In 1945 Frederick Manfred published his novel "Boy Almighty." The book was recently reissued and this provided me with the opportunity to speak to his daughter Freya Manfred about a novel that was deeply autobiographical. Most of the story is set in a sanitarium in the Midwest where patients were undergoing treatments to try to overcome tuberculosis. Manfred was writing what he knew, he once spent two years in a similar facility recovering from TB.
Manfred's body of work is massive, to prepare for this interview I read "Boy Almighty" as well as several other books by the author. I even read a memoir that Freya Manfred wrote about her father following his death in 1994. Reading that book gave me some revealing insights into a man who wrote so many incredible novels and the relationship that he had had with my guest Freya Manfred.
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