Podcast 60: Kevin Patterson and John Hanson Mitchell
February 17th, 2008
As a physician, Kevin Patterson treats Inuit communities of the Canadian Arctic. As a novelist, he explores the collision between the old and the new in that region. His debut novel CONSUMPTION richly details the life of the Inuit as they transition from traditional nomadic life to settlement in towns built for them by the Canadian government. It tells the story of one family across three generations as its members make this transition, the uneasy peace they make with modern society, and the connections and tensions between them and the Kablunuks– or whites — who come to work in the Arctic. Patterson is also editor of a forthcoming book about his work with refugees in Afghanistan. His Mother Jones article about his work can be found here.
Also, John Hanson Mitchell tells us about his search to solve the mystery surrounding the African American servant of a famous 19th century ornithologist. It’s the subject of his 2005 book, LOOKING FOR MR. GILBERT. When Mitchell found more than two thousand antique glass plate negatives in the attic of an old estate in Massachusetts, he thought at first they had been created by ornithologist William Brewster, a Boston Brahmin of the highest rank. But then, Mitchell began to have questions. They led him on a journey to uncover the history of the man who may very well have been the first major wildlife photographer, a little-known African American named Robert Alexander Gilbert. Mitchell is editor of Sanctuary, the magazine of the Massachusetts Audubon Society .
Tags: arctic audubon_society bird_photography canadian_arctic Fiction inuit John_Hanson_Mitchell kevin_patterson mr_gilbert Nonfiction Podcast robert_alexander_gilbert sanctuary_magazine william_brewster
