‘Cutler’s Gate’ Uses 1918 Flu as Background

Known as the ‘forgotten pandemic,’ the influenza of 1918 killed more Americans than all of the great wars of the 20th century and AIDS combined. A new novel by Palisadian Gene Harrison Starbuck uses the American tragedy as its backdrop. On Wednesday, August 7, Starbuck will appear at Village Books on Swarthmore to discuss and sign copies of his debut novel, ‘Cutler’s Gate.’ ‘I wrote most of ‘Cutler’s Gate’ during National Novel Writers’ Month in November of 2006,’ says Starbuck, 61, a first-time novelist who is retired from teaching college. Set in the fictional town of Salida, Colorado, and built around a family of German immigrants struggling through the 1918 flu epidemic, ‘Cutler’s Gate’ is loosely based on Starbuck’s great-grandfather’s family. ‘My cousins had read it and were disappointed that it wasn’t historically accurate,’ Starbuck says, laughing. Like the Cutler family, Starbuck’s ancestors ‘lived on a dairy farm. They had 10 children, three of whom did, in fact, die of the flu.’ Coupled with the pandemic was the plight of German-American immigrants such as Starbuck’s ancestors. ‘There were almost as many of German ancestors as English ancestry [in this country],’ he says. It’s important to remind people that ‘folks of all ethnic backgrounds have some rough spots to go through in the history of the country.’ Indeed, during World War II, the name-change of sauerkraut to ‘liberty cabbage,’ a true-life attempt to distill the ethnicity from the German-origin condiment, very much echoed post-9/11 ‘freedom fries.’ ‘People know very little about that influenza epidemic in spite of how devastating it was,’ Starbuck says. ‘No matter where they were in the world, they had ancestors who went through that epidemic. Think about what might happen if another epidemic were to occur. There’s no real reason why it’s impossible to have another epidemic.’ Originally from the small town of Meeker, Starbuck spent nearly all of his life in Colorado, where he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. After 31 years of teaching sociology of the family and gender at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Starbuck, who had written academic and text books, decided to spread his wings by tackling a novel upon relocating to the Palisades. Starbuck’s wife, LaTisha, landed a position as vice president of St. John’s Medical Center, so, Starbuck says, ‘I retired a little earlier than planned and moved in with her.’ After two-and-a-half years, Starbuck enjoys his life here. ‘It’s wonderful,’ says the author, who lives near the Getty Villa. ‘The weather obviously is great, the climate is good. I have trouble explaining to people back in Colorado that I don’t live in a concrete jungle. That’s their image, either that or the beach.’ What’s great about the Palisades, he says, is that ‘it’s like a small town surrounded by the city with all of the benefits of both.’ Even as the Village Books engagement marks his very first book signing, Starbuck has begun mulling over his upcoming ‘detective procedural thriller.’ So how does it feel to toss the textbooks aside and write a novel for a change? ‘It was kind of liberating,’ Starbuck says. ‘You get to lie, which I couldn’t do writing nonfiction. But you have to lie convincingly.’ Starbuck expects that fans of historical fiction will come down to Village Books and buy a copy. In the parlance of the Starbuck families, both real and fictional: ‘Excuses don’t get the cows milked!’