LiveWorld Transcripts

William Morrow Books presents

Sena Jeter Naslund
Author of "Ahab's Wife"

October 18, 1999

From a small passage in Melville’s epic “Moby Dick,” came the idea for “Ahab’s Wife.” Author Sena Jeter Naslund chats about what inspired her to write the story of the unnamed woman to whom Captain Ahab was married.

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Bookspeak: Welcome to BookSpeak! William Morrow Books and The Talk City Network are proud to present our special guest for tonight, Sena Jeter Naslund, author of "Ahab's Wife." This elegant saga was inspired by a brief passage in "Moby Dick." Publishers Weekly calls it "A splendid novel that amply fulfills its ambitious purpose, offering a sweeping, yet intimate picture of a remarkable woman who both typifies and transcends her time." And now, without further ado, please welcome Sena Jeter Naslund. Sena, welcome to Talk City!

Sena Jeter Naslund: Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be on Talk City!

Mystery Girl: Sena, welcome to Talk City! You drew your inspiration for "Ahab's Wife" from the classic "Moby Dick," a novel we all have been acquainted with for decades. How long were you nurturing this idea before putting your pen to paper?

Sena Jeter Naslund: The idea for this novel, "Ahab's Wife," came to me in a flash. It came to me in less time than it takes to tell it. The idea came as a voice and a vision. The vision was of a woman, standing on a roof walk, or widow's walk, looking out to sea. She was hoping to see her husband coming home that night, with the tryworks burning. But as she looked out into the darkness, she realized he was not coming home. Then, she began to look up into the starry sky, instead of out. She began to ask questions about her own journey, philosophically speaking. What is my place in all this vastness? At the same time she began her questioning, I heard a voice that said, "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last." It was then that I knew I had the concept for a novel. I mulled it over for about nine months until I actually began to write.

Star Dust: How long did you work on this project?

Sena Jeter Naslund: When I actually began to write, I spent two years writing the first draft of the novel. I had already been doing some research, and I continued to do research throughout the writing of the first draft. It took me another two years to revise the novel from beginning to end four times. Altogether, I spent about four years writing "Ahab's Wife."

Capri: What sort of research did you do to compile this unique, 19th-century female perspective?

Sena Jeter Naslund: I began by studying "Moby Dick" itself. I read biographies of Melville, and other notable people who lived at that time; including Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Maria Mitchell, and Frederick Douglass. I also visited places. I went to Nantucket four times. I went to the whaling museum in New Bedford, and also at Mystic, Connecticut. I also read diaries and letters written by obscure women who, during the 19th century, had actually been on whaling ships.

Jeff Ca: What sort of turns did it take that you might not have expected, if any, from your initial ideas?

Sena Jeter Naslund: The novel took many unexpected turns. With that first sentence, I did have a structure for the novel. That is, the three marriages for Una Spenser. But I did not know who husbands' number one and three would be. Also, characters appeared in the novel that I had not anticipated at all. And characters introduced in the early parts of the novel, to my surprise, reentered later on. I want to add, that, "Ahab's Wife" is a self-contained world, and one need not have read Moby Dick in order to enjoy "Ahab's Wife."

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