'The Kelloggs' explores relationship between John Harvey and W.K. Kellogg

It couldn't have been easy being John Harvey Kellogg's little brother.

"Even as boys, it was understood that John was their mother's favorite child and the family's brightest star while Will was considered to be slow, at best," medical historian Howard Markel writes in a new book on the Kellogg brothers and their tumultuous relationship.

John Harvey Kellogg, the elder brother, ensured that Will's "daily childhood life was a living hell," relating his every indiscretion to their strict father and adding punches and verbal humiliation for good measure.

He also went on to become famous, a medical pioneer, the leader of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, while Will was still in the family broom business.

But in some ways it was Will, the founder of the still flourishing Kellogg Co., who came out on top. In 1921, the Michigan Supreme Court awarded him the rights to the cereal recipes developed at the Sanitarium, a Sanitarium that slowly fell apart once Will wasn't there to help keep things running.

"The greatest casualty, of course, was the bond between the two brothers," Markel writes.

There are two takeaways from "The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek," according to Markel.

“One is this is a remarkable story about a remarkable part of the American experience. Every bit as important as the Henry Fords and Thomas Edisons, the Kelloggs were right up there in changing things and improving American culture and society," he said.

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“And the other is a theme in all my work—behind all great names are human beings, human beings who make great discoveries and contributions to society that still suffer the same problems and conflicts and struggles as the rest of us, and I found that a fascinating theme that I’ve written about for the past 30 years, at least.”

Markel does not have a connection to the city of Battle Creek or the Kelloggs, beyond the same childhood love for the cereal company many people share.

“As a little boy, I went to Cereal City for a tour and got both a little box of Sugar Frosted Flakes, as they were still called, and a Tony the Tiger bowl,” Markel said. “And I still have the bowl. The sugar flakes I ate a long time ago.”

But decades later, research into Dr. Kellogg led him to the story of both brothers.

“If you are a physician as I am in the state of Michigan, you can’t help but be aware of Kellogg and the Kellogg Foundation,” Markel said. “I walk by the Kellogg dental building or the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center. They’re always in my rearview mirror.”

Around 2011, he had just finished a book on Sigmund Freud, William Halsted and cocaine, “An Anatomy of Addiction,” and was looking for a new topic. He remembered that the University of Michigan library had some papers from Dr. Kellogg. He expanded his search to Andrews University, which was founded by Seventh-day Adventists and had boxes of papers on the sanitarium and by colleagues of Dr. Kellogg.

The book was originally just going to be on Dr. Kellogg.

“The interesting thing about this, in my writing career, is the book I originally propose is rarely the book I end up writing,” Markel said. “Eventually a narrative emerges, and what emerged for me was— you can’t tell the story about Dr. Kellogg without telling the story of his brother W.K. Kellogg.”

And so the core of the book is about conflict, specifically the conflict between the two Kellogg brothers.

“The animosity and the level of bad will—no pun intended—between John and Will Kellogg was both very surprising and very interesting to me,” Markel said. “These were very different men who had a very big impact on American culture, and yet they couldn’t stand each other, even though they needed each other very much.”

“The Kelloggs” is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The ceremony to decide the winner is on Thursday.

“It was such a delight to write about Battle Creek, Michigan,” Markel said. “It’s such a famous place, and it’s in the hearts and minds of millions and millions and millions of not just Americans, but people around the world, who look at the cereal boxes and see Battle Creek, so to write about that story was just a joy.”

Markel, 57, was born in Detroit. He studied at the medical school at the University of Michigan, got his PhD at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital and, in 1993, came back to Ann Arbor, where he is now the director of the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine.

Writing books on medical history was a way to “blend that humanity side of my brain with the medical side,” Markel said.

“I go to my desk every morning still as excited as the day I first discovered that linkage, so it’s a wonderful way to spend my life,” he said. “I’ve also been really lucky, because every time I go to the archives, I find some neat stuff and I try to impart that to my students. Be curious. You never know what you’re going to find.”

Markel has just begun research on a new book about the discovery of DNA.

Contact Natasha Blakely at (269) 223-0114 or nblakely@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @blakelynat.