Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical

Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical
by Anthony Bourdain

Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $3.99
You Save: $15.96 (80%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.59 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Anthony Bourdain
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-05-04
ISBN: 1582341338
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Book Reviews of Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical

Book Review: An energetic account of a willful woman
Summary: 5 Stars

In this diminutive book (amounting to fewer than 150 pages), the robust Bourdain tells the stormy story of 'Typhoid Mary' Mallon. The author and subject, it becomes clear, are much alike. Both are cooks, iconoclasts, and outsiders. The personalities of the two resonate with one another throughout. For the most part, this is a charitable portrait of a misunderstood woman, but Bourdain also admits that Mary had a misanthropic side. In the later part of her life, knowing she was a carrier of salmonella typhi, she worked as a cook at a hospital for women and children! At the same time, she had been wronged by the system -- treated unfairly because of her gender, her immigrant status, and her station in life. Bourdain successfully gets inside Mary's mind, and those of the bureaucrats who hounded her. His speculations on the inner thoughts of the players in this drama feel accurate. The mystery of Typhoid Mary is energetically brought to life in this wonderful account set in early-1900's New York.

Summary of Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical

From the best-selling author of Kitchen Confidential comes this true, thrilling tale of pursuit through the kitchens of New York City at the turn of the century.

By the late nineteenth century, it seemed that New York City had put an end to the outbreaks of typhoid fever that had so frequently decimated the city's population. That is until 1904, when the disease broke out in a household in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Authorities suspected the family cook, Mary Mallon, of being a carrier. But before she could be tested, the woman, soon to be known as Typhoid Mary, had disappeared. Over the course of the next three years, Mary worked at several residences, spreading her pestilence as she went. In 1907, she was traced to a home on Park Avenue, and taken into custody. Institutionalized at Riverside Hospital for three years, she was released only when she promised never to work as a cook again. She promptly disappeared.

For the next five years Mary worked in homes and institutions in and around New York, often under assumed names. In February 1915, a devastating outbreak of typhoid at the Sloane Hospital for Women was traced to her. She was finally apprehended and reinstitutionalized at Riverside Hospital, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

Typhoid Mary is the story of her infamous life. Anthony Bourdain reveals the seedier side of the early 1900s, and writes with his renowned panache about life in the kitchen, uncovering the horrifying conditions that allowed the deadly spread of typhoid over a decade. Typhoid Mary is a true feast for history lovers and Bourdain lovers alike.

Historical Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Historical Books
Alexander Hamilton ImageAlexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
Penguin Audio; Published: 2004-04-26; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $141.72
America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction (Penguin Classics) ImageAmerica and Americans and Selected Nonfiction (Penguin Classics)
by John Steinbeck
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $16.00
Sailing Alone around the World (Penguin Classics) ImageSailing Alone around the World (Penguin Classics)
by Joshua Slocum
Penguin Classics; Published: 1999-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters ImageThe Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters
by Charlotte Mosley
Harper; Published: 2007-11-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops: $39.95
Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans ImageProfiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans
by John F. Kennedy
Harper; Published: 2006-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $35.00
Lost Years: A Memoir 1945 - 1951 ImageLost Years: A Memoir 1945 - 1951
by Christopher Isherwood
HarperCollins; Published: 2000-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops: $30.00
Thomas Jefferson: A Life ImageThomas Jefferson: A Life
by Willard Sterne Randall
Harper Perennial; Published: 1994-06-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.11
Price in other shops: $20.00
The Professor and the Madman ImageThe Professor and the Madman
by Simon Winchester
Harper; Published: 1998-08-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops: $23.00
Patton: A Genius for War ImagePatton: A Genius for War
by Carlo D'Este, este, Carlo D'
Harpercollins; Published: 1995-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $49.94
Stonewall Jackson ImageStonewall Jackson
by James Robertson
Macmillan Pub.; Published: 1997-02-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $48.00
Price in other shops: $51.00
Similar Books and other products
Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking ImageAnthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2004-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.30
Price in other shops: $40.00
The Bobby Gold Stories ImageThe Bobby Gold Stories
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2003-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.98
Price in other shops: $19.95
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook ImageMedium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
by Anthony Bourdain
Ecco; Published: 2010-06-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.35
Price in other shops: $26.99
The Bobby Gold Stories: A Novel ImageThe Bobby Gold Stories: A Novel
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2004-06-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $12.00
The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones ImageThe Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2006-05-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops: $24.95
A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal ImageA Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2001-12-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops: $25.95
Gone Bamboo ImageGone Bamboo
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2000-09-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.36
Price in other shops: $14.95
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly ImageKitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2000-05-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.56
Price in other shops: $25.99
Bone in the Throat ImageBone in the Throat
by Anthony Bourdain
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2000-09-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.06
Price in other shops: $14.95
Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.) ImageKitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)
by Anthony Bourdain
Ecco; Published: 2007-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.66
Price in other shops: $15.99
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories