• Happy 80th, Dr. John S. Marr! ("The Eleventh Plague," 1998)

    From lenona321@yahoo.com@21:1/5 to All on Wed Apr 22 19:10:53 2020
    He lives in NYC. Some say he was born in February.

    Photo and resume:

    https://www.nymc.edu/school-of-medicine-som/som-alumni-profiles/john-stuart-marr/

    About "The Eleventh Plague," 1998:

    "Two children die of a disease thought to be nonexistent in the United States. Within hours, thoroughbreds at the legendary Churchill Downs are dying of a virus that cannot be identified, even by the most expert veterinarians. Called in to solve these
    lethal mysteries, noted virologist Jack Bryne discovers the two bear uncanny similarities to the Fifth and Sixth Plagues described in the Book of Exodus. And the horror is just beginning...

    "Every month another monstrosity claims its victims. Every month brings the reenactment of another more catastrophic plague. Soon Bryne's own worldwide medical computer network, ProMED, is invaded by the power behind the horrors--a diabolically
    intelligent serial killer with a sophisticated knowledge of toxins and an obsession with a with biblical retribution. To make matters worse, the FBI is convinced Bryne himself is the killer.

    "Caught between both sides, the brilliant virus hunter joins forces with his bright lab assistant, an ambitious TV newswoman, and a young religious scholar to find this madman and stop him before it's too late. But even Bryne does not know how close the
    killer is...until he meets this modern medical Moriarty on a midnight confrontation that will determine the future of the world."

    Review of "The Eleventh Plague":

    https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-018777-4

    Kirkus review:

    https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-s-marr/the-eleventh-plague/


    From "Contemporary Authors":

    WRITINGS:

    The Good Drug and the Bad Drug , with teacher's manual, M. Evans, 1970.
    Breath of Air and a Breath of Smoke (juvenile), M. Evans, 1971.
    The Food You Eat , (juvenile), M. Evans, 1973.
    (With Gwyneth Cravens) The Black Death (novel), Dutton, 1976.
    (With John Baldwin) The Eleventh Plague: A Novel of Medical Terror , CliffStreetBooks (New York), 1998.
    (Editor, with Lloyd F. Novick) Public Health Issues in Disaster Preparedness: Focus on Bioterrorism, Aspen (Gaithersburg, MD), 2001.
    (With Stephen A. Berger) Human Parasitic Diseases Sourcebook, Jones and Bartlett (Sudbury, MA), 2006.
    Contributor of articles on infectious and tropical diseases to medical journals.

    Sidelights

    Reviewing Marr's latest book, The Black Death, a Times Literary Supplement critic pointed out that "the authors' anger is one of the book's strengths: another is that the medical data are fascinating, authoritative and clear." A reviewer from Newsweek
    commented: "Admirers of Albert Camus's moral parable about an outbreak of pestilence may want to leave this novel alone. It's subliterary stuff, overlong and burdened with an outrageous love story, but for what is is, it's first rate: on par with Seven
    Days in May , for instance, or The Andromeda Strain . The authors are knowledgeable about the plague; and their grim insistence that it's only a matter of time before their story comes true may make some of us regret having passed up our swine-flu shots."


    A critic from the New York Times Book Review also agreed and observed: "The epidemiology has an authentic ring. So has the crowded, festering New York scene, which the authors depict with ripe imagery, and which could be a superb host for any pandemic.
    The corpse-by-corpse timing of the book is good too, as the death rate multiplies in geometric progression. When they come to causality, however, the authors project a touch of Dr. Strangelove paranoia that is a bit much."

    (end)

    https://peoplepill.com/people/john-s-marr/
    (Biographical)

    Excerpt:

    ...Marr went on to co-author a thriller about a pneumonic plague outbreak in New York, inspired by research he'd done as the city's epidemiologist. Written with Gwyneth Cravens and published in 1978, The Black Death was later filmed by CBS as a movie of
    the week under the title Quiet Killer.

    In 1996, Marr wrote a scientific paper speculating on the causes of the ten plagues of Egypt, which was then featured in a New York Times article on scientific explanations for the plagues. The article led to an hour-long 1998 BBC documentary. At the
    same time, he co-created the plaguescapes website, one of forty declared "best of the web" out of 65,000 websites by the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1998. An illustrated and updated adaptation of the article is now available on iBooks. His articles on
    historical epidemics have been made into documentary films by National Geographic, Warner Brothers Video, Discovery, and the Travel Channel. He was also a contributor to the Concrete Jungle, a 1997 book by artist Alexis Rockman.

    Marr's second novel, The Eleventh Plague (1998), is a thriller in which a rogue scientist attempts to unleash modern versions of the Biblical plagues. A 2000 sequel, Wormwood, was a bestseller in Germany. In the sequel, the crazed scientist from The
    Eleventh Plague reappears and plots against delusional adversaries who he believes are reincarnated Wizard of Oz characters. Each enemy is stalked and killed by parasites designed for specific tasks to fulfill each character's weaknesses (lack of a heart,
    brain, and so on). The novels were inspired in part by the Vincent Price film The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

    In 2001, Marr co-edited a series of articles on bioterrorism. It was published months before the anthrax scares and was used by health officials as a source of reliable information before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security informational
    websites. In 2005, he co-authored a comprehensive guide to parasites, which is widely used by medical students, military medics, physicians, veterinarians, and parasitologists in the US and abroad.

    More recently, he has written a series of short novels for young adults (Johnnie Marlowe) that are available in Kindle books. Set in the early 1950s, the books involve boys investigating a series of mysteries, such as the disappearance of a former OSS
    agent and an ancient Native American curse. All are freestanding and take place in both a rural Pennsylvania setting and New York City...

    (snip)

    Covers of "Johnnie Marlowe" novels:

    https://www.goodreads.com/series/262128-johnnie-marlowe

    The first book in the series, "Castleton's Treasure," was published in 2013.


    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0549994/
    (short filmography - one thing he worked on was a 2004 documentary on Typhoid Mary)


    Lenona.

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  • From lenona321@yahoo.com@21:1/5 to All on Fri Apr 24 16:34:20 2020
    What do you know - a podcast of his, from mid-March, about COVID-19!

    https://jphmpdirect.com/2020/03/12/covid-19-podcast-with-dr-lloyd-novick-and-dr-john-marr/


    Lenona.

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