Fever, a Novel about Typhoid Mary




Midday on WNYC show

Summary: Mary Beth Keane discusses her new novel, Fever, about the woman known as “Typhoid Mary”—Mary Mallon. She was in Irish immigrant who became a cook for some of New York's wealthiest families until someone noticed that she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked. The Department of Health sent Mallon to North Brother Island, where she was kept in isolation from 1907 to 1910, then released under the condition that she never work as a cook again.