Author Biography

Dawn Raffel is a journalist, memoirist, and short story writer whose work has been widely anthologized. A longtime magazine editor, she helped launch O, The Oprah Magazine. She has also taught creative writing in the MFA program at Columbia University; at Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia; Montreal; and Vilnius, Lithuania; and at the Center for Fiction in New York. She now works as an independent editor and book reviewer.

Review

Praise for The Strange Case of Dr. Couney

An O Magazine Summer 2018 Poolside Read

"Fascinating, mysterious and compelling...written with great style and the energy of a can't-put-down thriller." --The Chicago Tribune

"[The Strange Case of Dr. Couney] is 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.… It's a fascinating historical footnote, compassionately told." —NPR.org

"In this account, told in a series of non-chronological vignettes, Raffel argues that Couney deserves recognition… Working in the shadow of the eugenics movement, [Couney] insisted that such infants, whom hospitals could seldom save, deserved a chance." —The New Yorker

"With colorful descriptions of the carnival world and the medical marvels of early neonatalogy, Raffel makes a fascinating case for this unusual pioneer's rightful place in medical history." 
-Publisher's Weekly

"Compelling on many levels… Raffel's arresting and illuminating work of hidden history should not be missed." – Booklist

"Many readers will share Raffel's admiration of Couney... The book's title is no hype; this is a startling account of an improbable huckster who made his living promoting a lifesaving device."
-Kirkus Reviews

"With fantastic detail, Raffel brings to life this complicated pioneer." -Real Simple

"This is a fascinating story about a showman doctor who was able to save babies by putting them on display in incubators as a sideshow attraction. Existing on the cusp of the fantastical and scientific breakthrough, stories like this are the backbone of our American lore, legend, and history." -Medium.com

"In a story too crazy to be anything but true, Dawn Raffel relates the tale of a mysterious immigrant "doctor" who saved thousands of premature babies by placing them in incubators in World Fair sideshows in Coney Island and Atlantic City." -Bustle

"A compelling historic mystery uncovered." -Saturday Evening Post

"Long before modern neonatal clinics made it possible and even commonplace to save premature babies, Dr. Couney's "infant incubators" welcomed the "tiniest bits of humanity" into the world with two drops of brandy and a show name.  A fantastic, carnivalesque story filled with twists and surprises, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney entertains with a delightful assortment of historical oddities and a serious, sobering look at health practices, missteps, and unexpectedly resourceful advances in American medicine."
-Kristen Iversen, author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats

"This astonishing new book will be an instant classic of literary nonfiction—painstakingly researched and written with lyricism and irony. Dawn Raffel has pulled the curtain on one of the most remarkable rescue missions in history. Over seven thousand innocent lives saved at a time when medical science turned its treasonous back."
-Dennis Covington, author of National Book Award finalist Salvation on Sand Mountain

"In carnival midways in the early decades of the 20th century—amid carousels, elephants, fire-eaters, and pie-eating contests—a gentleman of indeterminate origin, of unspecified medical background, displayed premature human babies in incubators that looked like arcade games. They were real babies, not wax; struggling to live; at home among the "Human Oddities!" of the side-shows only because preemies weighing two or three pounds at birth didn't ever survive, had rarely been seen. Fair-goers bought tickets and lined up to gawk at them, and were asked to refrain from trying to reach in and poke the infants. Though Dr. Couney (both the prefix and the name were inventions) was more showman than doctor, he saved the babies' lives by the thousands and pioneered American neonatology. His story is richly told in a book that savors every honk of John Philip Sousa from a marching band, every salty crunch of carnival popcorn, every sparkle of a Ferris wheel turning in a night sky, and the desperate hopes of parents traveling from their lying-in hospitals by bus or subway to the carnivals, carrying their premature newborns in shoe boxes and hat boxes or inside their coats."
-Melissa Fay Greene, two-time National Book Award finalist for Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing

Review Quote

Praise for The Strange Case of Dr. Couney An O Magazine Summer 2018 Poolside Read "Fascinating, mysterious and compelling...written with great style and the energy of a can''t-put-down thriller." -- The Chicago Tribune "[The Strange Case of Dr. Couney ] is 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.... It''s a fascinating historical footnote, compassionately told." --NPR.org "In this account, told in a series of non-chronological vignettes, Raffel argues that Couney deserves recognition... Working in the shadow of the eugenics movement, [Couney] insisted that such infants, whom hospitals could seldom save, deserved a chance." -- The New Yorker "With colorful descriptions of the carnival world and the medical marvels of early neonatalogy, Raffel makes a fascinating case for this unusual pioneer''s rightful place in medical history." - Publisher''s Weekly "Compelling on many levels... Raffel''s arresting and illuminating work of hidden history should not be missed." - Booklist "Many readers will share Raffel''s admiration of Couney... The book''s title is no hype; this is a startling account of an improbable huckster who made his living promoting a lifesaving device." - Kirkus Reviews "With fantastic detail, Raffel brings to life this complicated pioneer." - Real Simple "This is a fascinating story about a showman doctor who was able to save babies by putting them on display in incubators as a sideshow attraction. Existing on the cusp of the fantastical and scientific breakthrough, stories like this are the backbone of our American lore, legend, and history." -Medium.com "In a story too crazy to be anything but true, Dawn Raffel relates the tale of a mysterious immigrant "doctor" who saved thousands of premature babies by placing them in incubators in World Fair sideshows in Coney Island and Atlantic City." -Bustle "A compelling historic mystery uncovered." - Saturday Evening Post "Long before modern neonatal clinics made it possible and even commonplace to save premature babies, Dr. Couney''s "infant incubators" welcomed the "tiniest bits of humanity" into the world with two drops of brandy and a show name. A fantastic, carnivalesque story filled with twists and surprises, The Strange Case of Dr. Couney entertains with a delightful assortment of historical oddities and a serious, sobering look at health practices, missteps, and unexpectedly resourceful advances in American medicine." -Kristen Iversen, author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats "This astonishing new book will be an instant classic of literary nonfiction--painstakingly researched and written with lyricism and irony. Dawn Raffel has pulled the curtain on one of the most remarkable rescue missions in history. Over seven thousand innocent lives saved at a time when medical science turned its treasonous back." -Dennis Covington, author of National Book Award finalist Salvation on Sand Mountain "In carnival midways in the early decades of the 20th century--amid carousels, elephants, fire-eaters, and pie-eating contests--a gentleman of indeterminate origin, of unspecified medical background, displayed premature human babies in incubators that looked like arcade games. They were real babies, not wax; struggling to live; at home among the "Human Oddities!" of the side-shows only because preemies weighing two or three pounds at birth didn''t ever survive, had rarely been seen. Fair-goers bought tickets and lined up to gawk at them, and were asked to refrain from trying to reach in and poke the infants. Though Dr. Couney (both the prefix and the name were inventions) was more showman than doctor, he saved the babies'' lives by the thousands and pioneered American neonatology. His story is richly told in a book that savors every honk of John Philip Sousa from a marching band, every salty crunch of carnival popcorn, every sparkle of a Ferris wheel turning in a night sky, and the desperate hopes of parents traveling from their lying-in hospitals by bus or subway to the carnivals, carrying their premature newborns in shoe boxes and hat boxes or inside their coats." -Melissa Fay Greene, two-time National Book Award finalist for Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing

Excerpt from Book

"All the World Loves a Baby" Chicago, 1934 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. By Tuesday, the mercury in the snazzy Havoline Thermometer Tower, soaring over the Century of Progress fairgrounds on the lakefront, had shot up to 105-with 109 degrees reported inland at the airport. Either way, it was the hottest day ever on record for Chicago. Heat deformed the air, which seemed to wobble. Clothes stuck to flesh. Flesh stank. With ice in short supply and the stench of the slaughterhouses ripening-where pigs strode doomed over the bridge of sighs and cattle hung bloody from hooks-people fled to the beaches of Lake Michigan to sleep. During the day, perspiring throngs pressed their way into the Great Halls and pavilions at the world''s fair, less interested in the scientific and cultural marvels on display than in inhaling refrigerated air. They poured out onto the midway, dripping into their summer cottons and brimmed hats, fanning their faces with folded maps, mopping up ice cream that melted faster than they could eat. Freaks, savages, steamy strippers, and miniature humans were there for their viewing pleasure. If people couldn''t stanch the sweat, they could at least secure a couple of hours'' respite from the cruel Depression and the news coming out of Germany. Today, the high-finally!-was supposed to be south of 100. That in itself was cause for celebration. As for the news, for the fifteen minutes between 12:45 and 1:00 p.m., the airwaves would belong to Dr. Martin Arthur Couney and the adorable babies whose lives he had saved in his incubator sideshow. The radio script had a written instruction not to conduct today

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