The blog is starting to get hits from people searching for "wikipedia spanish flu," presumably from those who have heard about the current cases of swine flu.
Here is the quote from the page that brings them to aworks: I've been listening to [Charles T.] Griffes' The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan this week and I just noticed the composer died on this date in 1920, at the age of 35. Wikipedia suggests he died from Spanish Flu although liner notes from DRAM say empyema, a form of pneumonia that may or may not be related to the epidemic.
I don't have access to a recent Griffes' biography, but the one from 1943 by Edward Maisel indicates the composer thought for several months he had pleurisy. Griffes was then moved to a tuberculosis sanitarium for treatment and rest. His health continued to deteriorate and he had surgery at New York Hospital to no avail and soon died.
Maisel describes the cause, based on a letter from Griffes' last doctor: His demise as incorrectly attributed to tuberculosis in the earlier reports. Nevertheless it was of empyema, abscesses of the lungs, resultant upon influenza, that he died.
I found a PowerPoint presentation (in French) that indicates US fatality rates from the Spanish flu were highest in 1918 as World War I ended but still above normal in 1919 and 1920. So the timing matches.
Piano Sonata on lala:
