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The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies
"A mosaic mystery told in vignettes, cliffhangers, curious asides, and some surreal plot twists as Raffel investigates the secrets of the man who changed infant care in America."--NPR, 2018's Great Reads
What kind of doctor puts his patients on display? This is the spellbinding tale of a mysterious Coney Island doctor who revolutionized neonatal care more than one hundred years ago and saved some seven thousand babies. Dr. Martin Couney's story is a kaleidoscopic ride through the intersection of ebullient entrepreneurship, enlightened pediatric care, and the wild culture of world's fairs at the beginning of the American Century.
As Dawn Raffel recounts, Dr. Couney used incubators and careful nursing to keep previously doomed infants alive, while displaying these babies alongside sword swallowers, bearded ladies, and burlesque shows at Coney Island, Atlantic City, and venues across the nation. How this turn-of-the-twentieth-century migrant became the savior to families with premature infants--known then as "weaklings"--as he ignored the scorn of the medical establishment and fought the rising popularity of eugenics is one of the most astounding stories of modern medicine. Dr. Couney, for all his entrepreneurial gusto, is a surprisingly appealing character, someone who genuinely cared for the well-being of his tiny patients. But he had something to hide...
Drawing on historical documents, original reportage, and interviews with surviving patients, Dawn Raffel tells the marvelously eccentric story of Couney's mysterious carnival career, his larger-than-life personality, and his unprecedented success as the savior of the fragile wonders that are tiny, tiny babies.
A New York Times Book Review New & Noteworthy Title
A Real Simple Best Book of 2018
Christopher Award-winner
What kind of doctor puts his patients on display? This is the spellbinding tale of a mysterious Coney Island doctor who revolutionized neonatal care more than one hundred years ago and saved some seven thousand babies. Dr. Martin Couney's story is a kaleidoscopic ride through the intersection of ebullient entrepreneurship, enlightened pediatric care, and the wild culture of world's fairs at the beginning of the American Century.
As Dawn Raffel recounts, Dr. Couney used incubators and careful nursing to keep previously doomed infants alive, while displaying these babies alongside sword swallowers, bearded ladies, and burlesque shows at Coney Island, Atlantic City, and venues across the nation. How this turn-of-the-twentieth-century migrant became the savior to families with premature infants--known then as "weaklings"--as he ignored the scorn of the medical establishment and fought the rising popularity of eugenics is one of the most astounding stories of modern medicine. Dr. Couney, for all his entrepreneurial gusto, is a surprisingly appealing character, someone who genuinely cared for the well-being of his tiny patients. But he had something to hide...
Drawing on historical documents, original reportage, and interviews with surviving patients, Dawn Raffel tells the marvelously eccentric story of Couney's mysterious carnival career, his larger-than-life personality, and his unprecedented success as the savior of the fragile wonders that are tiny, tiny babies.
A New York Times Book Review New & Noteworthy Title
A Real Simple Best Book of 2018
Christopher Award-winner
304 pages, Paperback
First published July 31, 2018
348 people are currently reading
7282 people want to read
About the author
Dawn Raffel
17 books83 followersDawn Raffel's illustrated memoir, The Secret Life of Objects, was a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Previous books include a critically acclaimed novel, Carrying the Body, and two story collections— Further Adventures in the Restless Universe and In the Year of Long Division.
Her writing has been published in O, The Oprah Magazine, BOMB, New Philosopher, The San Francisco Chronicle, Conjunctions, Black Book, Open City, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, Arts & Letters, The Quarterly, NOON, and numerous other periodicals and anthologies—most recently The Best Short Fictions 2016 (selected by Stuart Dybek) and The Best Short Fictions 2015 (selected by Robert Olen Butler).
She was a fiction editor for many years, helped launch O, The Oprah Magazine, where she served as Executive Articles Editor for seven years, and subsequently held senior-level "at- large" positions at More magazine and Reader's Digest. In addition, she served as the Center for Fiction's web editor. She has taught in the MFA program at Columbia University, the Center for Fiction, and at Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia; Montreal; and Vilnius, Lithuania.
She currently works as an independent editor for individuals and creative organizations, specializing in memoir, short stories, and narrative nonfiction. She is also a certified yoga instructor and teaches embodied creative writing.
The Strange Case of Dr. Couney will be published by Blue Rider Press (a division of Penguin), July 31, 2018.
Her writing has been published in O, The Oprah Magazine, BOMB, New Philosopher, The San Francisco Chronicle, Conjunctions, Black Book, Open City, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, Arts & Letters, The Quarterly, NOON, and numerous other periodicals and anthologies—most recently The Best Short Fictions 2016 (selected by Stuart Dybek) and The Best Short Fictions 2015 (selected by Robert Olen Butler).
She was a fiction editor for many years, helped launch O, The Oprah Magazine, where she served as Executive Articles Editor for seven years, and subsequently held senior-level "at- large" positions at More magazine and Reader's Digest. In addition, she served as the Center for Fiction's web editor. She has taught in the MFA program at Columbia University, the Center for Fiction, and at Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia; Montreal; and Vilnius, Lithuania.
She currently works as an independent editor for individuals and creative organizations, specializing in memoir, short stories, and narrative nonfiction. She is also a certified yoga instructor and teaches embodied creative writing.
The Strange Case of Dr. Couney will be published by Blue Rider Press (a division of Penguin), July 31, 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 319 reviews
January 18, 2019
What an unbelievable story. Babies in incubators as a side show at various world fairs, as well as Coney Island and Atlantic City. A time when infants born too soon and a medical establishment that had no way to keep them alive.Enter, this amazing man from Europe, a showman but a deeply caring man, a man who took the smallest of preemies and placed them in incubators. Stressing cleanliness, breast milk, holding and loving, and in the process saved 7000 children.
Not a linear story because the book contains historical events taking place during this time period. The eugenics program, doctors who would rather watch these little ones die, than take the chance that they may grow up with defects. Hitler, of course, carried eugenics out of devastating and horrific extremes. The struggles of this wonderful man as he did everything he could to make sure as many as possible of these little ones survived. Description of the White City and the Century of Progress in Chicago. There was quite a bit of Chicago within, Adler Planetarium and Riverview. Just little historical facts here and there, which I enjoyed. The Depression that effected so many. Other doctors that tried unsuccessfully to duplicate his successes, using incubators where too much oxygen was pumped in causing blindness. This is how Stevie Wonder lost his sight.
The author tracks down some of these remaining children, although few are still living. Relatives of these babies to hear the stories they told if they could be found. I enjoyed this book very much, learning how neonatal care came into bring. I listened to this and again a case of the book containing quite a few pictures and no PDF file with the audible. The narrator was Erin Bennet and she did z very nice job.
Not a linear story because the book contains historical events taking place during this time period. The eugenics program, doctors who would rather watch these little ones die, than take the chance that they may grow up with defects. Hitler, of course, carried eugenics out of devastating and horrific extremes. The struggles of this wonderful man as he did everything he could to make sure as many as possible of these little ones survived. Description of the White City and the Century of Progress in Chicago. There was quite a bit of Chicago within, Adler Planetarium and Riverview. Just little historical facts here and there, which I enjoyed. The Depression that effected so many. Other doctors that tried unsuccessfully to duplicate his successes, using incubators where too much oxygen was pumped in causing blindness. This is how Stevie Wonder lost his sight.
The author tracks down some of these remaining children, although few are still living. Relatives of these babies to hear the stories they told if they could be found. I enjoyed this book very much, learning how neonatal care came into bring. I listened to this and again a case of the book containing quite a few pictures and no PDF file with the audible. The narrator was Erin Bennet and she did z very nice job.
August 19, 2018
It was a fascinating story but it felt like a million little ends that never came together to make a cohesive story. I learned a few superfluous things about Dr.Couny but never really found out anything. I would get engrossed in a story, only to have it end abruptly leaving me questioning "was that it?" It left me wanting so much more information that I never got.
November 19, 2018
Martin Couney was not a person I was familiar with prior to reading this book. In fact, I had given little thought to the existence of incubators and their use for premature babies, but the blurb of this book fascinated me. The idea of incubators being part of a side show at Coney Island and the like was almost unbelievable.
As I read more, my fascination grew deeper and deeper. The idea that doctors at hospitals would recommend new parents taking their children to an entertainment exhibit for medical care was astounding, but the story itself was heartwarming. It is clear that Martin Couney loved babies. Providing care that was well before its time--breast feeding and skin-to-skin, not to mention the incubators, saved upwards of 6,500 lives.
I found the contents of The Strange Case of Dr. Couney to be compulsively readable, and I had trouble putting the book down at times. My only criticism of the book is in the way it was constructed. The time line was non existent. Raffel jumped back and forth in years and decades with no apparent method. By the middle of the book, I was hopelessly lost as far as Martin Couney's timeline, and the by the end, I had no idea why the story was told in the manner in which it was. I would love to know if there was a reasoning behind it, as I personally couldn't grasp it. Had I not struggled with this aspect of the book so much, it could have easily been a five star read for me.
As I read more, my fascination grew deeper and deeper. The idea that doctors at hospitals would recommend new parents taking their children to an entertainment exhibit for medical care was astounding, but the story itself was heartwarming. It is clear that Martin Couney loved babies. Providing care that was well before its time--breast feeding and skin-to-skin, not to mention the incubators, saved upwards of 6,500 lives.
I found the contents of The Strange Case of Dr. Couney to be compulsively readable, and I had trouble putting the book down at times. My only criticism of the book is in the way it was constructed. The time line was non existent. Raffel jumped back and forth in years and decades with no apparent method. By the middle of the book, I was hopelessly lost as far as Martin Couney's timeline, and the by the end, I had no idea why the story was told in the manner in which it was. I would love to know if there was a reasoning behind it, as I personally couldn't grasp it. Had I not struggled with this aspect of the book so much, it could have easily been a five star read for me.
December 31, 2018
Raffel has written a ground-breaking study that is both engaging and fascinating. A look into the life of Dr. "Couney," the unlikely forefather of neonatal care for premature babies. What might be dull in the hands of others reads like a good mystery with Raffel as the detective. It unfolds in layers of carnival happenings and scandals, subterfuge, WW II fallout, antisemitism, and brings to light a period in American history I knew nothing about--the horror of eugenics, which was a model for Nazi propaganda. Raffel has done Americans a service by gathering and pursuing the history of our evolution toward more kindness and mercy toward small humans, lead by this passionate immigrant (who may have been a spy). That she manages to be entertaining and illuminating as well is a testament to the author's writing skill. Highly recommend to history buffs and Coney Island followers.
June 18, 2021
5* for fascinating subject matter that I'd never heard of before this and 3.5* for the actual book. The mind boggles that the best possible medical care in the U.S. for premature infants in the early half of the 20th century was... at a sideshow, where you could pay for a ticket to come boggle at the spectacle of teeny-tiny babies in incubators. It's not like the technology wasn't there; hospitals simply weren't adopting it in large numbers (according to this book; my 2 minutes on Google didn't turn up anything to prove or disprove it). A couple of times, Couney straight up tried to give the incubators away: no takers.
There are two stories running through this book. One is about Martin Couney (Michael Cohn, Martin Coney, "Dr."... you get the idea) and the other is about the author's quest to dig up the sketchy record of his life and activities. I appreciate the difficulty in writing a book about a man who left so little accurate biographical information behind and no surviving contemporaries to interview, but I... didn't care about the "behind the scenes" work, to be honest, and the flow of this book was really choppy between the short, short chapters and the pinball-speed banging back and forth between past and present. But without those bits the book would have been 1/3rd shorter, and also we wouldn't get sharp-as-nails zingers like this:
So maybe it's not that surprising that preemie care didn't take off during the fullest thrust of the eugenics movement. Raffel manages to weave in the political and historical context pretty deftly; the incubator sideshow was all of a piece with other "exotic" attractions like, uh, planting indigenous people in an exhibition and charging white folks to gawk at 'em. But the flimsiness of the material she has to work with can't stand as a comprehensive look into what made Couney/Cohn tick and this book is, as a consequence, unable to do more than make glancing mentions of topics that basically beg for deeper exploration. (Couney was Jewish; one can infer this, as much as his lack of actual medical credentials, is what cost him respectability, but the book just doesn't go there. Was he a man of faith? Did that have anything to do with the nature of his work? It also drops the tantalizing possibility that he might have been a US spy during WWII but doesn't do anything with this either except as a footnote. God!!!!!! Keep a frickin' diary or something, people.)
The other thing that frustrated me was just the writing style. The opening paragraph:
This is a style preference, but when I'm reading nonfiction of this kind, I don't want to have to notice the writing more than what the writing is saying, if that makes sense. It also occasionally goes too far in making wild guesses as to what people might have been saying or thinking; there was a passage about President McKinley's assassination (already a very flimsy connection... he and Couney were at the same fair, that's it) that made me put the book down and heave a sigh, because
What in the REACHING HYPOTHETICAL HELL?! Facepalm.
But YMMV. If you like your nonfiction to read like a novel or, iunno, a collection of articles (Raffel is or was a journalist), you may very well like this. Still and all, a fascinating look at a fascinating man—and the babies he saved. The book ends with a reunion of four (?) of the babies Couney and his staff nursed, all elderly women, and I may have teared up a little bit looking at the photograph. Imagine if the sideshow hadn't been there. Fuck, dude, now someone's chopping onions in here again.
[note to self: Blue Rider Press hardback is 223 pages of the actual book; 225-284 are acknowledgments/notes/index]
There are two stories running through this book. One is about Martin Couney (Michael Cohn, Martin Coney, "Dr."... you get the idea) and the other is about the author's quest to dig up the sketchy record of his life and activities. I appreciate the difficulty in writing a book about a man who left so little accurate biographical information behind and no surviving contemporaries to interview, but I... didn't care about the "behind the scenes" work, to be honest, and the flow of this book was really choppy between the short, short chapters and the pinball-speed banging back and forth between past and present. But without those bits the book would have been 1/3rd shorter, and also we wouldn't get sharp-as-nails zingers like this:
Nedra was seventy-four years old when I found her thanks to Facebook. Her mother-in-law, Anna, was the baby who had arrived at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in a shoebox. Nedra filled me in on the rest: After Anna's parents brought her home, they raised nine more children.
Anna, when she married, took the last name Justice. She bore three living babies, and a stillborn. Her son was Nedra's husband. "She was a very short lady," Nedra Justice said of her mother-in-law, who'd lived to be eighty years old.
Later, I learned that the eugenically perfect winner of the Better Baby competition died of tuberculosis a few months after the fair.
So maybe it's not that surprising that preemie care didn't take off during the fullest thrust of the eugenics movement. Raffel manages to weave in the political and historical context pretty deftly; the incubator sideshow was all of a piece with other "exotic" attractions like, uh, planting indigenous people in an exhibition and charging white folks to gawk at 'em. But the flimsiness of the material she has to work with can't stand as a comprehensive look into what made Couney/Cohn tick and this book is, as a consequence, unable to do more than make glancing mentions of topics that basically beg for deeper exploration. (Couney was Jewish; one can infer this, as much as his lack of actual medical credentials, is what cost him respectability, but the book just doesn't go there. Was he a man of faith? Did that have anything to do with the nature of his work? It also drops the tantalizing possibility that he might have been a US spy during WWII but doesn't do anything with this either except as a footnote. God!!!!!! Keep a frickin' diary or something, people.)
The other thing that frustrated me was just the writing style. The opening paragraph:
Chicago had already sweated through one hell of a week, and today was only Wednesday. The trouble began with a bang, literally, on Sunday when the cops shot down John Dillinger outside the Biograph. Gangster was seeing a movie. If you didn't know better, you might have believed the deceased was seeking revenge: As the final larcenous breath rattled out of his lungs, the city was being strangled.
This is a style preference, but when I'm reading nonfiction of this kind, I don't want to have to notice the writing more than what the writing is saying, if that makes sense. It also occasionally goes too far in making wild guesses as to what people might have been saying or thinking; there was a passage about President McKinley's assassination (already a very flimsy connection... he and Couney were at the same fair, that's it) that made me put the book down and heave a sigh, because
Leon Czolgosz's mother might have told him: Tomorrow is another day.
What in the REACHING HYPOTHETICAL HELL?! Facepalm.
But YMMV. If you like your nonfiction to read like a novel or, iunno, a collection of articles (Raffel is or was a journalist), you may very well like this. Still and all, a fascinating look at a fascinating man—and the babies he saved. The book ends with a reunion of four (?) of the babies Couney and his staff nursed, all elderly women, and I may have teared up a little bit looking at the photograph. Imagine if the sideshow hadn't been there. Fuck, dude, now someone's chopping onions in here again.
[note to self: Blue Rider Press hardback is 223 pages of the actual book; 225-284 are acknowledgments/notes/index]
April 28, 2021
The man behind the story deserves 10 stars, not only 5. But the book I would only give 3. I kept getting lost and wish it was written chronologically. Many stories seemed to start to have no ending. It was almost as if this was a draft of a book and not the final product. I would like to read a remake of this book some day with a chronological storyline. The true life of Mr. Couney and his helpers was beautiful. To save that many lives of premature babies is absolutely amazing. A story worth telling and retelling as life starts so early!!! And can be saved even in a day when Dr's thought it wasn't possible.
March 27, 2022
5 stars for subject matter, 3.5 stars for content delivery
As someone skeptical of the pharmaceutical and medical industry as a whole, I absolutely loved and thoroughly enjoyed delving into the mystery of this man who saved countless lives by essentially doing the exact opposite of what the medical community at the time was doing. I'm not sure if his methods would work today, but I found myself wondering if a person could similarly circumvent medical convention today and convince the public on any number of medical issues that the establishment has got totally wrong. "Doctor" Couney's unique blend of showmanship, common sense, and compassionate care accomplished more in his lifetime than the vast majority of licensed whitecoats can boast with all their education and professionalism.
The narrative itself I found disjointed and difficult to follow. It jumped around from time and place and person at a somewhat dizzying rate. I appreciated the author's personal tone and the general readability, but it was difficult to figure out the timeline (what happened when) and the cast of characters (who was who).
As someone skeptical of the pharmaceutical and medical industry as a whole, I absolutely loved and thoroughly enjoyed delving into the mystery of this man who saved countless lives by essentially doing the exact opposite of what the medical community at the time was doing. I'm not sure if his methods would work today, but I found myself wondering if a person could similarly circumvent medical convention today and convince the public on any number of medical issues that the establishment has got totally wrong. "Doctor" Couney's unique blend of showmanship, common sense, and compassionate care accomplished more in his lifetime than the vast majority of licensed whitecoats can boast with all their education and professionalism.
The narrative itself I found disjointed and difficult to follow. It jumped around from time and place and person at a somewhat dizzying rate. I appreciated the author's personal tone and the general readability, but it was difficult to figure out the timeline (what happened when) and the cast of characters (who was who).
April 3, 2023
I have issues with how this book was written, but it's WELL worth the read. Not only is it a fascinating look at a strange time in history, with sideshow babies next to amusements rides, exotic animals, and erotic dancers, but it tells a haunting story, reflected in our current time; those who would let the babies die, and those who would save them.
In the 30's and 40's, with the rise of eugenics, there were "Build Better Babies" initiatives, "Better Baby" contests, with babies judged like livestock on fat levels, skin colors, head circumference, etc. Not to mention, there were many who wanted to prevent "undesirable" babies from being conceived or born. And in hospitals, the weaklings and the preemies were just too much work, too much money, and for what? Their health was sure to be compromised, even if they lived. Why expend the effort?
Sound familiar? It should.
All of that and more. They're unwanted. Their quality of life would be wanting. They have a medical condition. They're the wrong sex. And yes, they were born too early. (hospitals with cut-off dates for when they'll put any sort of assistance towards the premature baby. Be born one day too early, and there is nothing they will do for it, despite it being alive and breathing and with just as much a chance of surviving as it would have the next day.) The list goes on. Anything and everything to say their life isn't worth enough and we have a right, or a duty, to throw it away.
This book doesn't claim to be "pro-life", though of course it is. Saving babies is the core of pro-life, so it cannot fail to be so. There is no religious element. No talk of abortion or birth control. It focusses solely on the story it's telling. And I appreciate that, but if a reader fails to see the parallels between now and then, between those past babies and the babies being born (or not born, as the case may be) today, they need to reexamine their world view.
.....
"Couney" was quite the character, and his determination to save these smallest babies was so strong. He couldn't understand how people could view them as not worth saving, and damn if the man didn't deserve a medal. I wish we had gotten a better handle on his life story though. It was hard to keep track of the many lies he told, the fudging of medical degrees, the name changes, etc. By all accounts, he really was a good man, but the trail of mistruths left behind him make him such a curious and even morally gray character. He knew how to save the babies, and the hospitals and greater medical community pushed him aside and didn't bother to listen. Who could blame him if he claimed to be more than he was, just to save lives? But still, some of his reasoning was unclear.
It's told in mostly very short snippets of chapters, which makes for easy reading, but the timeline was a mess. We skipped years and usually decades at random, and it made it very difficult to keep up with what was happening and when. This was the biggest problem with the book. Obviously some things we don't know about Martin and others, simply because the information is not there to be had, by all accounts. But what we do know could have been streamlined to make for better reading and a cleaner timeline.
Additionally, I felt like there were a lot of dropped "plotlines". Something was mentioned, never to be mentioned again. What was the deal with Hildegard? If there was no more info to be had on her, it would have been nice to be told that, rather than left with an open vague question. The prose is good, the story is fascinating and incredible, but the telling of it is very poor.
I couldn't believe that when Martin was offering his state of the art incubators and/or premises (from some of the World Fairs) to hospitals, they wouldn't accept them, even though they either had few or no incubators, and some of the ones they were using would end up causing blindness from too much oxygen. He couldn't give them away. He was a quack, the babies and their incubators were a side-show. Despite the fact that he'd saved thousands of babies. His number was 85% of those brought to him, and from records in later years, he matched that. In earlier years, he was close to that number if you didn't count the babies that didn't live more than 24 hours (and none of the medical communities did).
In the 30's and 40's, with the rise of eugenics, there were "Build Better Babies" initiatives, "Better Baby" contests, with babies judged like livestock on fat levels, skin colors, head circumference, etc. Not to mention, there were many who wanted to prevent "undesirable" babies from being conceived or born. And in hospitals, the weaklings and the preemies were just too much work, too much money, and for what? Their health was sure to be compromised, even if they lived. Why expend the effort?
Sound familiar? It should.
All of that and more. They're unwanted. Their quality of life would be wanting. They have a medical condition. They're the wrong sex. And yes, they were born too early. (hospitals with cut-off dates for when they'll put any sort of assistance towards the premature baby. Be born one day too early, and there is nothing they will do for it, despite it being alive and breathing and with just as much a chance of surviving as it would have the next day.) The list goes on. Anything and everything to say their life isn't worth enough and we have a right, or a duty, to throw it away.
This book doesn't claim to be "pro-life", though of course it is. Saving babies is the core of pro-life, so it cannot fail to be so. There is no religious element. No talk of abortion or birth control. It focusses solely on the story it's telling. And I appreciate that, but if a reader fails to see the parallels between now and then, between those past babies and the babies being born (or not born, as the case may be) today, they need to reexamine their world view.
.....
"Couney" was quite the character, and his determination to save these smallest babies was so strong. He couldn't understand how people could view them as not worth saving, and damn if the man didn't deserve a medal. I wish we had gotten a better handle on his life story though. It was hard to keep track of the many lies he told, the fudging of medical degrees, the name changes, etc. By all accounts, he really was a good man, but the trail of mistruths left behind him make him such a curious and even morally gray character. He knew how to save the babies, and the hospitals and greater medical community pushed him aside and didn't bother to listen. Who could blame him if he claimed to be more than he was, just to save lives? But still, some of his reasoning was unclear.
It's told in mostly very short snippets of chapters, which makes for easy reading, but the timeline was a mess. We skipped years and usually decades at random, and it made it very difficult to keep up with what was happening and when. This was the biggest problem with the book. Obviously some things we don't know about Martin and others, simply because the information is not there to be had, by all accounts. But what we do know could have been streamlined to make for better reading and a cleaner timeline.
Additionally, I felt like there were a lot of dropped "plotlines". Something was mentioned, never to be mentioned again. What was the deal with Hildegard? If there was no more info to be had on her, it would have been nice to be told that, rather than left with an open vague question. The prose is good, the story is fascinating and incredible, but the telling of it is very poor.
I couldn't believe that when Martin was offering his state of the art incubators and/or premises (from some of the World Fairs) to hospitals, they wouldn't accept them, even though they either had few or no incubators, and some of the ones they were using would end up causing blindness from too much oxygen. He couldn't give them away. He was a quack, the babies and their incubators were a side-show. Despite the fact that he'd saved thousands of babies. His number was 85% of those brought to him, and from records in later years, he matched that. In earlier years, he was close to that number if you didn't count the babies that didn't live more than 24 hours (and none of the medical communities did).
August 29, 2018
This is a fascinating true story that drew me into another time period, with interesting characters and a twisty plot that reads in parts like a mystery novel. Dr. Martin Couney saved hundreds of premature babies, caring for them in incubators at a Coney Island side show, the Chicago World’s Fair, and other atmospheric venues. I was shocked to learn that hospitals wrote these babies off as “weaklings” and couldn’t (or wouldn’t) care for them.
Couney was an innovative and compassionate healer, and I enjoyed getting to know him as well as some of the people he saved. I particularly enjoyed the format of the book: vignettes from different time periods, from the early 1900s to present-day interviews with survivors. I highly recommend this book.
Couney was an innovative and compassionate healer, and I enjoyed getting to know him as well as some of the people he saved. I particularly enjoyed the format of the book: vignettes from different time periods, from the early 1900s to present-day interviews with survivors. I highly recommend this book.
January 12, 2020
A truly engaging tale from the early part of the last century, rooted in medical and cultural history with equal parts compassion and spectacle.
August 8, 2018
Because of my many years of work at the Coney Island museum, I knew more than most about this weird little piece of history. Most people, when told about it get upset about the idea of babies on display as a sideshow attraction, but they always calm down when explain that Martin Couney managed to save the unsaveable - in enormous numbers, and was resourceful enough to be able to have it be self-funding and extremely effective.
Dawn Raffel's enjoyment of following little research wormholes comes through in her writing. Her initial interest was sparked by a diary entry of her father's, accounting his visit to the incubator attraction at a world's fair. I have seen it happen and experienced it myself, when one tiny thread leads to another, which leads to another.
Martin Couney, in some ways seemed to have the habits of a typical showman. There is some ambiguity about his real name, his place of birth, and whether or not he had the credentials to do what he did. What was clear though, is that he was dedicated to saving these babies (even if he had little previous personal interaction with infants), and by opening up his own attractions, saved somewhere near 85% of the babies put into his care as compared to the 25% that survived in the hospitals.
It is a fascinating, tiny piece of history that had a huge impact on the lives of thousands, even if in a less-than-conventional setting.
Dawn Raffel's enjoyment of following little research wormholes comes through in her writing. Her initial interest was sparked by a diary entry of her father's, accounting his visit to the incubator attraction at a world's fair. I have seen it happen and experienced it myself, when one tiny thread leads to another, which leads to another.
Martin Couney, in some ways seemed to have the habits of a typical showman. There is some ambiguity about his real name, his place of birth, and whether or not he had the credentials to do what he did. What was clear though, is that he was dedicated to saving these babies (even if he had little previous personal interaction with infants), and by opening up his own attractions, saved somewhere near 85% of the babies put into his care as compared to the 25% that survived in the hospitals.
It is a fascinating, tiny piece of history that had a huge impact on the lives of thousands, even if in a less-than-conventional setting.
November 28, 2020
I first heard of the incubators at Coney Island in a fiction book I was reading. That book took place at Coney Island and kept talking about the incubator attraction. I had to look it up. That is where I found out about the amazing Dr. Couney and his side show attraction of premature infants in incubators. I had to learn more. That is where I found this book. The story of Couney is astounding. Here was a man who loved babies and believed in saving as many as he could. Since hospitals at that time didn't usually bother with preemies, they were either sent to Couney or the parents decided to take them to him. If not, they were set to survive on their own in which they didn't tend to make it. At the attraction Couney would charge visitors to see this amazing feat of saving infants. The money then went to the incubators, wet nurses and staff. Along with his wife and the head nurse, many babies were saved.
As for this book in general. It was sorely put together. The timeline went all over the place and made it very confusing. The author would go on rants about things that weren't even necessary. She also covered a lot of people that could have very well stayed out of the story. Unfortunately, the book did not do as much justice for Couney and his staff as it should have. The one good thing was there were lots of interesting pictures peppered throughout the book.
As for this book in general. It was sorely put together. The timeline went all over the place and made it very confusing. The author would go on rants about things that weren't even necessary. She also covered a lot of people that could have very well stayed out of the story. Unfortunately, the book did not do as much justice for Couney and his staff as it should have. The one good thing was there were lots of interesting pictures peppered throughout the book.
July 28, 2021
3.5⭐️-Learning about Dr. Couney and the thousands upon thousands of babies he was able to save by pioneering the use of incubators as part of a Coney Island exhibit was fascinating. The author clearly did her research in bringing all of the information together into this book, but it did feel a bit disjointed. It might have flowed better for me if I’d read it physically rather than listening to the audiobook because the story jumps around a lot and not having the visual cues of chapter/section headings made it more difficult to follow at times. I found the subject matter fascinating and am glad to have learned about this man who deserves to have his name better known.
June 19, 2018
Dr. Martin Couney, who apparently had not received any official medical training, ran his incubators for premature babies as a side show at several fairs across the country, including Coney Island. His wife Maye and another trained nurse, Louise, helped to care for the infants, whom the hospitals had either given up on or were unable to accommodate. He claimed the survival rate of these preemies was 85%, far exceeding that of the hospitals of the time; there were even reunions held for the adults who had been saved as infants by this unusual man.
February 16, 2019
As an RN who enjoys reading about medicine, I was hoping this book would tell more about the start of premie care in the US, but instead it was a rambling tale with so many loose ends and unanswered questions, it was not a fun read in the least. Sentences along the lines of "little did she know she was going to be the center of controversy soon" and then NOTHING would ever be said about this again. Many many loose ends like this fill the book. The dates and timeline and places are also scattered and are difficult to make sense of. A disappointing book and a very sluggish read.
November 23, 2018
I picked this up to read for a pop-up book group in NYC sponsored by Book the Writer. As a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, I was very interested in the story of how the littlest babies were saved around the turn of the 20th Century. I had heard of the side shows where babies were exhibited in incubators, but I did not know the story of how they came to be. Dawn Raffel's story of Dr. Couney's life is briskly paced and tells the story of an immigrant success story, from entrepreneur to almost respected businessman. Dr. Couney or Martin Cohn as he was named at birth, fled from Europe in the late 1800s and came to America. He needed to make a living and may or may not have been a doctor in his native country. He was fascinated by the doctors and scientists who were developing incubators to care for premature infants. Hospitals were just coming into being as most women gave birth at home and those who were ill and in need of hospital care mostly could not afford it. In addition, hospitals were pretty dirty places. Finally, premature infants were not valued as patients or people. Many doctors put aside those who they felt were too small to survive. Dr. Couney came up with his side show of incubators, so that small infants born in the Spring and Summer got a chance at life. While he had some friends in the medical community, many were more were against his displays and what they viewed as exploitation. Starting out in several World Fairs, he was able build a staff of skilled nurses to care for these small, vulnerable babies and give them a chance at life. I flew through Dawn Raffel's book which is illustrated with 50 photos depicting the characters and the exhibits. More importantly, everyone in the book group loved it as well.
March 19, 2020
I was a premie born 8 weeks early in the '70s. I had a whole team of doctors who saved me with the help of an incubator. If I had been born in the early 1900s, my parents might have carried me in a box to a Coney Island sideshow operated by Dr. Couney, because most doctors would have left me for dead. At a time when it was still an accepted practice to use whiskey as an anesthetic, Dr. Couney (who isn't an actual doctor) was saving 2-3 lb infants in his fairgrounds sideshow using an incubator set up that was on display for the public. In doing so, he also brought awareness to the fact that premies could actually be saved. During the course of his career, he had a survival rate of 6,800 out of nearly 9,000 premies, and many of his techniques are still in use today (not the drops of whiskey, though). As other reviewers mention, the timeline is almost nonexistent, which makes the story feel somewhat disjointed. However, the author did a nice job of juxtaposing Dr. Couney's story with the eugenics movement that was becoming a big deal at the time. I listened to this as an audiobook, but I might check out the book some time to see the pictures of the incubators.
April 9, 2022
My interest in sideshow history led me to Raffel's account of the Coney Island "doctor" who put premature infants on display at World's Fairs and boardwalks to sell medical baby incubators to hospitals. The man was a hero who saved the lives of thousands of children, and Raffel's book gives him the praise (though not uncritical praise) this fascinating chapter of seaside amusement history warrants.
October 20, 2023
A fascinating and uplifting story, that nonetheless deals with some heavy topics. It's insane to think that at one point it was not unheard of for hospitals to tell parents that the best chance for their premature infant was to take them to a boardwalk show where they could be put on display in incubators
January 8, 2024
I very much enjoyed this book. I am always amazed by the things that happen that are relevant in our history that we never hear about until someone discovers and researched it and tells us. This story was well told I just wish there had been more information available on this subject and about Dr. Couney.
February 13, 2021
Bizarro bit of history that I’d never encountered before. Thousands of premie babies saved in a side show at the fair?! The history was fascinating, from babies to fires to hospitals refusing to learn from it.
However, the writing was disorienting at first. At times there were way too many adjectives and at other times it seemed more stable. I eventually decided that she was deliberately using extra adjectives when describing history. For example: “Soon [he] would stride away from the cloyingly vomitous air of steerage and into the thrillingly filthy oxygen of New York City.”
However, the writing was disorienting at first. At times there were way too many adjectives and at other times it seemed more stable. I eventually decided that she was deliberately using extra adjectives when describing history. For example: “Soon [he] would stride away from the cloyingly vomitous air of steerage and into the thrillingly filthy oxygen of New York City.”
October 1, 2018
What an amazing story! Dr. Couney took it upon himself to create an incubator, when the medical establishment had not caught up to it, and take in babies, saving thousands of lives. Dawn tracks his history, goes through archives looking for the places and the babies, and finds them, now in their nineties. An remarkable life, and a remarkable discovery. Read this book and be in awe.
January 30, 2020
Wow!
Such a fascinating story! The author did a fantastic job cobbling bits of stories into a cohesive narrative and timeline. It was estimated that "Dr." Couney and his amazing team saved around 7000 babies in his shows. I wish we knew the stories of all of them!
Such a fascinating story! The author did a fantastic job cobbling bits of stories into a cohesive narrative and timeline. It was estimated that "Dr." Couney and his amazing team saved around 7000 babies in his shows. I wish we knew the stories of all of them!
August 24, 2020
3.5 stars.
June 16, 2021
Not the easiest book to read but incredibly fascinating, both on the subject as well as the history of the times.
December 30, 2021
I don't love the way it is written but it is a fascinating story!
August 4, 2022
Such a fascinating read. Who knew preemie babies were a side show attraction? A shocking history of eugenics, and you thought Honey Bo Boo was bad? Wow.
June 7, 2019
Such a great book! Cannot recommend it highly enough for all of my pediatric friends
January 21, 2023
Another fun read after The Light of Luna Park.
January 19, 2020
Really interesting story but it was sooo hard to follow
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