Tag Archives: biography

Now What?

21 Thursday Feb 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized, Writing Biographies

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

How long does it take to write an historical biography? And when is it considered finished? Well, that depends….

In my case, it seems impossible that I started working on the biography of my great-grandfather, Dr. Harry G. Blaine, more than 20 years ago! I already had on hand the basic materials for the book: my great-grandfather’s diary, my grandfather’s biography of his father and a memoir of his growing up as the son of a doctor, and copies of some other family-related history. My grand delusion was that this would be just like writing a research paper for a college class. And I was one of those odd students who really enjoyed writing research papers!

It didn’t take long to shatter that delusion. Writing a full-length book was a lot more complicated than any research paper I had ever written. Over the intervening years, I collected more family documents that were hidden away in my cousins’ and sisters’ attics. I read numerous books and articles on various aspects of medicine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as family and cultural life and historical events in those times. My bibliography swelled to more than 40 sources!

Another struggle was how best to organize the book. I didn’t want it to be just a dry recitation of important dates and events in Dr. Blaine’s life. I wanted to create a story or series of stories that would educate the reader in addition to revealing more about Dr. Blaine and the legacy he left behind.

When I finally completed that first rough draft, it was a moment of victory. I had actually done it! I now had a framework on which to hang any additional material that might be relevant. Ironically, that was the hardest part. As I looked back through my reading and research notes, I kept finding more gems to include. Help! Where do I stop?

Finally one day I just put the book away for a while. Now the longer I ignore it, the harder it is to pick it back up! One side of my brain says, “Nobody’s going to be interested in that boring, old stuff anyway. Just throw it in a drawer and forget about it.” The other side of my brain says, “Don’t waste all that hard work! Finish it off and share it. Family members will read it even if no one else does.”

I’ll let you know which side wins.

Too Much History?

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Writing Biographies

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Last November I wrote about the dilemma of what to include and not to include in the biography of my great -grandfather. I’ still fighting that challenge to some degree, but now there is a new one on the table–or at least a variation.

As I start to put all my individual stories into some rough semblance of order, I’m beginning to see gaps that could be filled with historical content. The question becomes how much background history is necessary and how much could be a distraction. Some examples might make the dilemma a little clearer.

If you read my blog post from last April on private medical schools, you’ll remember that I included the Toledo Medical College as an example of those early attempts at medical education because Dr. Blaine had received a degree there and had also been on the faculty a short while. So far in the biography, I have mentioned the school only in passing. But is that enough? Should I use that school as a vehicle to give the reader a more detailed impression of the state of medical education in the late 1800s? And, if so, how much detail do I include? My files are bulging with facts about financial problems and disagreements about the administration of the school. Dr. Blaine and several other faculty members were even charged with trespassing when they attempted to attend a closed meeting of the board. Maybe all this does merit a separate chapter in the book!

Another example is not so closely tied to Dr. Blaine. It involves the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881. Like many other American citizens, the doctor followed closely the news reports of the shooting in June, the subsequent attempts to save the president’s life, his death in September, and the trial of the assassin Charles Guiteau. The main reason I am thinking of including this historical event is that it serves as a prime vehicle for revealing some of the misconceptions then prevalent in medical practice, misconceptions that actually hastened the president’s death!

In both of these examples, I can see evidence that the historical background does help to establish the setting of the story. And, as James Thom said in his book The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction, “Most regular readers of historical fiction are reading to learn, and they gain historical knowledge from story to story. They take pride in having some knowledge they can keep and believe” (29). Since my book is turning out to be a combination of historical biography and fiction, maybe both of the examples I mentioned do fit!

I’m already committed to writing a chapter on the 1893 Chicago World’s FHistoryair because the doctor and his wife actually visited that remarkable event. So we’ll see what happens. Stay tuned!

And feel free to leave a comment on how much history is too much history in a historical-fiction-biography.

Source: Thom, James Alexander. The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction. Writer’s Digest Books, 2010.

To Include or Not to Include

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in Writing Biographies

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Decisions, decisions! As I have commented before in this blog, trying to figure out what to include and not include in Dr. Blaine’s biography is a constant source of frustration. My mind gets overloaded with so many details that I can’t see the forest for the trees–and the bushes, leaves, sticks, mud puddles, flies, gnats…. Well, you get the drift. Too  much information is almost worse than not enough. How do I control this deluge?

decisionsIn desperation I turned to my file folder labeled “Writing Tips,” bulging with words of wisdom collected over many years from Writers Digest, websites, books on writing, presenters at various writing conferences, and I read through every page. Surprisingly, all of it boiled down to a few simple guidelines: (1) Tell the truth; (2) Include only details that establish the setting, advance the plot, or shed light on the characters; and (3) Explain only as much as you need to. The reader will fill in the rest.

Whew! There is a way through this forest if I just follow the path these guidelines create. Even as I tackle those parts of the doctor’s life that are more exposition than story, I can test each detail that floats into my consciousness by asking these questions: Will it give the reader a sense of the setting? Is it relevant to the story I am telling? And/or will it help the reader understand one of the characters better?

Following these guidelines, I can see now that the story about how Dr. Blaine helped the town marshal capture a shoe thief, although not of cosmic importance, does reveal his impulsiveness and his deep respect for the law.

On the other hand, the menu for a January 1904 Knights of Pythias banquet probably does not belong in the book since it adds only a very small bit of information about the setting.  But in case you are a true history buff (and I am too!), I’ll share the menu here. The appetizer was cut oranges and bananas. The main course included cold ham, escalloped oysters, olives, mixed pickles, cheese, biscuit, butter, and potato chips–all cold food except possibly for the oysters. How different from our present-day banquet fare of hot chicken, beef, or fish with all the fixings! Dessert was more what we would call traditional fare: cake, ice cream, and wafers. The differences are fascinating. But you also need to remember that oranges and bananas in the middle of a Midwestern winter in the days before the mass movement of perishables were no doubt a real treat! And not many venues were equipped with kitchens large enough to serve hot food to a large crowd of people.

And so the book takes shape one detail, one story at a time. How all of it will eventually fit together is anyone’s guess. But what sustains me is the “aha” moment described by the contemporary short story writer George Saunders when writing an entire book for the first time: “Of course, I can make a mansion with a series of linked yurts!” And I plod on, writing those yurts with as much finesse as I can and hoping that a mansion will result.

For those of you who also write biography, how do you decide what to include and not include? Feel free to share your words of wisdom by responding to this blog.

What a Ride!

23 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized, Writing Biographies

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

69cd2d6d-4d2a-445b-8e3a-a937420e26ed[1]

Dr. Blaine in 1910 Maxwell

At the beginning of his medical practice in 1882, Dr. Blaine had few choices for getting around to visit his patients in rural Ohio. He could walk, ride a horse, or take a horse and buggy. By the end of the century, however, a new and exciting means of transportation took center stage: the horseless carriage. And it was a godsend to busy physicians.

By 1905, Dr. Blaine had acquired a small, one-cylinder curved-dash Oldsmobile, the one made famous in song as the Merry Oldsmobile, and drove it around the countryside in all kinds of weather and at all times of the day or night. It was faster than a horse and buggy and cheaper to run. Remembering to fill it up with gas, however, took a while to become a habit. His son Harry remembered vividly one summer night riding with his father back from a house call when the engine started to cough and then died on a lonely country road at midnight. What could they do but walk the four miles into town and retrieve the car the next day! Even in the 21st century, with accurate gas gauges and plentiful gas stations, don’t we sometimes commit the same error?

But one problem we no longer have to deal with is a lack of paved roads. Dr. Blaine at one time kept three cars: the Oldsmobile for summer, a high-wheeled one for winter, and a 1910 Maxwell for general use. And don’t forget the horse as a last resort! The high-wheeled car was probably one of the early autos that were basically buggies with a small gasoline engine attached. The high wheels kept the driver above some of the snow and mud on the roads–that is, if the car had enough power to make it through. Most country roads at that time were nothing but unpaved rutted tracks that transformed into a sticky mud soup after a rain. Any smart driver carried shovels, chains, ropes and other paraphernalia to extricate his car from the gooey mud or high snowdrifts when necessary. The doctor bragged to one of his sons that he had managed to drive 60 miles in one day in the mud in a 1910 Flanders, which had just recently replaced the Maxwell and was, according to the doctor, “the greatest car made.”

With his unquenchable curiosity and love of all things mechanical, Dr. Blaine couldn’t resist tinkering with his cars. The story goes that he completely disassembled his first car in order to understand how it worked and then, thankfully, put it back together correctly. Later, when he had accumulated more than one car, he built a large garage at the back of his house and furnished it with all the tools necessary to repair and maintain his prized possessions. He even installed an underground gasoline system which pumped fuel directly into the autos.

His curiosity and love of excitement also got him into trouble. It had not taken long for early automobile enthusiasts to recognize the potential for car racing as a new sport. Catching their enthusiasm, Dr. Blaine created his own speedster by removing the fenders and windshield on one of his Fords. Nothing was more thrilling than racing around the countryside in his creation, flinging mud in all directions during wet weather! Then the inevitable happened. On the way to a house call, the doctor encountered a farmer backing his hay wagon out of a lane in front of him. Not able to stop in time, the doctor swerved to avoid the wagon and ended up lying in a ditch with two broken wrists. Not a good outcome for anyone, especially a doctor! But it did manage to convince him to put away his dangerous toy and choose safer transportation thereafter.

The Century Ride

03 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized, Writing Biographies

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

I have many memories of my grandfather, Harry S. Blaine, one of Dr. Blaine’s sons. He was ever present during my childhood as a quiet, studious man whose interests ranged from clocks to genealogical research. By the time I was a teenager, I was taller than he was. Nowhere in my wildest imaginings did I picture him as an athlete.

But when I recently reread his recollections of growing up in Attica and Toledo, I discovered, to my surprise, that he was an avid bicyclist in his youth. And we’re not talking about short rides around the neighborhood here. At the age of 18, my grandfather took on the challenge of what is still called today a Century Ride and accomplished not only the required 100 miles or more in a 12-hour period, but added even more, accumulating a total of  almost 200 miles on his bicycle before he was finished!

safety bike 1896With the invention of what is called a “safety” bike in the 1880s, the bicycle craze took off around the world. With two wheels the same size, these bikes were easy to control and became a popular alternative form of transportation for both men and women. In fact, their popularity among women encouraged not only new styles of clothing, but also more independence and wider participation in society.

In the summer of 1898, Harry conceived of his plan to bike from Attica to Canton, OH, and from there all the way to Pittsburgh, PA, where his grandparents lived. As a warm-up for that long trip, he and a friend rode from Attica to Toledo, a distance of about 70 miles. With that successful venture behind him, Harry then took on the Century Ride. Dressed in a cut-off pair of old trousers and packing only a coat and a small kit of tools, Harry started off early one July morning on the 100-mile trip to Canton.

The roads were the biggest challenge. They were mostly unpaved and poorly maintained. Harry was kept busy weaving from side to side in order to avoid large holes and other obstacles. At one point, he glanced too long at some harvesters in a field, hit a board in the road, and tumbled over the handlebars into a shallow ditch. Fortunately, the only injury was to his dignity, as the farmers guffawed loudly upon witnessing his spill. After 11 1/2 long hours, he arrived at the home of some cousins in Canton, tired and with numb wrists after all those miles of pressing down on the handlebars. But the sense of  accomplishment made up for the temporary discomfort. He had mastered the Century Run!

That was only the first leg of his grand adventure. After resting a few days in Canton, Harry turned his sights toward Pittsburgh. It was smooth sailing until the relatively flat landscape morphed into small hills, then large hills, and then mountains. This was before the invention of coaster brakes and gears on bicycles. Going up involved pumping with more and more effort; going down with no way to control his speed became an impossibility. By the time he reached the state line and saw the mountains of Pennsylvania looming before him, Harry realized that he could ride his bike no further. At the nearest town, he bought a train ticket to Pittsburgh, checked his bicycle, and rode the rest of the way in comfort.

He did manage to ride his bike part of the way home in between stretches on the railroad, therefore obtaining his ambitious goal. But as he noted in his recollections: “This was the last trip of any consequence I made per bicycle.” Now that sounds more like the grandfather I knew!

The Railway Surgeon

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Interesting Facts about Medical Practice 1880-1930, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

In the course of research for the biography of my great-grandfather, I often travel down trainintriguing side roads which lead to new vistas of knowledge. Much of this knowledge will never find its way into the book. That’s why I like to share it here in the hope that readers of this blog will find it as interesting as I have.

This side road originated with a brief mention of Dr. Blaine receiving an appointment as surgeon for the B. & O. Railroad after he moved to Chicago Junction, OH in 1905. By that time the B. & O. had rail lines connecting Chicago, IL to Baltimore, MD, with Chicago Junction serving as a division point.

That little piece of information piqued my interest. Was the practice of hiring surgeons limited to the B. & O., or was it a common practice among all the rail lines? Hopping on the Internet, I went on a most fascinating ride, which ended at this website: http://www.railwaysurgery.org. The following information is taken from an article in that website titled “The Train Doctors: A Brief History of Railway Surgeons,” by Robert S. Gillespie.

Did you know that the railroads were some of the first enterprises, along with mining, lumber, and steel, to offer medical care as an employee benefit? Especially with the expansion of the railroads across the continent, injuries to railroad workers could occur in desolate places, far from any medical facility. Consequently, “by the early 20th century, every major railroad listed full-time doctors on its payroll.” Now Dr. Blaine might not have been a full-time employee, but he was still expected to be on call at all times to treat injured workers or even injured passengers or bystanders in the area around Chicago Junction.

To pay for this medical treatment, the railroads charged the workers a fixed amount in the form of payroll deductions and funded the rest themselves. These mandatory payments were unpopular at first and caused some unrest among the workers, but in time the benefits became more obvious and therefore the payments more acceptable. This practice of payroll deductions for medical care continues today for most employees.

Other innovations by the railroads ended up becoming accepted practice. In order to provide safer care for injured workers in remote areas, the railway surgeons developed emergency packs which were carried in the railroad cars and contained medicines and sterile dressings. These were the forerunners of our ubiquitous first aid kits.

Railroads also established their own hospitals in areas where there were no other medical facilities. Some of these became independent foundations called Employee Hospital Associations (EHAs) and gave employees more say in the management of the hospitals. In order to keep costs down, regulations put limits on what medications would be available to patients and what conditions would be treated. These strict limits and centralized approval process were radical ideas at  the time but became the basis for our modern managed care systems.

Other innovations by the railroads included the appointment of women to high positions such as division or chief surgeon. And the railway surgeons not only cared for the injured, they also “advised railroad officials on workplace safety and sanitation issues,” thus providing the foundation for what has become the specialty of occupational medicine.

So even though the last railway hospital closed many years ago and railway surgery is a specialty of the past, their innovations created out of necessity in the age of the railroad remain a vital part of our 21st century medical landscape.

Piecing Together a Story

29 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized, Writing Biographies

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I have always enjoyed working with fabric. My mother taught me to sew by the time I was 10 or 11, starting with hand-stitched doll clothes and then graduating to my own clothes on her sewing machine. As a young mother, I made clothing for my two children as well as for myself and my husband. Making or adjusting curtains became a necessity as we moved many times in our marriage. I never became what you would consider an accomplished seamstress but had fun challenging myself with creating a wall hanging or completing a quilt that my grandmother had pieced many years before.

Quilt blockRecently I completed another quilt that someone else had started. It was a simple task of assembling already sewn blocks into a top and then lining it and providing a backing. But it gave me such unexpected pleasure that now I can’t stop. It wasn’t so much the stitching together (the quilting part) of all the layers of fabric, but more the design and assembly of the pieces that intrigued me. Working with colors and patterns to create something uniquely my own feeds my need to bring order from chaos, beauty from randomness.

And then it struck me. Isn’t this the same fulfillment that I find in writing the biography of my great-grandfather? To gather all the disparate facts and episodes of his life and create something new that will be his unique story?

But the analogy doesn’t end there. (Aren’t analogies fun?) In the process of creating a quilt top, I sort through the fabric that I already have to see what blends with what, what makes for interesting contrast, what can  be used for borders or trim, what general theme I want to follow. In the same way, as I write the biography, I sort through the tons of material I have collected to see what might be appropriate for this or that chapter, what little detail might bring a story to life, what is interesting but may be only a sideline, and what general theme will tie it all together.

As I continue to lay out the various fabric pieces for a new quilt, I sometimes come to the difficult conclusion that a certain piece (Why does it have to be my favorite?) just doesn’t work with the others or with the theme I have chosen. So out it goes, perhaps to appear in a later creation. Similarly, as much as I would like to include in my book all the fascinating facts about the development of medicine in the United States from 1880 to 1930, too much of it will bog down the flow of the story. So out it goes — or much of it anyway — perhaps to appear in a blog post or an essay somewhere down the line.

Since my Scotch heritage demands that I pinch pennies, I try very hard to use up the fabric and other supplies already on hand for whatever project I’m working on. Invariably, somewhere in the middle of my planning, I suddenly realize that I need another yard of white cotton or a spool of red thread, and off I go to the nearest fabric store. As I continue writing chapters of my book, I come across blank spaces in my knowledge: What year was the city of Attica electrified? What does “chirurgery” mean? Why did the B & O Railroad help fund a community hospital in Willard? And off I go mining the Internet for those hidden gems.

Of course, as with any analogy, even a fruitful one, the comparison eventually breaks down. In my case, the planning and execution of a  quilt (at least the kind I make) is much less involved than the writing of my great-grandfather’s biography. And once a quilt is completed, I can give it to a loved one or a favorite charity, but its distribution is very limited. My book, when eventually published, will be shared with a much wider audience.

So as I work on both my quilts and my book, I’ll continue to find joy in their similarities and satisfaction in their differences, using my God-given talents for both to create beauty from chaos.

 

How do your genes fit?

18 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by in Writing Biographies

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

GenesThe age-old question of nature vs. nurture will never be answered to everyone’s satisfaction. Two children who grow up in the same household with the same biological parents can mature into exact opposites of each other. A child from a less than supportive family, who seems to have no stability or opportunity for success, can end up achieving greatness. So how much influence does your family history actually have on who you have become or are becoming?

How do your genes fit into your life story?

All my life I have envied those people who have one passion or talent and pursue it exclusively. It always seemed to me to be the only way to achieve fame and recognition. But even though I have been blessed with a number of talents, I could never force myself to concentrate on just one, devote time and energy to just one, to the exclusion of all the others. As a result, I felt inadequate and frustrated much of my life, spending a lot of time and energy trying to figure out just who I was and what I was supposed to become and achieve.

Doing research on my great-grandfather Dr. Blaine has led me to a much deeper understanding not only of him but also of myself. I come from a family of multi-talented people; it’s in my genes! And that’s okay. In fact, pursuing many different interests and talents has allowed my life to be as varied and colorful as a wildflower garden, just as Dr. Blaine’s was.

Dr. Blaine was curious about everything, especially all things mechanical. He would take an engine apart and reassemble it just to find out how it worked. He was a trained printer and owner of a local newspaper for a while. He helped to establish the first telephone service in Attica, OH, and even invented a special metal anchor for telephone poles. He served his community as mayor and justice of the peace, in addition to maintaining his medical practice. He founded a medical journal and a hospital. Other interests included photography, teaching, and writing.

Like Dr. Blaine, I may have made a few significant contributions along the way, but I have also had the privilege of touching the lives of so many different people in so many diverse situations. And that’s where I have found the real richness and meaning of my life: teaching people to enjoy the magic of handbells, being a friend to someone with mental illness, writing a grant to support a program that cares for neglected and abused children, connecting people to meaningful volunteer opportunities, encouraging the love of language and reading in students, playing with words in poems and stories, knitting, sewing, gardening, singing. My life has been full of God’s gifts, just as Dr. Blaine’s was. And I am thankful that finally I can accept who I am and what I am still  becoming. My genes fit just fine!

How about yours? What have you learned about yourself from studying your ancestors? Feel free to join the conversation!

A Perspective on Christmas

21 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized, Writing Biographies

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Christmas Clip Art      A Perspective on Christmas

With all the hype surrounding our 21st century version of the Christmas holiday, it’s hard to remember a time when Dec. 25 was just another day on the calendar for many people. Of the seven entries my great-grandfather, Dr. Harry G. Blaine, made in his diary on Dec. 25 from 1877 to 1883, only three mentioned getting together with family or friends on that day. The rest of those years – and probably many more – Dr. Blaine spent Christmas at home on the farm doing chores or visiting patients or working in his office. One of those years he was in medical school in Indianapolis and spent the entire day in his room reading and writing a letter to his wife. No mention of gifts or lavish decorations or sumptuous meals anywhere.

Granted, as a man in that society, most of those duties might have been relegated to his wife, if indeed they happened at all. But I think the point is valid: We have made Christmas into a monster of commercialism. The bigger and more expensive the gift, the more your family will love you. The day must be perfect, from the wrapping paper down to the last piece of gourmet chocolate.

So as you celebrate your own version of this holiday in 2015, take a step back and find some perspective. For many people out there even today, Dec. 25 will be just another day on the calendar. Doctors and hospital personnel will be working to ensure that your medical emergency is treated. Police and firefighters will stand ready to aid at a moment’s notice. Nursing home employees will show up to care for their residents. Our troops at home and abroad will be on alert to protect our freedom. Families living under a bridge in Anytown, U.S.A., will somehow survive another day.

Remember — and whisper a prayer of thanks for the people in your life, not the things that Santa may bring.

The Remarkable Dr. Blaine

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized, Writing Biographies

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

69cd2d6d-4d2a-445b-8e3a-a937420e26ed[1]

I never met my great-grandfather Harry Gordon Blaine. He died 11 years before I was born. Yet his presence pervaded my childhood. He was a medical doctor, after all! None of my other relatives — teachers, postal workers, furniture makers, laborers, farmers, office workers — had such an illustrious occupation. No others had saved a life as Dr. Blaine did when he performed an emergency appendectomy on one of his grandsons.

And what made this man even more fascinating were the objects he had left behind. We were the only family in our neighborhood who had a real skeleton in our attic and a real set of 19th century surgical tools in a back closet.

We also felt Dr. Blaine’s presence in a voluminous collection of photos and written records. As a young man, he had kept a diary for ten years which chronicled not only the mundane events of his life as a farmer, but also his growing passion to become a medical doctor and the steps he took to reach that goal. A stack of letters written to and from other family members and  a biography written by one of his sons filled in more gaps in his life.

All of this information, as I read it now, reveals a man whose enthusiasm for knowledge, especially for things mechanical, was unquenchable. And the new discoveries and inventions  of the early 1900s fed that enthusiasm: the first horseless carriages (early name for automobiles), telephones, phonographs, incandescent electric lights, airplanes, and so much more that we now take for granted. It was the age of belief in the forward progress of mankind, and Dr. Blaine was an ardent believer.

Yet, like most people, this remarkable man also had his dark side. Some of his letters contain disparaging remarks about minority groups — an attitude I am sure he shared with most of the society around him. Never a good manager of money, he drove his wife to sue for divorce on grounds of nonsupport of his family. And a family legend about his addiction to morphine was finally substantiated in a copy of the divorce decree. After his death, his estate was so tangled that it took many years to unravel all the details.

Even so, in his lifetime Dr. Blaine contributed to the well-being of countless patients in rural northwest Ohio, was a valued colleague in the medical community, and made his own mark on the society around him. I feel honored, as a descendant, to have him in my family tree.

Remarkable people may be hiding in your family tree too. Even if you never write a book about them, don’t miss the opportunity to make the acquaintance of any who pique your interest. Just as important, be sure to pass down family stories (including your own) to the next generations. As Russell Baker so eloquently put it: “We all come from the past, and children ought to know what it was that went into their making, to know that life is a braided cord of humanity stretching up from time long gone, and that it cannot be defined by the span of a single journey from diaper to shroud.”