Hampton Sides Shows How History Can Aspire to Literature – And It Should

Sept. 10, 2015

Top American non-fiction writer, Hampton Sides, will discuss his art and the characters that inspired it – from Kit Carson to James Earl Ray – Thursday, Sept. 17 at the City Opera House in Traverse City, as part of the National Writers Series.

Sides – a world traveler, magazine writer and self-described "journalist who writes about history" – tells true stories, but with a novelist’s flair. While his work is based on facts, it’s no exaggeration to call his books thrillers.

"All those layers of research are hardearned and hard-won," he said, "but I consciously try to borrow some of the storytelling techniques more commonly associated with fiction, i.e. suspense, foreshadowing, character development, scene-painting, dialogue where written sources exist, etc."

Those techniques help Sides pull readers into the drama of real events.

"History can aspire to literature – and it should," he said. "I try to take readers on a trip, try to make it experiential, try to take them back to a place and time and make it come alive for them. I want them to feel what it was like to be alive then: how people talked, what they wore, how they thought and behaved, what the architecture was like."

Sides believes narrative non-fiction like this is experiencing a golden age.

"There are so many great writers working in this area today," he said. "Some of my favorites are Laura Hillenbrand, S.C. Gwynne, David Grann, Candice Millard and Daniel James Brown."

He admits it’s a challenging genre. "This business of making history come alive on the page is really tricky, and these people make it look easy," he said. "These writers have found techniques to make history appeal to contemporary audiences."

It’s safe to say Sides has accomplished just that with his latest book. "The Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette" depicts a once wellpublicized chapter of polar exploration that has largely faded from memory. The Jeannette – heavily reinforced for icy waters and powered by a combination of sail and steam – left San Francisco Bay with much fanfare on July 8, 1879. She was 146 feet long, threemasted with a beam of 25 feet and drafted 15 feet fully loaded.

The mission was to sail to the North Pole and, if possible, find the long-sought Northwest Passage. The crew – mostly hardened sailors – understood the enormous risks, but they also had reasons to be optimistic.

The expedition had a strong leader, United States Naval Academy graduate George Washington De Long, who had proven himself in a dangerous rescue mission off Greenland. Other bright spots were De Long’s fellow officer, George Melville, a relative of the famous author, as well as the ship’s physician, Dr. Edward Ambler, and several seamen of uncommon fortitude.

Strengths aside, nearly all other assumptions about weather, route, currents and the capability of the ship proved wrong from the start. Earlier unsuccessful expeditions had considered coastal Greenland the most likely path to the Pole. They reasoned the Jeannette should have better luck sailing up the west coast of the U.S. and Canada, past Alaska, through the Bering Sea and, hopefully, beyond.

Clearly, they were mistaken. The most famous geographer and cartographer of the era, August Petermann, argued vociferously that the warming effects of the Kuro Siwa current created a "thermometric gateway" that assured easy sailing to what many scientists of the day called the Open Polar Sea.

This pseudo-science had tragic results for the Jeannette and much of its crew. In many respects, the Jeannette expedition disproved the prevailing theories, which can be seen as a contribution to science, but many of those who shipped out on the Jeannette paid a high price for that knowledge. As Sides points out, it’s ironic that, nearly 140 years later, global warming might yet make the Northwest Passage a reality.

This is not just a book about heroic suffering and disastrous endings. Like his other books, Sides’ use of personal letters, weather reports, ships logs and journals helps pull back the curtain on the inner journey of those involved. We understand what it might have been like on this remarkable voyage. Through Sides’ reporting, we see how real life characters respond or falter.

As Sides writes of the Jeannette crew, "If they had not gone anywhere, they had journeyed into regions of the psyche where few men had ever been, interior spaces that brought out aspects of themselves they’d never known existed."

Having just returned from a tour of eastern Europe and Iceland to celebrate 25 years with wife Anne Goodwin Sides, he is now working on a book about the Korean War Battle of Chosin Reservoir.

Sides’ Other Books Include:

- "Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission," the story of the Amy Rangers’ rescue of Bataan Death March survivors. It won the 2002 PEN USA Award for non-fiction and the Discover Award from Barnes & Noble.

- "Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West" showcases Kit Carson and the harsh realities of westward expansion. It was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2006 by Time magazine and was selected as that year's best history title by the History Book Club and the Western Writers of America.

- "Hellhound On His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History" recounts the life and many mysteries surrounding James Earl Ray, who shot and killed Martin Luther King. The book reached No. 6 on The New York Times Best Seller list.

The National Writers Series event will take place Sept. 17 at 7pm at the City Opera House in Traverse City. Sides will be interviewed by bestselling author and National Writers Series founder, Doug Stanton. Tickets are available by calling the City Opera House box office at (231) 941-8082.