The Mind Mappers
Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain
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The riveting true story of the star-crossed friendship between two neuroscientists--one famous, the other forgotten--who mapped the brain, but lost each other.
In the early 1920s, when neurosurgery was more likely to be a death sentence than a cure, two men revolutionized the study of the brain: Wilder Penfield and William Cone. Drawn together by their shared fascination with the "undiscovered country" inside our heads, the surgeons formed a partnership and within ten years established the Montreal Neurological Institute in a Gothic stone hospital on the slope of a mountain. The Neuro soon became the world's leading centre for neurological study, attracting men and women from across the globe to a booming mid-century city.
But their success came at the cost of their friendship.
While Cone spent long hours at patients' bedsides and in the blood-spattered operating room, Penfield pursued the loftier goal of discovering the seat of consciousness. The Chief, as he was known, went on to develop the Montreal procedure for treating epilepsy, which helped identify the source of speech, executive function and memory in narrow slivers of grey matter--achievements that illuminated the relationship between mind and body, made possible by Cone's anonymous work behind the scenes. Over time, their relationship became fraught with personal and professional hurts--and suddenly ended when Cone was found dead in his office at the age of sixty-two.
In this compelling dual biography, Globe and Mail journalist Eric Andrew-Gee weaves together the rich history of The Neuro with that of Penfield and Cone to reveal the untold story of one of the birthplaces of neuroscience. In doing so, he breathes new life into a familiar hero and revives the tragic, forgotten story of his partner, writing Dr. William Cone back into the historical record at last.
About this Author
ERIC ANDREW-GEE is the Quebec correspondent for The Globe and Mail, based in Montreal, and a former staff reporter for the Toronto Star. He is the winner of two National Newspaper Awards. His work has appeared in magazines including The Walrus, Toronto Life and The New Republic. This is his first book.
Reviews
"Brisk, lucid writing about one of nature's most perplexing mysteries--the human brain--enriched by a deft and unflinching exploration of the complicated friendship between two of history's most brilliant doctors." --Linden MacIntyre, bestselling, Giller Prize-winning author and broadcast journalist
"Andrew-Gee has written not just a biography of two fascinating brain surgeons, nor just a portrait of Montreal as a global mecca for brain research in the 1930s and 40s. He invites us into the mysterious territory of the brain itself. Engrossing, compelling, convincing." --Rosemary Sullivan, bestselling author of The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation
"Compelling and accomplished, The Mind Mappers unfolds several remarkable stories in elegant tandem: of bold medical research and discovery, of intimate friendships and their sometimes tragic cost and of mid-20th century Montreal, a city of radiant character. An impressive debut by Eric Andrew-Gee." --Charles Foran, author of Mordecai: The Life & Times
"The best narrative non-fiction I've read in ages. The Mind Mappers is going to be one of your favourite reads this year." --Robyn Doolittle, author of Had It Coming
"The Mind Mappers is an intriguing book that reveals the trailblazing researchers who made modern neurosurgery possible. This fascinating study of the brain and the unique friendship among scientists shows how individual genius and community interact to create knowledge. A thrilling and insightful book that will illuminate your mind." --Jason Bell, bestselling author of Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Canada's Greatest Spy
"In his vividly realized portrait of medical heroism, Eric Andrew-Gee unravels the dynamic bond between two gifted, driven, fatherless brain surgeons whose ground-breaking achievements end in betrayal and tragedy. Mirroring the left and right hemispheres of a single brain, Penfield and Cone operated as ying and yang, linked yet distinct personalities, brilliantly probing the "undiscovered country" of human consciousness. Yet in their quest for the holy grail--the seat of the soul--they become the stuff of Greek myth, unconscious of the dark side of obsessive perfectionism, the saviour complex and the unforeseen human costs. An archetypal tale, both inspiring and cautionary, abounding in paradox. Physician, heal thyself!" --James FitzGerald, author of What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past, winner of the Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
"Eric Andrew-Gee has pulled off something remarkable: a history of the breakthroughs in brain science that takes us on a fascinating journey deep into not just the minds but also the very hearts and souls of the two scientists who put Canada at the forefront of that research. Using his sharp prose as his scalpel, he exposes the myths and mysteries in the race to understand what makes us human." --Julian Sher, author of The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln
"Eric Andrew-Gee's The Mind Mappers is an obsessively researched, supremely detailed portrait of the greatest unrequited love story in neuroscience, the beautiful and then suddenly tragic friendship of Wilder Penfield and William Cone, two pioneers who unraveled the mysteries of the brain but not the mysteries of each other. Like many love stories, it begins and ends in Montreal and offers a darkly glittering portrait of that city's most glamorous period." --Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War
"With an ear for anecdote and an appreciation for the ironies and unintended consequences of scientific inquiry and experimentation, The Mind Mappers explores the complicated, sometimes conflicted, decades-long professional and personal friendship of two renowned neurosurgeons at The Neuro in Montreal, whose pioneering research into the human brain and its diseases changed the history of medicine." --Stephen R. Bown, bestselling author of The Company and Dominion
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