McKay’s Bees: A Novel

210 Pages·2003·10.234 MB·English

by  Thomas McMahon

PHOENIX FICTION TITLES FROM CHICAGO
Ivo Andric: The Bridge on the Drina
Jurek Becker: Bronstein's Children
Thomas Bernhard: Concrete, Correction, Extinction, Gargoyles, The Lime Works,
The Loser, Old Masters, Wittgenstein's Nephew, Woodcutters, Yes
Arthur A. Cohen: Acts of Theft, A Hero in His Time, In the Days of Simon Stem
Jean Dutourd: A Dog's Head
Wayne Fields: The Past Leads a Life ofI ts Own
Bruce Jay Friedman: A Mother's Kisses
Jack Fuller: The Best ofJ ackson Payne, Convergence, Fragments
Randall Jarrell: Pictures from an Institution
Margaret Laurence: A Bird in the House, The Diviners, The Fire-Dwellers, A Jest
of God, The Stone Angel
Andre Malraux: The Conquerors, The Walnut Tree ofA ltenberg
Dalene Matthee: Fiela's Child
Thomas McMahon: Loving Little Egypt, McKay's Bees, Principles ofA merican
Nuclear Chemistry
R. K. Narayan: The Bachelor ofA rts, The Dark Room, ,The English Teacher, The
Financial Expert, Mr. Sampath-The PrinterofMalgudi, Swami and Friends,
Waiting for Mahatma
Morris Philipson: A Man in Charge, Secret Understandings, Somebody Else's Life,
The Wallpaper Fox
Anthony Powell: A Dance to the Music of Time (in four Movements with three
novels in each volume)
Peter Schneider: Couplings, The Wall Jumper
Paul Scott: The Raj Quartet (in four volumes: The Jewel in the Crown, The Day
oft he Scorpion, The Tower of Silence, A Division oft he Spoils), Staying On
Irwin Shaw: Short Stories: Five Decades, The Young Lions
George Steiner: The Portage of San Cristobal ofA . H.
Richard Stem: A Father's Words, Golk
Stephen Vizinczey: An Innocent Millionaire, In Praise ofO lder Women
Anthony Winkler: The Painted Canoe
Christa Wolf: Accident: A Day's News
Marguerite Yourcenar: A Coin in Nine Hands, Fires, Two Lives and a Dream
C~Y'5
Bees
A NOVEL
Thomas McMahon
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
Copyright © 1979 by Thomas McMahon
All rights reserved. First published 1979
University of Chicago Press edition 2003
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 0-226-56111-9
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 12345
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McMahon, Thomas A., 1943-
McKay's bees: a novel/Thomas McMahon.
p. cm. - (Phoenix fiction.)
ISBN 0-226-56111-9 (alk. paper)
1. Frontier and pioneerlife-Fiction. 2. Bee culture-Fiction.
3. Beekeepers-Fiction. 4. Kansas-Fiction. I. Title.
II. Series.
PS3563.A3188M392003
813' .54-dc21
2003048353
@ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Information Sciences
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
for my mother and father
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas McMahon (1943-1999), novelist, inventor, and professor of bio
mechanics, was born in Dayton, Ohio, and grew up in Lexington, Massachu
setts. He studied physics at Cornell University before earning a doctorate
from M.LT. in 1970. He wrote his first novel, Principles of American Nu
clear Chemistry (1971), while he was a graduate student. At Harvard,
where he had a joint appointment in applied mathematics and biology, he
helped to design an indoor track that reduced injuries and improved run
ning times. McMahon's explanation of the mechanics ofw alking on water
achieved by a small lizard called the basilisk, or Jesus Christ lizard-made
headlines, while his studies, On Size and Life (1983) and Muscles, Reflexes,
and Locomotion (1984), were widely praised. In his second novel, McKay's
Bees (1979), published two years after he was appOinted to the Gordon
McKay chair at Harvard, McMahon invents a colorful and exciting life story
for Mr. McKay. Loving Little Egypt (1987), his third novel, received the
same glOwing reviews garnered by his earlier books and includes the same
lively blend of scientific and historic detail with a gentle affection for his
characters and their foibles. Both these novels inspired stage productions.
Loving Little Egypt won the 1988 Rosenthal Award from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years after McMahon's death, his daugh
ter discovered a manuscript of an early work entitled Ira Foxglove; after
sitting in a drawer for three decades, this novel will be published in the fall
of 2003.

1
+
GoRDON MCKAY based his plan for a new city in the West
on bees because of their energy. One never finds them disap
pointed or confused; they have their plans and they have their
hopes and they love their work. In the morning, from the
moment the sun touches the hives and warms them, the bees
come forward and jump into the air. They are agricultural
animals, like chickens and pigs, but the difference is their en
ergy. There is, of course, the possibility for failure in any thing
nectar flowers must have the wet and the heat in some reason
able proportion or they will give up. But the bees never let
themselves fall into reveries of worry and speculation on their
fortune. Instead, they conduct their affairs with confidence and
optimism.
McKay could feel this confidence and optimism swelling up
1