Q&A with Colin W. Sargent

  – Erica Smith

    Colin Sargent worked on his novel –Museum of Human Beings– perched, in part, in “the top of the little tower” of a home on Mowbray Arch in Norfolk’s Hague area. Otherwise he’s a Mainer; in Portland, where he lives with wife Nancy and their dog, he edits a magazine and is working on his next novel.

His ties to Tidewater came, as they so often do, through the Navy.

He told The Pilot by e-mail: “A midshipman, I came in 1974 and was stationed here off and on through 1983. When I moved to my native Portland, Maine, I founded Portland Magazine, but we’ve managed to return for several weeks every year.”

More thoughts from Colin W. Sargent:

Q. You’re a poet, playwright, magazine editor (Portland Magazine in Maine) and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. What drew you to the subject of Sacagawea’s son?
A. I’m drawn to outsiders denied a voice in our national mythology. “Photo-op history,” while comforting, left Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau without an adulthood. This novel illuminates the “happily ever after” of the Expedition Papoose – this child star of the Lewis & Clark Voyage of Discovery. In the company of a German prince, he was seduced into parading through Europe as a half-gentleman, half-savage. He studied classical piano and mastered seven languages. Disillusioned, he returned to the U.S. and became a trapper, guide, mayor, and Army hero. But because his mother was famous, he’s an eternal infant.

 

Q.What were your greatest challenges with this novel?
A. Trying to give voice to a Native American without romanticizing him and trying to humanize the hero William Clark without demonizing him.

 

Q.You worked on the book in Norfolk? How did that come about?
A. Norfolk’s very dear to my private history. Here, my wife and I met as naval officers, and our son was born. I’ve worked on much of the novel at the top of the little tower at 412 Mowbray Arch, the place where we’ve returned to honeymoon for the last 30 years. The sea chapters were enriched by my experiences on the USS Kalamazoo.

 

Q.What’s next?  
A. Set in 1922, my next novel begins in Naples, Italy, and continues on the Eastern Seaboard. My protagonist, marooned by history, is swept out of style by a cultural practice that goes from fashionable to repugnant – as all styles eventually do.