Place and Space in the Letters of Wilder Penfield and Jean Jefferson Penfield

This essay explores letters between the neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield and his mother, Jean Jefferson Penfield, from his childhood to her death in 1935. I probe the role of the maternal bond in the famous physician's life to theorize this highly distinctive and understudied genre: mother-son correspondence. My focus is on references to place and space, a deep interest that the duo shared. Sharp architectural descriptions, including colours, decoration, furniture, and the condition of building materials, I argue, were ways the mother and son placed each other, while thousands of miles apart, akin to the way we might take selfies today, capturing a meaningful setting.