By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Westwood resident and author Mimi Baird was welcomed to the Needham Free Public Library (NFPL) this past Sunday, October 3rd to discuss her first book “He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird.” This program was sponsored by the Friends of the Needham Public Library and attracted a large crowd for this author talk.
Over fifty attendees filed into the NFPL Community Room, eager to hear Baird share her incredible story about how this book came to be. The NFPL website went on to state, “In midlife, Mimi Baird of Westwood met a surgeon who had known her brilliant physician father. The chance encounter prompted a quest to finally understand the life and legacy of the father she had never known. It also resulted in her book, “He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird.” This raw and unvarnished account – currently being made into an HBO series — chronicles Dr. Baird’s descent into madness as well as his daughter’s attempt to piece his life together and make sense of her own.”
During this program, Baird was interviewed by Faith who went on to ask her a variety of questions about aspects of her childhood, her chance encounter with the surgeon who knew her father, and the discovery of her father’s manuscript. Before asking these questions, Baird started the event by reading an excerpt from her Prologue. While doing so, she explained to the crowd that reading her work aloud makes her very emotional, as this whole experience has been quite the journey.
As the interview went on, Baird recounted the chilling experience of finding her father’s manuscript at her doorstep, a whole fifty years after he had walked out of her life. Upon meeting her Uncle while out at a conference in Dallas (where her father was from), she learned from him that her father had in fact written one. She became closer with her cousin who was in possession of the manuscript and he sent her a copy of it. After opening the seal on the envelope and reading the first page, she quickly put it back, realizing how hard this next chapter of her life was about to be.
Once the interview had concluded, Baird took audience questions and conducted a book signing for those who were interested. Attendees could feel just how sentimental and passionate Baird was not only about her book, but also the story of how it came to be.
For more information about upcoming events like these happening at the NFPL, please visit their website at www.needhamlibrary.org.
