When i was reading books about this experience when i was going through his it was saintly women writing about saintly mothers. I knew i could write my book when this woman who hadnt seen my mother and i for 30 years, you are so funny together. We could be a comedy. I was saying with my dad the same thing. I totally lost it with this man i fought with my whole life. That is a nice opportunity. That is a particular thing gay friends and daughters could do really well. I think your book is very honest and very real and that always works. Thanks, mutual. We are inviting you to assigning. [applause] [inaudible conversations] booktv is on instagram. Followers for publishing news, schedule updates and behindthescenes pictures and videos. Instagram. Com booktv. Now i am pleased to introduce a nice arthur with his acclaimed new book the fever of 1721 the epidemic that revolutionized medicine and american politics. Stephen coss has a bachelors degree working as an Advertising Agency copywriter and wisconsin election official when not working on his handwriting. The fever of 1721 the epidemic that revolutionized medicine and american politics tells the story of the worst smallpox epidemic ever to strike boston, setting the stage for political change and scientific advancement including controversial but effective smallpox inoculation. The pittsburgh post called it in formidably told and the wall street journal said it was the deep account. Please join me in welcoming the fever of 1721 the epidemic that revolutionized medicine and american politics. I am wisconsin election official. They are having an election. I had to vote absentee. Dont know if that makes me a wisconsin election official but i would rather be here right now. That is a nonpartisan position. It is a fancy word for poll worker. It is kind of cool because i get to register to new voters so firsttime voters, naturalized citizens, pretty cool. I like it a lot all kidding aside. Hillary, thank you for that introduction. Thanks to harvard bookstore. This is my first time here but i have heard about this store. Everybody has heard about this store. It smells like a bookstore, looks like a bookstore should look. I am happy and proud to be one of the guests so thank you again. Thanks to booktv. I have ever been on booktv although i have watched it many many times. It is a real pleasure to be featured and of course i thank all of you for coming. This is my fourth live event. The first was in madison wisconsin, i got all my friends to go and my wifes friends and we went to chicago and in chicago i got all my inlaws to go. Judy has a very big family so she is one of seven or eight. I should know by now. She asked her family to go. On sunday i did an event in madison connecticut, another fine independent bookstore. Im from connecticut originally so i have my old friends dating back to high school, people i have not seen this century who i got to go there. And tonight i dont think i know any of you so that is very flattering. Thank you for coming. I appreciate it. When my sister learned that i was going to be presenting the book she gave me some advice, she said i suggest letting people know it is your first appearance and if it goes over good say that every time you speak. I would like to announce this is my first appearance. As i said this is my fourth appearance, it is my first appearance in this town or the general area of the town where my book takes place and for me that is very cool. It is also my first appearance at this store, my first appearance on booktv so this is all a wonderful thing for me. I thought what i would do tonight is start with a very short reading of about eight minutes from the introduction of the book so that you have not read the book youll get an idea of the scope of the story, three plot lines i try to thread together and i dont have time to talk about all of them obviously so i thought i would read from the beginning of the book, give you a sense of what it is about and then stop and talk a little about one of the characters from the book, someone Everybody Knows but generally doesnt associate with boston and then if i dont digress too much we should have plenty of time for discussion. I will start with a short reading from the introduction to the fever of 1721 the epidemic that revolutionized medicine and american politics. 1721 might be the most important anonymous year in the evolution of modern medicine and american liberty. During the worst smallpox epidemic in boston history a loan physician conducted an experiment that saved hundreds of lives, launched a new medical discipline and helped pave the way for the eradication of the worlds most devastating disease. The procedure he employed known as inoculation would over time be modified and extended to fight other diseases, preventing the deaths of untold millions of persons. In 1721, it was considered primitive, barbaric and tantamount to attempted murder. Town officials, medical establishment and many rank and file bostonthe ands opposed it, some willing to do anything to stop it. In april 17, 21 smallpox came to boston for the first time in two decades, arriving aboard the hms seahorse, a british warship. By the time the epidemic burned itself out, approximately half the towns 11,000 inhabitants had been infected. Among those who escaped death were 300 men, women and children who had undergone inoculation. The procedure began with an incision in the skin of a healthy person. The incision was implanted with viscous fluid from the vesicles and pustules of someone who had broken out in smallpox. The idea was to produce an extremely mild case of the disease and good for immunity against future infection. Prior to 1721 inoculation was virtually unknown in america and had never been attempted. A proposal to try it in boston came from an improbable source, the puritan minister cotton mathers, a master of fire and brimstone, who was one of the most controversial figures, chiefly as a consequence of his involvement in the salem witch hysteria three decades earlier. Generally regarded as a man prone to superstition and infatuation he had become in the years since salem an adherent of enlightenment signs and enthusiastic monitor of the latest and most exotic medical development in europe and beyond. The towns most esteemed physician dismissed the proposal out of hand but one doctor accepted the challenge. In 1721 boylston was 42 years old and successful as a physician and an apothecary shop owner. He had achieved a measure of fame for his uncommonly good track record in surgery. But was relegated to the second tier of medical practitioners because he lacked educational and social pedigree of many of his colleagues. Without boylstons daring James Franklin would never have launched a current. For four years the boston printer had been looking for an opportunity to start a newspaper modeled on the best london publications. A weekly that would be literate, weekly, provocative and ambitious. The antithesis of the generate goal and perfunctory boston newspapers already in circulation. In 1721 the public hunger for information and opinions about inoculation to put this plan into action. If this done nothing more than reprint excerpts, along with a topical spectator commentary of richard steele, it would have made a noteworthy contribution to the history of american journalism and american independence but it went further. Sidebyside with the great political and social thinkers of the european enlightenment james published distinctively american essays and letters penned by himself and his friends, they presumed to criticize and satirize the religious and political establishments of colonial massachusetts with a boldness that scandalize their fathers generation. Concurrent with the onion, the daily show, the colbert report, and argument can be made that the 11 American Social and political satire began with James Franklins newspaper with everything that followed from mark twain to will rogers to south park. At the same time he was amending American Social and political commentary James Franklin was also helping the man generally regarded as the first american. Two years after being pulled from school 12yearold Benjamin Franklin had been indentured as his brothers apprentice. For the better part of the next three years as he learned the trade that would make them wealthy been had embarked upon his selfeducation. s inspiration came from his brothers Printing House which contained a large and Diverse Library of books and periodicals and served as a Meeting Place for James Franklins clever and loquacious friends. Their conversations about books and pamphlets and debates about politics, religion and social issues of the day fired young benjamins mind and imagination and began to see his destiny unfold before him. Then in 1721, the 15yearold was given a front row seat in the inoculation controversy. What he learned from that debate and his involvement in the newspaper that grew out of it changed his life and helped define him as an author, publisher, political philosopher, experimenter and diplomat. In a sense everything Benjamin Franklin ever really needed to know he learned in 1721. Byerly 1722 he was ready to take the public stage, decide on a country widow. It is fitting the Political Movement that would make Benjamin Franklin famous as an American Patriot was coming of age at the same time he was. The man behind the first organized push toward american independence was a doctor turned businessman turned politician named eliza cook junior. The son of one of the coloniess wealthiest men and beloved politicians cook the younger had inherited his fathers fortune, politics, and bitter and abiding resentment for england for the 1684 cancellation of the original massachusetts charter which had given the colony a remarkable degree of political autonomy. Shortly after being elected to the massachusetts house of representatives for the first time in 1716, all three inheritances to work, opposing and obstructing the government. Before three years had elapsed the hard drinking cook had built americas First Political machine and also become the main distinguishing official one of whom accused him of poisoning the minds of his countrymen with, quote, this republican notion in order to assert the independence of new england. In 1721 smallpox epidemics marked a forwarding medical science and served as a catalyst for the invention of american journalism, the coming of age of Benjamin Franklin and the beginning of american independence itself. This book is about that epidemic and what accompanied it. It is a story of 5 remarkable men and how their courage, daring and desperation in a time of crisis defined their destinies and hours, thank you. As i mentioned i have 5 main characters in this book and im going to concentrate for the rest of my time before we have questions and answers on the most famous and beloved of those characters, someone who though generally associated with philadelphia was and remains very much a bostonian. Im talking about Benjamin Franklin. Franklin would leave boston when he was 17 years old and would never live in the town again. At a time for the rest of his life, he would sometimes say some rather tough things about his hometown. Famously wrote to lafayette who had named his daughter virginia in honor of the American Republic that he hoped the frenchman would be blessed with 12 more children so he could name one for each of the colonies but was quick to add he was worried for the soul of any child named massachusetts which he said was, quote, too harsh even for boys. So franklin never did return to boston permanently but may four extended visits to the town and he would have made a fifth. It is safe to say the town was never far from his box. Wherever he went, philadelphia, england, france, kept tabs on boston, famously his friend Joseph Priestley wrote when frank read about the military occupation of boston and the closing of its board in 1775 it was here that he cheats. In 1784 franklin wrote a letter confessing not only that he longed to see boston again but at one point he wanted to be buried in boston. He did not return to boston, he was not buried in boston but he did remember the town in his will and a lot of people are not aware of that. He bequeathed the same amount of money to boston as he did to philadelphia. So in all these ways franklin acknowledged how much boston meant to him but those gestures only begin to reflect how profoundly important the town was to have its development, philosopher, scientist and person. It is my contention in this book that the 5 years Benjamin Franklin spent with his brother james as an apprentice and especially the year 1721 when he helped james launch the new england current and had a front row seat for the inoculation controversy where the most formative years in his life. In my mind there is no question. I say as i mentioned that everything Benjamin Franklin ever wanted to know he learned in 1721. The book elaborates on why i make that claim so tonight i want to talk about what happened before that. Franklin did so many things we dont know that much about the earliest part of his life, there are many great biographies but because he had such a long life and did so many things, the first 15 or 20 years of his life usually get a few pages. I think that is more so i want to talk a little bit about how the Franklin Brothers got together, how they struggled to make a go of it, how they almost did not make a go of it and how that influenced what would happen in 1721 and ultimately Benjamin Franklins entire life. James and benjamin were the fourth and eighth children of Josiah Franklin, he had been married once, 7 children from his first marriage, he had 10 more children, Benjamin Franklin was the 10th and youngest son and because josiah was a very religious man with the old south church, he was very much developed as a puritan. He hoped to tie been to the church, to make him a gift to the church by setting him up to be a minister and in those days if you want to see a congregational minister there was a prescribed route, you went to learn latin as a prep school and went to Harvard College which is many of you if not all of you know started out as a Training Ground for computational preachers in new england so even though Josiah Franklin did not have a lot of money he made soap and cattle and even as the trade went, that is not very high, a highly paying job, he decided somehow or other he would present his son to harvard and ultimately make him a minister. Benjamin franklin started at boston latin and did quite well. The problem with it became clear quickly he lacked the calling to the minister. There is a famous story you have heard about. One winter, one fall when putting up provisions for the winter they were salting meat and he turned to his father and suggested they ought to just pray over the barrel once and pray every time they sat down to eat. That is the typical Benjamin Franklin logical kind of piece of logic. It was great for everything but not so great for someone who was going to be a preacher so when josiah realized he did not have the right stuff for the ministry he saw no reason to encourage huge expense, and when 10 years old, went to work in a power shop. This was hot physical work because they would boil down animal fats. Benjamin franklin who even at this age was already a strapping strong kid. He hated the work. And a prodigy. And he wanted to leave the apprenticeship and go to see. He wanted to see the world. His father was upset about that. It was Common Knowledge among everyone that being a sailor with a dangerous occupation which franklin already lost his son, his eldest son josiah junior left home against his wishes, hired on to a ship and lost at sea, perhaps by pirates they never knew. Josiah was determined Benjamin Franklin did not suffer that fate. He took his son all around town, took a day off of work which was something to do before those days, took his son all around town trying to find an occupation among all the trades. For a variety of reasons it didnt work out so there they are back in the tallow shop. Benjamin still miserable, josiah still worried that one day he is going to run off to see. James franklin returned to england, 20 years old, had been in england a number of years as a printer. He was back in boston, good at his trade, see what they were doing england and how exciting that was. And told his father, i need to turn this around and josiah said no way. What james needed was the money. Josiah had to borrow the money to get it to james, he said no way. A couple things, he thought james ought to cool his jets and serve his time and get to know the business a little better but he thought along with everyone else in boston that there were not enough printers in town and the town could not support another printer and the adventure would fail but james was determined and kept pushing and josiah found himself with james in one ear begging for the money and benjamin in another year begging to do anything but be in the power shop and he capitulated. He told james okay, i will get you the money providing you take his brother as your apprentice. Sounds like a good deal but they were strangers because James Franklin had been learning to become a printer almost all of Ben Franklins life. They didnt know each other very well. They were different as people but was the best deal either of them could get. In late august 17, 18 James Franklin and benjamin went into business in a little shop on queen street directly across from the town prison which would loom large in their futures. Maybe all of you know this but at the old statehouse about 100 yards, 150 yards, looking at a plaque on a bu