scotland.

Obviously, this is merely a thumbnail-precis of the pages of easily-read, meticulously researched, and fascinating story of the not-so-straight-West. My humble thanks to William Benemann for keeping this story alive, and for sharing it with us. Feb 16, Rj rated it it was amazing. University of Nebraska Press, Benemann has written a biography of one of those fascinating 19th-century individuals who draw historians to stories.

Born to a Scottish noble family he made his way to America and was enthralled by the world of trappers and mountain men on the Rocky Mountain frontiers. Individuals like Stewart are fascinating subjects, but writing about them is tricky. It is too easy to replicate their ideas about frontiers and Native-Americans in popular history.

Benemann not only wants to recover Stewart's life but to claim him as a 19th-century homosexual man. As Michel Foucault and Carol Smith-Rosenberg have warned it is always dangerous to read history backwards and to see homosexual culture in periods before homosexual identity developed.

Benemann while sensitive to his sources wants desperately to see homosexuality and same-sex desire in his biography of Stewart.

Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade

This makes for enjoyable reading as popular history but forces Benemann to mine his sources in ways that are not always comfortable. There are lots of discussions about dress and deportment as indicators of sexuality, that at times reach too far. At the same time Benemann used Stewart's fiction as sources again for questions that are hard to answer.

This allows him to see same-sex desire and a community of individuals engaged in such behaviour everywhere. It is a fascinating book, especially Benemann's discussions of the trapper gatherings, but the pace and style of the writing is filled with too many characters that are never fully realized as Benemann tries to make his case for Stewart's sexuality. Dec 03, Christopher rated it it was amazing.

BC Studies no. 198 Summer 2018

The fashionable dandy, the skilled hunter, the patron of the arts, the fearless explorer, the youth-obsessed lover, the military martinet, the inept novelist, the aristocratic laird His life provides an unique window into the many ways of being gay in early nineteenth century America. So little is known about what what life was like during this period.

It reads like a beautifully filmed BBC drama you don't want to end. Jul 09, Carl rated it it was amazing. So much of historical narrative has been stripped of it's sexual dynamic. Previously focused on the deleterious effect of homophobia on 19th and 20th century artists, Men in Eden suggests to me a whole new dynamic of survival and achievement, adaptation and boldness in the pursuit of individual self fulfillment.

Aug 21, Thomas Keane rated it liked it. Fascinating subject matter queer fur traders and the dandies who loved them in the antebellum United States but a somewhat jumbled telling that ultimately under-delivers probably as a result of mostly incomplete or absent source material.

Project MUSE - Men in Eden

Jan 13, Iris rated it it was amazing. When I was reading this book, my head was crowded with so many thinkings, but when I finished it, the only thing left is a kind of wistful feeling.

Jan 02, Mike Campbell rated it really liked it. Much better and more honest than Prairie Fever by Peter Pagnamenta. Bryan rated it really liked it May 10, David D Bair rated it liked it Feb 19, Zeke rated it really liked it Nov 10, Gerhard Ens rated it it was ok Mar 11, The study moves onto thinner ice, though, when Benemann tries to generalise more widely.

His theory that the Rocky Mountain fur trade held special attraction for men seeking licence for heterodox sexualities seems a stretch, not least in light of extensive scholarship on fur-trade intimacies and marriage practices. In the regions where Drummond travelled many traders would have had wives and partners of Indigenous, African, or Mexican heritage.

No doubt a proportion were keeping same-sex intimacies quiet, but there is not enough evidence here to convince the reader that the Rocky Mountain fur trade was a hotbed.

Many are well known -- Buffalo Bill Cody, Theodore Roosevelt the comparison with his less illustrious brother is instructive , and Isabella Bird, the sole woman in the field -- and others new to most readers. Training in British history allows her to delve usefully into the context of elite culture there and on the east coast of America, and to put her finger on the class and racial anxieties of men who found their privilege under increasing threat at home.

Reading these works brought to mind my first journal article, when a US reviewer took me to task for having overlooked a particular American title relevant to my work. These two books remind us -- again, if we needed reminding -- that American authors do not labour under the reverse expectation. His discussion of fur-trader liaisons with Indigenous women e. Beyond Canadian scholarship, both books would benefit from engagement with the rich ethnohistorical literature about the American West. Limited attention is paid to the way Indigenous performances of masculinity may have influenced elite men seeking to devise their own frontier variant.

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