Michael Howell
Michael J. Howell was an English physician and coauthor of "The True History of the Elephant Man," a detailed examination of the life of Joseph Merrick, a man known for his severe physical deformities in Victorian England. Howell, who practiced as a general practitioner in the West Midlands, dedicated nine years to researching Merrick's life, uncovering numerous inaccuracies in the popular narratives surrounding him, particularly those promoted by the surgeon Sir Frederick Treves. Merrick, born in 1862, suffered from a genetic disorder that led to significant deformities and was discovered in a sideshow by Treves, who later befriended him. Howell's research revealed that Merrick's mother did not abandon him as previously claimed, and he expressed gratitude towards the showman who exhibited him rather than being exploited. The book, first published in 1980, aimed to correct misconceptions while giving a more nuanced view of Merrick's life and experiences. Howell also collaborated on a subsequent work, "The Beetle of Aphrodite," which explored a variety of medical mysteries. He passed away at the age of fifty-four, leaving behind a family in Tividale, West Midlands.
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Michael Howell
Writer
- Born: c. 1932
- Birthplace: Black Country, West Midlands, England
- Died: March 10, 1986
Biography
Michael J. Howell was the coauthor of The True History of the Elephant Man, a scrupulously researched book that corrected some misconceptions and myths about the strangely deformed Victorian man and medical marvel Joseph Merrick. Howell was an English physician from the Black Country portion of the West Midlands region of England. He studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, where he earned his M.D., and practiced medicine as a general practitioner in the region west of Birmingham. He regularly contributed articles to medical journals; it was in preparing such an article on the Joseph Merrick case that he discovered so much previously unknown material—some of which contradicted generally held beliefs—that he was led to continue his research over a nine-year period and eventually publish a book on the subject.
Merrick had been born in Leicester, England, in 1862. He was discovered by the eminent surgeon Sir Frederick Treves in a London sideshow in 1884. Treves befriended Merrick, examined him, and determined that he had neurofibromastosis, an incurable genetic disorder causing tumors and deformation of the bones. (In 1986, more recent information revealed that the disorder was actually Proteus syndrome.) Treves also arranged to have Merrick, whose life was made miserable by his deformities and abuse from the general public, live permanently in the London Hospital.
Treves found that Merrick was highly intelligent, loved to converse, had a romantic sensibility, and, despite the abuses he had suffered, had a sweet disposition. Treves promoted Merrick until he became not only a popular medical curiosity but somewhat of a celebrity among the Victorian elite. Queen Victoria visited him several times and admired him greatly. Merrick died in 1890, and in 1923, Treves wrote a thirty-seven-page memoir of him called “The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences” that, for more than fifty years, served as the primary source of information about Merrick.
Howell, however, discovered that that account contained inaccuracies and that Treves sometimes indulged in myth-making. Merrick’s mother did not abandon him to a workhouse, as Treves maintained, and, far from being inhumane, she loved the boy until she died of pneumonia when he was twelve. Although Treves maintained that Ellis, the showman who exhibited Merrick, exploited and robbed him, in fact, Merrick stated in his own recollections that he was grateful to Ellis for his kindness and for essentially rescuing him from his hated life in the workhouse. Finally, Howell questions the motives of Treves, who rescued Merrick from the ridicule of the general public only to promote him as a curiosity in the London medical community and among high society.
Howell collaborated in the writing of The True History of the Elephant Man with Peter Ford, a freelance writer and editor who lived in Suffolk. The book first appeared in 1980 and then in a revised version in 1983. Coincidentally, during the same time, a successful Broadway play a film about Merrick and Treves were produced. A subsequent book by Howell and Ford, The Beetle of Aphrodite, and Other Medical Mysteries, explored thirteen true medical detective stories and was published in 1985.
Michael Howell was living in Tividale, West Midlands, when he died suddenly at age fifty-four. He left behind his wife Greta, three sons, and a daughter.