Essays in Honour of Michael Bliss

Thus reads the introduction to Figuring the Social, a collection of essays published by the University of Toronto Press in honour of Canadian historian Michael Bliss. This anthology, edited by E.A. Heaman, Alison Li and Shelley McKellar, consists of dissertations written by students and colleagues of Bliss, who has produced notable works such as The Discovery of Insulin, Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal and a biography of Sir William Osler, entitled William Osler: A Life in Medicine. In addition to his work in the area of medical history in Canada, Bliss has also written extensively about the business and political history of this country. It is, perhaps, due to the wide scope of Bliss’s work that the essays presented in this anthology resist categorization under any particular theme. Rather, they vary quite widely in both style and subject matter, from one author’s reflection on his professional relationship with Bliss to another’s examination of the relationship between Charles Gordon (also known as novelist “Ralph Conner”) and Gordon’s son, King. While Bliss’ dexterity with a wide variety of subjects is to be lauded, however, the attempt of the editors to mirror this diversity results in a compilation of essays that can seem out of place next to one another – a little more thematic cohesion would have given the collection more strength. That being said, there are some thought-provoking essays in this book that are well worth a read by anyone who is interested in Bliss’ work, in his philosophies, or in the history of medicine in Canada. The first essay in the collection is an autobiographical piece by Bliss himself. In it, he describes the course that his career prospects and world-view have taken since his childhood. The son of a physician, Bliss reports that “from the time I could talk I would automatically say that I wanted to grow up to be a doctor.” However, he changed his mind at the age of fourteen: