How I Came to Write about Smallpox
I’m often asked how I came to write about smallpox. I found Lady Mary in a literary footnote fantasizing about Circassian slaves…
Read MoreSmallpox: the “Speckled Monster”
Smallpox was a hideous disease that made its victims unrecognizably monstrous, and many died in agony. The terror it fueled was intense…
Read MoreThere’s Nothing Small About Smallpox
The course of the disease from rash to pocks to scabs…
Read MoreOne Big Sore: Confluent Smallpox
Pustules grew so thick that they congealed into one massive sore. Skin sometimes sloughed off in sheets…
Read MoreEveryone Died: Hemorrhagic Smallpox
The rarest and most lethal form of the disease, once called “the purples,” was a death sentence…
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About My Blog
Occasional musings about stories, history, art, ideas, and the adventures of a writer's life...
