In her autobiography, the writer Mary McCarthy describes the horrifying experience of traveling by train as a child, when her mother and father were stricken with influenza. The conductor threatened to put the whole family off the train. Later, both parents died of the flu. Ms. McCarthy and her brothers were left in the care of cruel and neglectful relatives, their early childhood marked forever by this tragedy.

The Great War, with its relentless demand for soldiers, also contributed to the contagion. Troop movements across Europe and the U.S. carried the disease from town to town, city to city, and port to port. How many lives might have been spared had it been peacetime?

Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, by Mary McCarthy,  Harcourt Brace & Co., 1985.

The “excess death” toll, that is, deaths that occurred over and above expected causes, largely resulted from influenza in 1918. And the young and healthy accounted for a disproportionate number of “excess deaths.”

Imagine the fear and foreboding felt when so many civilians, soldiers, and young parents were falling sick and dying. In my book Pandemic! I’ve tried to give the reader a sense of what it felt like to be a survivor. How did those who lived rebuild their lives and go on in the face of such tragedy and loss?

To find out more about why the Spanish flu killed so many young people, click on the CDC link to read “1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics”, by Jeffery K. Taubenberger and David M. Morens.

It could not have happened at a worse time. Thousands of physicians and nurses were in Europe because of the war. Those left behind worked long, exhausting hours, and many died from influenza.

The influenza pandemic killed more people than died in World War I. It was and remains the deadliest epidemic in history, killing 50 to 100 million throughout the world.

After the U.S. entered the war in 1917, the country became consumed by patriotism. Interest in supporting the troops and winning the war eclipsed all else. Ironically, influenza spread quickly among military recruits, both in training camps and on board troop ships.

In my YA historical novel Pandemic!, the main character is caught up in both of these life-changing events. Set in Denver in the fall and winter of 1918/19, the book describes the devastating effects of both influenza and the war on one group of people, a story played out in countless cities across the nation.

Because this lethal form of influenza (commonly called Spanish flu) struck during the Great War (WWI), it’s been, until recently, largely forgotten. At last, due to historians like John Barry and Alfred Crosby, it’s receiving more attention. Also, with diseases such as SARS and Avian flu now posing a threat, there’s a renewed scientific interest. What lessons can be learned from studying this worldwide outbreak of flu from 1918? What knowledge might be gained that could help in stemming future epidemic/pandemics?

Here are two important books about the pandemic:

• The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John Barry. Viking Penguin, 2004.
• America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, by Alfred W. Crosby. 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2003.

I’ll be sharing more facts about the pandemic of 1918 in future posts. And also, more about my book.