On May 25, nearly 23 years after graduating from Saint Louis University, an alumnus published his first book, The Sun Farmer. Michael McCarthy graduated from SLU’s College of Arts and Sciences with a double major in communication and political science in 1984, and he dedicated 21 of his post-SLU years to journalism before reaching this milestone.
McCarthy, who had entered SLU with no intention at all to become a journalist, began his college years in the business school. He made the switch to pursue journalism when he began writing for The University News, eventually making University News history when he became the first ever sophomore editor in chief.
Said SLU communication professor, Avis Meyer, Ph.D., “When people speak of their best and brightest students, Mike always [comes] to mind.”
After graduating SLU, McCarthy was hired as a copy editor for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat-which ceased publication in 1986-for a month and a half before accepting a junior position at The Wall Street Journal. He worked there as a reporter for 13 years before he was promoted to editor, a job that he held for eight years before publishing The Sun Farmer.
The idea for the nonfiction book arose from a series of feature stories McCarthy had written for The Wall Street Journal. The series, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination, was about life and death decisions that result from the constantly evolving medical field, and McCarthy was led to his discovery of the Fink family, who would eventually become the inspiration for his book. Telling their tale began as just a 2,500 word feature story in The Wall Street Journal, but expanded into the form of a 207 page book. “Honestly, I just [thought] that their story was so important that it had to be done well, and that meant it had to be done in book length,” said McCarthy.
Ted Fink was just 45 years old when 93 percent of his body was critically burned in a tractor explosion on his farm in rural Lanark, Illinois. His wife, Rhoda, was left with the life-altering decision of whether to allow her comatose husband to die, or to take a chance on brand new medical technology called Integra, a type of artificial skin developed in the laboratories of MIT.
The Sun Farmer opens with an account of the accident itself, and then follows the Fink family on their journey through the aftermath and then gradual recovery. It includes excerpts from Rhoda’s diary, which documented Ted’s slow adjustment back to certain aspects of his old life, as well as his wife, family and community’s love and support that carried them through the tragedy.
For McCarthy, the biggest challenge to writing his book wasn’t what to write about, but rather what not to write about. Having done feature length stories for The Wall Street Journal before, he was accustomed to dealing with large amounts of information, but the amount for the book was “overwhelming . It’s a real exercise to be working with all that material and keeping the facts straight,” he said.
The notes he took during the process, which at one point weighed in at 57 pounds, were compiled from over two years of research. During those years, he interviewed the scientist responsible for the artificial skin breakthrough that saved Ted Fink from what would have been fatal burn wounds and visited the Carnegie Hero Foundation, an organization that later awarded medals to the two farmers who risked their own lives to help Ted directly after the explosion. Most of all, McCarthy spent as much time as possible with the Fink family members themselves, at one point spending an entire farming season with them, from planting time to harvest.
McCarthy is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in writing at DePaul University and said, “I hope to write more books” in the future, though he isn’t revealing any potential topic ideas just yet. “I feel the gift of writing comes from God directly . I hope to continue giving [that gift].”
