Crosby, Molly Caldwell

PERSONAL:

Education: Attended Johns Hopkins University.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her first book, The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History, author Molly Caldwell Crosby writes about one of the biggest epidemics in American history. Arriving in the United States in 1878 via mosquitoes on board slave ships sailing from Africa, yellow fever eventually killed 20,000 people in the Mississippi Valley. The author focuses on the plague as it reached its peak in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, where it killed approximately 5,000 people, more than the number who died in the Chicago fire of 1871, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the Johnstown flood of 1889 combined. Mary Roach, writing in the New York Times Book Review, commented that the author "vividly evokes the Faulkner-meets-‘Dawn of the Dead’ horrors of that summer" in Memphis.

The American Plague also delves into the many mistakes made by government and other public health officials during the epidemic. For example, President Rutherford B. Hayes was largely unconcerned over the epidemic, saying that he thought the problem was exaggerated. Another part of the book deals with a controversial study conducted by Walter Reed, the noted U.S. Army surgeon, and involving two dozen volunteers who were veterans of the Spanish-American War. Two of the doctors on the study also became infected and one died. The goal of this study, which took place in Cuba, was to prove that mosquitoes were the source of the virus that caused yellow fever and that the source was not dirty living conditions, bacteria, or human-to-human contact, as was commonly believed at the time. New York Times Book Review contributor Roach called this section of the book "a first-rate medical detective drama." Although the study would eventually prove that mosquitoes were the source of yellow fever, the study also raised many ethical questions concerning what study patients should have to endure. In the study, one group of study participants were housed in a building in which their clothes and sheets were encrusted with vomit and excrement from yellow fever patients, while another volunteer was housed in a building filled with mosquitoes. The volunteer in the mosquito house eventually became infected with yellow fever.

Crosby also profiles many of the scientists who conducted studies of yellow fever. In addition, she chronicles recent outbreaks of the disease in Africa, and explores the chances for another epidemic of yellow fever. The American Plague received widespread critical acclaim. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the author "offers a forceful narrative of a disease's ravages and the quest to find its cause and cure." Anne Underwood, writing in Newsweek, called the author's account of the plague "gripping."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

California Bookwatch, February, 2007, review of The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June, 2007, T.P. Gariepy, review of The American Plague, p. 1786.

Entertainment Weekly, November 10, 2006, Gilbert Cruz, review of The American Plague, p. 87.

Newsweek, December 4, 2006, Anne Underwood, "A Virulent Enemy; the Story of Yellow Fever Still Has Much to Teach Us," review of The American Plague, p. 58.

New York Times Book Review, November 5, 2006, Mary Roach, "Contagion," review of The American Plague.

Publishers Weekly, September 11, 2006, review of The American Plague, p. 47.

Science News, November 25, 2006, review of The American Plague, p. 351.

SciTech Book News, March 2007, review of The American Plague.