The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot

Crown, Mar 8, 2011 - Science - 400 pages

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Financial Times, New York, Independent (U.K.), Times (U.K.), Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Globe and Mail

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

Contents

• The Woman in the Photograph: 1
• Deborahs Voice: 9
• Part One LIFE: 11
• The Exam 1951: 13
• Clover 19201942: 18
• Diagnosis and Treatment 1951: 27
• The Birth of HeLa 1951: 34
• Blackness Be Spreadin All Inside 1951: 42
• Ladys on the Phone 1999: 49
• The Death and Life of Cell Culture 1951: 56
• A Miserable Specimen 1951: 63
• Turner Station 1999: 67
• The Other Side of the Tracks 1999: 77
• The Devil of Pain Itself 1951: 83
• Part Two DEATH: 87
• The Storm 1951: 89
• The HeLa Factory 19511953: 93
• Helen Lane 19531954: 105
• Too Young to Remember 19511965: 110
• Spending Eternity in the Same Place 1999: 118
• Illegal Immoral and Deplorable 19541966: 127
• Strangest Hybrid 19601966: 137
• The Most Critical Time on This Earth Is Now 19661973: 144
• The HeLa Bomb 1966: 152
• Night Doctors 2000: 158
• The Fame She So Richly Deserves 19701973: 170
• Part Three IMMORTALITY: 177
• Its Alive 19731974: 179
• Least They Can Do 1975: 191
• Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen? 19761988: 199
• Breach of Privacy 19801985: 207
• The Secret of Immortality 19841995: 212
• After London 19961999: 218
• A Village of Henriettas 2000: 232
• Zakariyya 2000: 241
• Hela Goddess of Death 20002001: 250
• All Thats My Mother 2001: 259
• The Hospital for the Negro Insane 2001: 268
• The Medical Records 2001: 279
• Soul Cleansing 2001: 286
• Heavenly Bodies 2001: 294
• Nothing to Be Scared About 2001: 297
• The Long Road to Clover 2009: 305
• Where They Are Now: 311
• About the Henrietta Lacks Foundation: 314
• Afterword: 315
• Cast of Characters: 329
• Timeline: 333
• Acknowledgments: 337
• Notes: 346
• Index: 367
• Reading Group Guide: 379

About the author

REBECCA SKLOOT is an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; and many others. She is coeditor of The Best American Science Writing 2011 and has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. She was named one of five surprising leaders of 2010 by the Washington Post. Skloot's debut book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, took more than a decade to research and write, and instantly became a New York Times bestseller. It was chosen as a best book of 2010 by more than sixty media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, People, and the New York Times. It is being translated into more than twenty-five languages, adapted into a young reader edition, and being made into an HBO film produced by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball. Skloot is the founder and president of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation. She has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She has taught creative writing and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. She lives in Chicago. For more information, visit her website at RebeccaSkloot.com, where you’ll find links to follow her on Twitter and Facebook. 

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; APLS book club; Book club kit; Business book summary; New York Times Bestseller; Science in the Summer 2013; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
• Author: Rebecca Skloot
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Crown, 2011
• ISBN: 1400052181, 9781400052189
• Length: 400 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology; Science / Life Sciences / Biology; Social Science / Women's Studies