Over the years of Mary Mallon's life, the popular media did more than report on the first woman in America to be labeled and traced as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. From the beginning, led by William Randolph Hearst and followed by his competitors for the New York newspaper market, the press presented Mallon's story to the public in a stylized form. Newspaper writers and editors (and their publishing colleagues) shaped and reshaped the message, through positive and negative representations, through omissions, through an emphasis on her uniqueness, through efforts to arouse emotions, and through language that negated Mallon's humanity. In these ways they created and presented their own perspective on why Mary Mallon's story was significant. In so doing, they influenced public opinion and official actions and underscored a potent construction of Typhoid Mary as a woman polluted, a social pariah to be feared and shunned.

cjr  |  archive  |  resources  |  contact  |  search  |  subscribe