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Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
The American West of the nineteenth century was a world of freedom and adventure for men of every stripe—not least also those who admired and desired other men. Among these sojourners was William Drummond Stewart, a flamboyant Scottish nobleman who found in American culture of the 1830s and 1840s a cultural milieu of openness in which men could pursue same-sex relationships.
This book traces Stewart’s travels from his arrival in America in 1832 to his return to Murthly Castle in Perthshire, Scotland, with his French Canadian–Cree Indian companion, Antoine Clement, one of the most skilled hunters in the Rockies. Benemann chronicles Stewart’s friendships with such notables as Kit Carson, William Sublette, Marcus Whitman, and Jim Bridger. He describes the wild Renaissance-costume party held by Stewart and Clement upon their return to America—a journey that ended in scandal. Through Stewart’s letters and novels, Benemann shows that Stewart was one of many men drawn to the sexual freedom offered by the West. His book provides a tantalizing new perspective on the Rocky Mountain fur trade and the role of homosexuality in shaping the American West.
This book traces Stewart’s travels from his arrival in America in 1832 to his return to Murthly Castle in Perthshire, Scotland, with his French Canadian–Cree Indian companion, Antoine Clement, one of the most skilled hunters in the Rockies. Benemann chronicles Stewart’s friendships with such notables as Kit Carson, William Sublette, Marcus Whitman, and Jim Bridger. He describes the wild Renaissance-costume party held by Stewart and Clement upon their return to America—a journey that ended in scandal. Through Stewart’s letters and novels, Benemann shows that Stewart was one of many men drawn to the sexual freedom offered by the West. His book provides a tantalizing new perspective on the Rocky Mountain fur trade and the role of homosexuality in shaping the American West.
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 22, 2022
Fascinating, even if out of necessity much is speculation and reading between the lines. Personal letters and diaries were often written in code — any sort of honest expression buried beneath euphemism.
How to write about history when the narrative thread is unspoken, and the meaning of what was said often deliberately obscured? Benemann does it well. The result is surreal at times, and yet those are the parts that are historically documented. What Benemann does is take these pieces, and construct a narrative that makes it all seem less surreal, and more understandable.
Recommended.
How to write about history when the narrative thread is unspoken, and the meaning of what was said often deliberately obscured? Benemann does it well. The result is surreal at times, and yet those are the parts that are historically documented. What Benemann does is take these pieces, and construct a narrative that makes it all seem less surreal, and more understandable.
Recommended.
June 23, 2022
William Drummond Stewart was a 19th century Scottish noble, a fur trader, and likely a gay man. Turns out the American West—with its lack of social order and women—was probably a huge draw for gay men and other social misfits in the early 19th century.
I’m fascinated with how LGBTQ people lived their lives in the past. It ticks me off that homophobia has erased most of their stories from history. It also ticks me off when well researched books like this one come out and scholars and Goodreads reviewers dismiss the possibility of gay historical figures because of the lack of definitive proof. There will never be proof for most LGBTQ people in the past. No document will ever exist that will flatly state that someone like WDS or Abraham Lincoln or Friedrich von Steuben was gay. But Oscar Wilde and a few Greeks weren’t the only queer people to have lived. We have always existed in the world, and it does the community a disservice to pretend they didn’t. All historians can do is draw conclusions based on the facts of people’s lives. And Benemann did just that.
WDS never married and had a long string of friendships with younger men. He brought Antoine Clement, a notoriously skilled hunter and frontiersman who had never lived in British society, back to Scotland with him to be his “valet,” a position that required him to live in the manor, and not a groundsman, the only job he would be somewhat qualified for. WDS chose to spend many months at a time among men with little possibility of women being around and surrounded himself with other men who were known to be gay. Dude was gay. I’ll grant people that there is reasonable doubt with Honest Abe, but this dude was having costume balls in the Rockies. DUDE WAS GAY. And I’m very happy to have found his story.
Benemann has a very easy-to-read writing style. The book wanders away from WDS for a while, so I think it was too long. But from this story I got a very complete picture of what life was like on the frontier in the 1830s, how people could willfully ignore WDS’s and other's obvious sexual orientations, and the motivations for men in his position to make the choices he’d made.
I’m fascinated with how LGBTQ people lived their lives in the past. It ticks me off that homophobia has erased most of their stories from history. It also ticks me off when well researched books like this one come out and scholars and Goodreads reviewers dismiss the possibility of gay historical figures because of the lack of definitive proof. There will never be proof for most LGBTQ people in the past. No document will ever exist that will flatly state that someone like WDS or Abraham Lincoln or Friedrich von Steuben was gay. But Oscar Wilde and a few Greeks weren’t the only queer people to have lived. We have always existed in the world, and it does the community a disservice to pretend they didn’t. All historians can do is draw conclusions based on the facts of people’s lives. And Benemann did just that.
WDS never married and had a long string of friendships with younger men. He brought Antoine Clement, a notoriously skilled hunter and frontiersman who had never lived in British society, back to Scotland with him to be his “valet,” a position that required him to live in the manor, and not a groundsman, the only job he would be somewhat qualified for. WDS chose to spend many months at a time among men with little possibility of women being around and surrounded himself with other men who were known to be gay. Dude was gay. I’ll grant people that there is reasonable doubt with Honest Abe, but this dude was having costume balls in the Rockies. DUDE WAS GAY. And I’m very happy to have found his story.
Benemann has a very easy-to-read writing style. The book wanders away from WDS for a while, so I think it was too long. But from this story I got a very complete picture of what life was like on the frontier in the 1830s, how people could willfully ignore WDS’s and other's obvious sexual orientations, and the motivations for men in his position to make the choices he’d made.
June 27, 2013
You’ve heard of William Clark, Kit Carson, John C. Fremont, and Sacajawea’s baby boy, but such is the nature of the erasure of gay lives from history that I bet you have never heard of William Drummond Stewart, who knew them all. Stewart left England in the early 1830s looking for that land where a man could live as he wished and love whom he wished. He headed for the Rocky Mountains, involved himself in the world of the Mountain Men, fur traders for the most part, and found adventure, sport, love, and unaccountable obscurity even though he was colorful, daring, well documented, and a Scottish laird.
In this work of nonfiction, author William Benemann, who also wrote about male couples in Colonial America, not only chronicles Stewart’s adventures and romances, he also accounts for the peculiar place in the work of historians that homosexuals hold, or rather, do not hold. He describes how the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, stated that “homosexuality” as a distinct identity was invented by “the medico-legal” industry, claiming that sexual identity was a new concept in the late 1800s. The fact that this notion defied common sense and plenty of evidence to the contrary did not stop historians from making that assertion a shibboleth, a truism by which quality work is judged no matter how apocryphal the standard. Thus we have whole segments of society whose very existence has been removed from the story of Mankind. It is Benemann’s purpose to tell the nearly forgotten story.
One thing I find wonderful about reading books like this and others is that I learn what sorts of sources reputable historians have at their disposal. The more commonplace the writing, whether letters or tabloid news stories, the more Foucaultian assumptions are challenged. Lots of people knew Stewart, respected him, and what’s more, they wrote about him. Journals and letters are full of stories about him, and also his own accounts.
I have unfortunately found that some historical accounts are replete with “he must have felt” and “certainly they knew”, where I should think there is ample evidence of the content of the prolific recorders’ thoughts and ideas. I find this sort of enthusiastic “no, really!” makes me wonder if I am reading logical accounts or wishful thinking. But then, I’m a historical novelist, not a historian. Maybe I just think the speculative nature should be left to us scribblers. This is perhaps a particularly tempting instance, since two of the “sources” for Stewart’s story is two semi-autobiographical novels (see below). One includes an enticing account of Stewart’s seduction by the famous mountain man, Kit Carson! But is it history or a delightful wish fulfillment on Stewart’s part?
This is the sort of book that when you read it you realize that all those other more conventional histories left a bit, shall we rather say tons, out of the true story. It is also the sort of book where you make a point of reading the endnotes so you can go learn more.
Have you ever heard that Queen Victoria once was delighted at being presented with a couple buffaloes? Well Stewart was the guy who brought them to Scotland. And he was gay as a … well.. Laird.
From Kit Moss Reviews at GLBT Bookshelf www.glbtbookshelf.com
In this work of nonfiction, author William Benemann, who also wrote about male couples in Colonial America, not only chronicles Stewart’s adventures and romances, he also accounts for the peculiar place in the work of historians that homosexuals hold, or rather, do not hold. He describes how the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, stated that “homosexuality” as a distinct identity was invented by “the medico-legal” industry, claiming that sexual identity was a new concept in the late 1800s. The fact that this notion defied common sense and plenty of evidence to the contrary did not stop historians from making that assertion a shibboleth, a truism by which quality work is judged no matter how apocryphal the standard. Thus we have whole segments of society whose very existence has been removed from the story of Mankind. It is Benemann’s purpose to tell the nearly forgotten story.
One thing I find wonderful about reading books like this and others is that I learn what sorts of sources reputable historians have at their disposal. The more commonplace the writing, whether letters or tabloid news stories, the more Foucaultian assumptions are challenged. Lots of people knew Stewart, respected him, and what’s more, they wrote about him. Journals and letters are full of stories about him, and also his own accounts.
I have unfortunately found that some historical accounts are replete with “he must have felt” and “certainly they knew”, where I should think there is ample evidence of the content of the prolific recorders’ thoughts and ideas. I find this sort of enthusiastic “no, really!” makes me wonder if I am reading logical accounts or wishful thinking. But then, I’m a historical novelist, not a historian. Maybe I just think the speculative nature should be left to us scribblers. This is perhaps a particularly tempting instance, since two of the “sources” for Stewart’s story is two semi-autobiographical novels (see below). One includes an enticing account of Stewart’s seduction by the famous mountain man, Kit Carson! But is it history or a delightful wish fulfillment on Stewart’s part?
This is the sort of book that when you read it you realize that all those other more conventional histories left a bit, shall we rather say tons, out of the true story. It is also the sort of book where you make a point of reading the endnotes so you can go learn more.
Have you ever heard that Queen Victoria once was delighted at being presented with a couple buffaloes? Well Stewart was the guy who brought them to Scotland. And he was gay as a … well.. Laird.
From Kit Moss Reviews at GLBT Bookshelf www.glbtbookshelf.com
March 6, 2013
William Benemann examines the life of early 19th century Scottish nobleman and adventurer of the American frontier William Drummond Stewart.
After exorcizing the ghost of Foucault and his thesis that homosexuality was a late-19th century construction, Benemann reads between the lines of letters, journals, novels (including two by Stewart himself), and memoirs. Stewart's longest same-sex involvement was with the part-Native, part-French Antoine Clement, whom Stewart brought back across the Atlantic.
In most cases I agree with Benemann's interpretations, though there are instances (such as a section about the role of berdaches in ceremonies, and a passage on the identity of an actor playing female Shakespearian roles in drag referred to as Miss Power) where he reaches the level of speculation.
There are some fascinating scenes, such as a proto-renaissance festival / faerie gathering in 1843, and appearances by figures such as Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau (the son of Sacajawea), Kit Carson, John James Audubon, and Alfred Jacob Miller (an artist who had Stewart as his patron.)
After exorcizing the ghost of Foucault and his thesis that homosexuality was a late-19th century construction, Benemann reads between the lines of letters, journals, novels (including two by Stewart himself), and memoirs. Stewart's longest same-sex involvement was with the part-Native, part-French Antoine Clement, whom Stewart brought back across the Atlantic.
In most cases I agree with Benemann's interpretations, though there are instances (such as a section about the role of berdaches in ceremonies, and a passage on the identity of an actor playing female Shakespearian roles in drag referred to as Miss Power) where he reaches the level of speculation.
There are some fascinating scenes, such as a proto-renaissance festival / faerie gathering in 1843, and appearances by figures such as Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau (the son of Sacajawea), Kit Carson, John James Audubon, and Alfred Jacob Miller (an artist who had Stewart as his patron.)
April 2, 2013
Gerry B's Book Reviews
5.00 Bees
As a history buff I’m always on the lookout for new and heretofore unknown discoveries, and William Benemann has served up a dilly with his intriguing biography, Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade [Bison Books, October 1, 2012].
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 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.
Sir William fit into this testosterone-dominated milieu rather well, being an expert rider and a better-than-average marksman, and as proof of this he was both liked and respected by such people as William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame), and frontiersmen Kit Carson and Jim Bridger. He was also constantly surrounded by a retinue of young men, including a rakishly-handsome French Canadian Métis named Antoine Clement—undoubtedly Stewart’s lover—but if anyone noticed they either didn’t connect the possibility, or simply overlooked it.
Altogether, Stewart spent approximately seven years in America, returning to Scotland only briefly between 1839 – 1841 (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 384 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. Five Bees.
5.00 Bees
As a history buff I’m always on the lookout for new and heretofore unknown discoveries, and William Benemann has served up a dilly with his intriguing biography, Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade [Bison Books, October 1, 2012].
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 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.
Sir William fit into this testosterone-dominated milieu rather well, being an expert rider and a better-than-average marksman, and as proof of this he was both liked and respected by such people as William Clark (of Lewis & Clark fame), and frontiersmen Kit Carson and Jim Bridger. He was also constantly surrounded by a retinue of young men, including a rakishly-handsome French Canadian Métis named Antoine Clement—undoubtedly Stewart’s lover—but if anyone noticed they either didn’t connect the possibility, or simply overlooked it.
Altogether, Stewart spent approximately seven years in America, returning to Scotland only briefly between 1839 – 1841 (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 384 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. Five Bees.
July 16, 2015
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 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. That would have made for some intriguing meta-narrative.
October 4, 2017
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.
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..."
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..."
September 8, 2016
After finishing Zimmerman's book I began William Benemann's Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and same-sex desire in the Rocky Mountain fur trade (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012). 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. 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.
Benemann while sensitive to his sources wants desperately to see homosexuality and same-sex desire in his biography of Stewart. 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.
February 10, 2016
Wow. 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... this guy's story encompassed a wide range of personae. 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.
October 13, 2013
Stranger than fiction. 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.
September 4, 2013
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).
January 17, 2015
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.
January 2, 2016
Much better and more honest than Prairie Fever by Peter Pagnamenta
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews