The Good Old Days
For those of you who haven't heard, some American scientists have raised the 1918 Spanish Flu Virus from the dead. It was pretty clever how they went about doing it, but you have to wonder if it is something that ought to have been left alone.
My wife and I (the freaks that we are) have read a good bit about the 1918 pandemic. What is interesting about this pandemic is that, even though it killed tens of millions (some say hundreds of millions) people world wide, there are very few written accounts of it from that time. The folks that live in our old homes (those built before 1918 of course) weathered this storm, or, perhaps, they didn't. I don't know if any of the Boswells caught the flu, but I know none of them died of it. I'd be curious to know if any of you have come across references to the flu in your house or genealogical research.
Something else odd about this disease, it mostly killed young adults (18-35). Normally, the very young and the very old make up the majority of fatalities in flu out breaks. Not in 1918. It also struck extremely fast. People felt fine in the morning, left for work, and fell ill and died before they arrived at their desk.
For any of you with a morbid curiosity, I'd recommend the following books:
Alfred W. Crosby's America's Forgotten Pandemic : The Influenza of 1918. In telling the story of the flu, he also gives an interesting account of the early days of modern medicine.
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History by John M. Barry.
Flu : The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic by Gina Kolota.
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Kathrine Anne Porter is the only definitive account of the pandemic in English. It is an autobiographical account of her own experiences during the pandemic. She survived a bout of the flu.
Robert Graves makes a couple of references to the flu in his autobiography, Good-bye to All That. Graves and his family all contracted the disease. All of them survived except his mother-in-law.
Thomas Wolfe mentions the flu in his novel Look Homeward, Angel. The novel is largely autobiographical and recounts his older brother's death from the flu.
And, if you are looking for something to creep you out for Halloween, read the first 100 some odd pages of Stephen King's book The Stand. The main premise for the book is a government engineered super-flu virus is accidentally released killing 98% of the worlds population. The first 100 pages or so are about the pandemic. The rest is about a mythical struggle good and evil, rebuilding the world, etc. In my opinion, the rest of the book (1200+ pages) isn't worth the effort. Borrow it or buy it used if you're interested.
My wife and I (the freaks that we are) have read a good bit about the 1918 pandemic. What is interesting about this pandemic is that, even though it killed tens of millions (some say hundreds of millions) people world wide, there are very few written accounts of it from that time. The folks that live in our old homes (those built before 1918 of course) weathered this storm, or, perhaps, they didn't. I don't know if any of the Boswells caught the flu, but I know none of them died of it. I'd be curious to know if any of you have come across references to the flu in your house or genealogical research.
Something else odd about this disease, it mostly killed young adults (18-35). Normally, the very young and the very old make up the majority of fatalities in flu out breaks. Not in 1918. It also struck extremely fast. People felt fine in the morning, left for work, and fell ill and died before they arrived at their desk.
For any of you with a morbid curiosity, I'd recommend the following books:
Alfred W. Crosby's America's Forgotten Pandemic : The Influenza of 1918. In telling the story of the flu, he also gives an interesting account of the early days of modern medicine.
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History by John M. Barry.
Flu : The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic by Gina Kolota.
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Kathrine Anne Porter is the only definitive account of the pandemic in English. It is an autobiographical account of her own experiences during the pandemic. She survived a bout of the flu.
Robert Graves makes a couple of references to the flu in his autobiography, Good-bye to All That. Graves and his family all contracted the disease. All of them survived except his mother-in-law.
Thomas Wolfe mentions the flu in his novel Look Homeward, Angel. The novel is largely autobiographical and recounts his older brother's death from the flu.
And, if you are looking for something to creep you out for Halloween, read the first 100 some odd pages of Stephen King's book The Stand. The main premise for the book is a government engineered super-flu virus is accidentally released killing 98% of the worlds population. The first 100 pages or so are about the pandemic. The rest is about a mythical struggle good and evil, rebuilding the world, etc. In my opinion, the rest of the book (1200+ pages) isn't worth the effort. Borrow it or buy it used if you're interested.
posted by John | 4:23 AM
2 Comments:
You should read Wickett's Remedy also. It's a new book that just came out. Fiction, set in the 1918 influenza epidemic. It was pretty good.
This sort of sent chills up my spine. The trail of the Petch family in Eureka ends abruptly in 1919. I know Thomas Petch, the father, went to Santa Rosa in 1910, but the Phyllis, the mother, and the 3 boys stayed in Eureka. The oldest son, Thomas Jr. was a doctor, so no doubt he came in close contact with sick patients. It is conceivable that he spread it to the family and they died off quickly. That would explain a lot. I've been meaning to check death records down at the college. This has renewed my interest.
Another intersting thing about the pandemic is that it only last 6 to 9 months. It went around the world like a wild fire and burned itself out quickly. Such is the case with diseases that kill quickly. The hosts don’t last long enough to infect large numbers of people. You get it. You get sick. And you die. If you didn’t die so quickly you would have the chance to infect a lot more people.
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