M. Eileen Ryan
Eisemann, Author
M. Eileen Ryan Eisemann (1/43) has authored a historical novel about a legendary hero-king who ruled in Sumer and Akkad (present day Iraq) in 2350 BC.
Here is how Eileen described the experience.
How I Met Sargon
I encountered Sargon years ago while reading a book on mythology, and I was instantly seized with a desire to learn more about him. His legend was the archetypal "abandoned hero" story. A thousand years before Moses was rescued from the Nile in a basket sealed with pitch, Sargon was set adrift on the Euphrates in a basket his mother had sealed with pitch. I had to dig deeper into the story.
History was far from my joint fields of nursing and teaching, but I had always written, since Sister Benedicta in fourth grade at St. Pascal's showed me that I could write. Sister Lucide at Mary Louis reinforced that belief in her Creative Writing classes, taught during study periods for anyone interested. In her English classes, we learned rigorous research methods.
Research was slow in pre-internet days. A reference work would have a few lines about Sargon, and I would duly note them and move on. I wondered how his mother could have been driven to abandon him. His rise to power, all the "firsts" credited to him, were merely touched upon in reference books. He created the world's first standing army, made many innovations in politics and warfare, in architecture and early writing styles and built the world's first empire in expanding his domain beyond his borders to other countries. As I went from library to library, gathering information, and as I bought books from university presses, I soon realized that I had to tell his story in full. I envisioned a historical novel in which I would do for Sargon what Mary Renault did for Theseus and Alexander the Great, what Pauline Gedge did for Brian Boru of Ireland and Hatshepsut of Egypt.
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M. Eileen Ryan Eisemann |
The project took years, for I was at the same time happily married to my husband Ray, raising our four children, working full time as a school nurse-teacher, working for an MA at Stony Brook, and eventually caring for grandchildren and aging parents.
As I studied, I discovered that human nature has barely changed in thousands of years. People still yearn for power; only the technology they use has changed. They love and fear their gods in equal measure, and love and protect their families.
Sargon's world became Saddam Hussein's modern Iraq, with scores of tyrants, benign lawgivers and dictators in between. In mid-June I learned that the bronze head of Sargon shown on the cover of my book is among the artifacts stolen from the Baghdad museum in the looting. Sargon's city of Agade has never been found. It awaits the archeologists' spade somewhere in the sands of Iraq, possibly near Baghdad. I pray it will not be destroyed before it ever sees the light of day.
I've named the book "Sargon, Son of the Waters." It is available on-line at
Xlibris.com, where you a sample
chapter may be read. It can also be ordered by
calling 888-795-4274.
See photos of Eileen during her St. Pascal days
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