In 1926, the wealthy eccentric barrister Charles Vance Millar, having no heirs, left the bulk of his estate to the Toronto woman giving birth to the most babies in the decade following his death. The race was on for his fortune, which newspapers dubbed “The Great Stork Derby.” Inspired by this real, but bizarre, event in Canadian history, I wrote the novel The Great Stork Derby, about an imaginary family caught up in the madness. Fifty years later, the ailing widower Emm Benbow, who made his wife Izora have lots of babies, must now face his estranged grown children. The novel asks whether this “bad dad” can finally learn that the true value of fatherhood is not measured in big prizes, but in small rewards. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Toronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
Learning the true value of fatherhood
