Mimi Baird at Weathersfield Proctor Library #WeathersfieldVT #VT #vtarts #vtarts2016 # WFLDProctorLib #library
Weathersfield Proctor Library
Ascutney, Vermont
Woodstock resident Mimi Baird is out on a book tour promoting the book she wrote based on her father's manuscript written during his bouts with manic depression. "He Wanted the Moon" tells the story of Dr. Perry, a Harvard educated physician who was fascinated with the biochemical root of manic depression even as he became afflicted by the disease. Dr. Baird was institutionalized multiple times and held "captive" in deplorable conditions. Mimi "found" her father's manuscript in a suitcase that her cousin had kept for decades.
After finding the manuscript, while working at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, she obtained her father's medical records, just one year before Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted. HIPPAA regulates the use and disclosure of a person's medical records. She began piecing together the life of the father she never knew.
Her book has been well received and has garnered the attention of Hollywood. Brad Pitt's film company has optioned the rights to transform the pages into a big screen movie adaption.
All this Hollywood hype hasn't affected Mimi, as the folks in the Ascutney audience can attest to. She answered every question with honesty and compassion and even stayed around until the last person left the library, signing books and speaking with folks about their personal knowledge of family mental illness and its associated stigmas.
More images from Mimi's talk: https://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/VermontPlaces/WeathersfieldProctorLibrary/2016-Galleries/Mimi-Baird/
"He Wanted The Moon" Book Tour
Weathersfield Proctor Library
Sponsored by The Friends and the Trustees
Ascutney VT May 4, 2016
Copyright ©2016 Nancy Nutile-McMenemy
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