Launch: Jillian Forsberg’s The Rhino Keeper
INTERVIEW BY SUSAN FRAGER
Jillian Forsberg has a master’s degree in history from Wichita State University. The Rhino Keeper is her debut novel. She plans to always write animal historical fiction.
Can you give us the “elevator pitch” for The Rhino Keeper? How would you describe the book in your own words?
The Rhino Keeper is based on the remarkable true story of Clara the Indian rhino who traveled Europe with her ship captain caretaker for 18 years. She became the first animal celebrity, wowing peasants and queens alike. But with celebrity comes drama, even in the 21st century, as a college student unearths the mystery of Clara and her keeper.
It’s a unique subject. What inspired you to write about a rhino in the 18th century?
I simply had to know more about this story of Clara and her keeper Douwe. I stumbled upon this obscure bit of history after seeing an Indian rhino for the first time. I was astonished by the size of him and by the major differences between the Indian and African species. I had to know more about them and a quick Google search revealed Clara and many pieces of art made from her likeness. I’ve always loved the 18th century, especially the trend of curios and menageries and the sumptuous art that came from the 1700s. I was intrigued by Clara’s many portraits and my curiosity got the better of me. Surely someone had written a novel about her adventures with a Dutch sea captain who toured her around Europe? But no. There was one non-fiction book, and two picture books, but no novel. Since then, a few have been published in Europe, but none in English. So I balked at the tradition of “write what you know” and delved deep into rhino care, European royalty, and Dutch trading ships. The book exists for reasons of pure curiosity—curiosity about what happened to Clara after her death, and what happened to her while she was living.
Telling the story in a dual timeline makes the reader aware of the vastly different world views of the 18th and 21st centuries. Two topics stand out for me: beliefs about animals and how to treat them, and the respect (or lack thereof) for non-European cultures. Was this the reason for your choice to tell the story in a dual timeline format?
Partly. On a discovery call with my mentor Jenna Blum, she asked me what had happened to Clara’s remains after her death in 1758. I had some theories that I shared with her (they’re spoilers!) and she and I decided that telling that story would help the reader understand Clara’s legacy as well as answering the question of what happened to her in the last few centuries. By telling Clara’s story in 2022, I was able to help readers unfamiliar with the 1700s to learn alongside the characters.
Clara emerges as a personality in her own right, and I find her very enjoyable! Was this the product of your imagination, or are there historical records that gave you insight into her?
Clara’s personality emerges both from the historical record that documents her having temper tantrums, licking the face of her keeper, and enjoying crowds and attention. But it also comes from a lot of research about Greater One-Horned or Indian rhinos and spending time with them. It was one of the joys of my life to meet rhinos and their keepers at zoos around the country while writing. There’s nothing like being slimed by a rhino mouth. Watching them with their beloved caretakers and seeing the intelligence level, training methods, and animal behaviors firsthand was crucial to getting Clara right. While we don’t know for sure how she acted, it was a delight to imagine her in the palaces and villages of 18th-century Europe.
Was Douwe a real person? What’s known about him?
Yes! Douwemout van der Meer (sometimes also spelled Douwe Mout) was a Dutchman who lived from 1705–1775. He was a captain and held other various positions in the VOC, one of the largest trading companies in the world. Despite the heavily documented VOC records, we have no captain’s log from him. He was a landowner, traveled the world, and was married with at least one child. After Clara’s death in 1758, he disappeared from the historical record until his own death in 1775. I have copies of his signature, a few portraits, and that’s it. I wish he had left more behind, but that is the nature of common people in the 18th century.
During your research, what surprised you? Is there anything you wish you could have included in the novel, but it just didn’t fit?
Everything and nothing surprised me. This story is so outlandish that it made me laugh many times to imagine what people would have thought of Clara at every step of the way on her grand tour, or even when she was more stationary in Leiden, Holland for stretches of time.
Two things I wish I could have fitted in: the rumor that a donkey was dressed in a rhino suit with a papier mâché horn, who fooled a small village into thinking she was Clara, and that Clara met the famous biologist Carl Linnaeus and became the genotype species for her kind. Linnaeus named her Rhinoceros unicornis. That would have been a fun scene to write, but I couldn’t fit it in. At one point, that was the name of the book, and Carl was going to have quite a role to play. Maybe I’ll write his book after my others!
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