Clearing the Air: World Asthma Day

The 1st Tuesday of May is World Asthma Day. I was curious to know if there were any poets or writers who had suffered this condition. Yes! Surprised to find several, including: Proust; Edith Wharton; Elizabeth Bishop; Dylan Thomas; Charles Dickens, and Oliver Wendell Holmes all suffered with asthma. I learned that worldwide around 180,000 lives are claimed each year. 

It's thought that Dickens was the 1st person to write an asthmatic character into a novel, namely Mr. Omer in 'David Copperfield [with thanks to a tweet by Francis Bainton for the extract underlining the chap in question]. Apparently, Dickens himself, 'treated' his chest troubles with opium, which was common at the time.

A curious thing, it also happens to be International Midwives Day, and when I began to look into who exactly Oliver Wendell Holmes, snr, was I discovered that not only was he a poet, but that he was first and foremost a physician. It was he who invented the term anesthesia (without pain), but most importantly, and more relevantly, he made a significant breakthrough in recognizing the most effective way of preventing puerperal fever, which was claiming the lives of too many women just after they had given birth. A simple thing - just ensuring doctors washed their hands thoroughly between attending to each new patient. It was still early days in the understanding of bacteriology; his views were not welcome, rather they attracted a death threat and some very unpleasant interference. But, it eventually was found that he had been right all along; and as a result, many lives were saved - allowing mothers and their new-borns to enjoy precious life together. 

I wanted, here, to honour the struggle these artistes had undergone physically, and also their creative achievements in spite of their condition.

I had no idea Elizabeth Bishop, a fine poet, had suffered from asthma from her childhood. I rather like the quote that follows her poem:

Dylan, in spite of being asthmatic, also liked to smoke - and drink! But produced such good work. I remember making a pilgrimage from St. Clears to his home in Laugherne, south Wales, just a short walk away, to look through the window of his little writing cabin, years ago. 

I shall give the final words to Oliver Wendell Holmes, who I simply had not known about before looking into creating this post about writers who suffered from asthma; so good to hear how much he contributed not only to the world of medicine, but also to literature, and many other fields - making a lived definition of the term 'polymath'. Check him out for yourself - it's an inspiring journey....