A man still known in his community as E. J. Watson has been reimagined from the few hard “facts”—census and marriage records, dates on gravestones, and the like. All the rest of the popular record is a mix of rumor, gossip, tale, and legend that has evolved over eight decades into myth.
This book reflects my own instincts and intuitions about Watson. It is fiction, and the great majority of the episodes and accounts are my own creation. The book is in no way “historical,” since almost nothing here is history. On the other hand, there is nothing that could not have happened—nothing inconsistent, that is, with the very little that is actually on record. It is my hope and strong belief that this reimagined life contains much more of the truth of Mr. Watson than the lurid and popularly accepted “facts” of the Watson legend.
—from the Author’s Note for Killing Mister Watson (1990)
Lost Man’s River is the second volume of a trilogy and, like the first, is entirely a work of fiction. Certain historical names are used for the sake of continuity with the first volume (including the name of the narrator/protagonist Lucius Watson and his family members), and certain situations and anecdotes have been inspired in part by real-life incidents, but no character is based on or intended to depict an actual person, and all episodes and dialogues between the characters are products of the author’s imagination.
Once again, I am grateful for the kind assistance of the pioneer families of southwest Florida, who cheerfully supplied much local information, both historical and anecdotal. None of these friends and informants are responsible for the author’s use of that material, or for his fictional renditions of the life and times of these families and others.
—Peter Matthiessen