James Fitzgerald
Posted by Bill Molesworth
on Apr 11, 2012
James is a graduate of UCC and Queen's. He's a publisher and a writer - author of the controversial "Old Boy" that exposed abuse at the College. Most recently he has published "What Disturbs Our Blood", winner of the Writer's Trust Prize in 2010 and nominated for the Giller and recognized as a memoir of power and candour.
Mr. Fitzgerald described the book as an adult murder mystery. His father and grandfather were eminent Toronto doctors and at one time he lived with them and his mother - three generations in the house his grandfather built. At that age he was unaware of his grandfather's international reputation. His father became a professor at U of T and a doctor at Toronto General and moved his family to Forest Hill and a very pleasant lifestyle. But in the 1960's his father had a nervous breakdown, suffered from depression and attempted suicide twice. James thinks brutal psychiatric treatments made his condition worse.
At this point he started asking questions about his grandfather, who nobody discussed, and eventually discovered he had attempted suicide too. His conclusion that his family were either crazy or dead and that success was something he had mixed feelings about. All his life he has suffered powerful dreams, nightmares concerning the house and at 33 he sought help and eventually started to release 'generations of untapped grief' and gave himself permission to examine his inner life.
His grandfather had been the founder of Connaught Labs. He was the youngest person on the U of T faculty and a colleague of Banting and Best. 100 years ago medicine in Toronto was third world quality. The city was rife with disease, typhus etc. and mortality was 20%. Diptheria killed thousands every year and though there were some drugs they came from the States, they were expensive and there was no guarantee of effectiveness.
His grandfather spent the years 1910 to 1913 travelling the world and studying and he learned to manufacture vaccines and he came back to Toronto and persuaded U of T to participate in producing these for free for the poor. In 1914 there was huge demand for vaccines for the troops going to Europe and Gooderham contributed land and funds and during the war the Labs produced millions of doses. In 1921 they started producing insulin. He also worked to eliminate diptheria in Toronto and Hamilton and came to the attention of Rockefellor who helped him open the first school of public health in Canada - only the third in NA. In one generation he had taken public health in Toronto from a backwater to a world leader. By his 30's he was Dean of Medicine at U of T. and became a world traveller and lecturer but he died in 1940.
James knew nothing of this growing up and his research only gave him the public face - he knew nothing of his grandfather's inner life.
A visit to the old Lunatic Asylum at 999 Queen St. brought him to some letters, given to the institution a week before by the heir of the recipient, a past director of the Asylum. These were written while he was in a US institution, suffering from depression and dying. These gave James his first insight into the mind of his grandfather.
He recognized the voice of his father in the 60's in the voice of these letters. Two incredibly successful men who were suffering from loss of status, of work, of money. And there was a third voice, his own. Material here could not be invented - it was a story that needed to be told. A final piece came from a doctor in his 80's living in BC that his mother sent him to see. But that part is in the book.
Sue thanked James for his visit and made a donation in his name to Polio Plus.
Mr. Fitzgerald described the book as an adult murder mystery. His father and grandfather were eminent Toronto doctors and at one time he lived with them and his mother - three generations in the house his grandfather built. At that age he was unaware of his grandfather's international reputation. His father became a professor at U of T and a doctor at Toronto General and moved his family to Forest Hill and a very pleasant lifestyle. But in the 1960's his father had a nervous breakdown, suffered from depression and attempted suicide twice. James thinks brutal psychiatric treatments made his condition worse.
At this point he started asking questions about his grandfather, who nobody discussed, and eventually discovered he had attempted suicide too. His conclusion that his family were either crazy or dead and that success was something he had mixed feelings about. All his life he has suffered powerful dreams, nightmares concerning the house and at 33 he sought help and eventually started to release 'generations of untapped grief' and gave himself permission to examine his inner life.
His grandfather had been the founder of Connaught Labs. He was the youngest person on the U of T faculty and a colleague of Banting and Best. 100 years ago medicine in Toronto was third world quality. The city was rife with disease, typhus etc. and mortality was 20%. Diptheria killed thousands every year and though there were some drugs they came from the States, they were expensive and there was no guarantee of effectiveness.
His grandfather spent the years 1910 to 1913 travelling the world and studying and he learned to manufacture vaccines and he came back to Toronto and persuaded U of T to participate in producing these for free for the poor. In 1914 there was huge demand for vaccines for the troops going to Europe and Gooderham contributed land and funds and during the war the Labs produced millions of doses. In 1921 they started producing insulin. He also worked to eliminate diptheria in Toronto and Hamilton and came to the attention of Rockefellor who helped him open the first school of public health in Canada - only the third in NA. In one generation he had taken public health in Toronto from a backwater to a world leader. By his 30's he was Dean of Medicine at U of T. and became a world traveller and lecturer but he died in 1940.
James knew nothing of this growing up and his research only gave him the public face - he knew nothing of his grandfather's inner life.
A visit to the old Lunatic Asylum at 999 Queen St. brought him to some letters, given to the institution a week before by the heir of the recipient, a past director of the Asylum. These were written while he was in a US institution, suffering from depression and dying. These gave James his first insight into the mind of his grandfather.
He recognized the voice of his father in the 60's in the voice of these letters. Two incredibly successful men who were suffering from loss of status, of work, of money. And there was a third voice, his own. Material here could not be invented - it was a story that needed to be told. A final piece came from a doctor in his 80's living in BC that his mother sent him to see. But that part is in the book.
Sue thanked James for his visit and made a donation in his name to Polio Plus.