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Scourge:
The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox |
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| Typhoid
Mary By Anthony Bourdain Bloomsbury An entertaining urban historical of the infamous Typhoid Mary Mallon - the Irish cook with pestilence coursing through her ... um... bum. This one is a bit different because it's written by a chef who looks at Mary's life from the perspective of what it must have been like for a hard-working immigrant cook at the turn of the century, and he throws in a lot of details regarding the lack of cleanliness of the time which makes it a bit more understandable why Mary didn't tend to wash her hands after relieving herself, and thus prevent the spread of Typhoid Fever. Bourdain is decidedly sympathetic of Mary, when it's pretty obvious that Mary had a whole lot to do with bringing her misfortune upon herself... which makes you wonder: if Bourdain were offered some of Mary's trademark peach ice cream, would he have eaten it? NNN - Entertaining, but lightweight |
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| Encyclopedia
of Plague and Pestilence By George Childs Kohn (Facts On File) Recommended by Marion: "It's wonderfully morbid and historical!" |
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| Pox:
Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis By Deborah Hayden (Basic Books) Recommended by Nina: "Good read." This book analyzes several major figures in history - from Lincoln to Hitler - and asks the question of whether or not they may have suffered from syphilis. It sounds like a quite interesting read about this most fascinating of venereal diseases. |
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| Typhoid
Mary: Captive to the Public's Health By Judith Walzer Leavitt (Beacon Press) Recommended by Lissa: "The cover art will grab you immediately as it is a drawing of a woman cook throwing tiny skulls into a frying pan as though they were eggs. Obviously, this is the true story of poor Mary Mallon who was found to be the carrier of typhoid who infected 22 persons while working as a cook in various upper-class homes in New York, Long Island and the Jersey shore. At 37 she was taken into custody and forced to live out her remaining 26 yrs in isolation on a small island of New York. The book is written in several perspectives so that a full, socially relevant picture is given of Mary and also everything surrounding her life and the disease she spread. Hopefully, being printed in 1996, it is still in print so that others may get it. How often does one get such an account of someone who did so much damage, intentional or not?" |
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| The
White Death : A History of Tuberculosis by Thomas Dormandy (New York Univ Pr) Recommended by Wendy: "It's highly readable and covers the treaments as well as those treated and how the disease made such an impact on Victorian culture. Seeing the painting of Ophelia reminded me how the model was infected yet insisted she pose for hours daily in a tub of cold water." |
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Shocking Suggestions... |
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