When a waiting world learned on April 12, 1955, that Jonas Salk had successfully created a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis, he became a hero overnight. Born in a New York tenement, humble in manner, Salk had all the makings of a twentieth-century icon-a knight in a white coat. In the wake of his achievement, he received a staggering number of awards and honors; for years his name ranked with Gandhi and Churchill on lists of the most revered people. And yet the one group whose adulation he craved--the scientific community--remained ominously silent. "The worst tragedy that could have befallen me was my success," Salk later said. "I knew right away that I was through-cast out." In the first complete biography of Jonas Salk, Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs unravels Salk's story to reveal an unconventional scientist and a misunderstood and vulnerable man. Despite his incredible success in developing the polio vaccine, Salk was ostracized by his fellow scientists, who accused him of failing to give proper credit to other researchers and scorned his taste for media attention. Even before success catapulted him into the limelight, Salk was an inscrutable man disliked by many of his peers. Driven by an intense desire to aid mankind, he was initially oblivious and eventually resigned to the personal cost--as well as the costs suffered by his family and friends. And yet Salk remained, in the eyes of the public, an adored hero. Based on hundreds of personal interviews and unprecedented access to Salk's sealed archives, Jacobs' biography offers the most complete picture of this complicated figure. Salk's story has never been fully told; until now, his role in preventing polio has overshadowed his part in co-developing the first influenza vaccine, his effort to meld the sciences and humanities in the magnificent Salk Institute, and his pioneering work on AIDS. A vivid and intimate portrait, this will become the standard work on the remarkable life of Jonas Salk.

About the Author
Charlotte D. Jacobs, M.D. is the Ben and A. Jess Shenson Professor of Medicine (Emerita) at Stanford University. She has served as Senior Associate Dean and as Director of the Clinical Cancer Center, and is the author of Henry Kaplan and the Story of Hodgkin's Disease.

Reviews
Chosen as New York Times Book Review "100 Notable Books of 2015"
This is science writing at its best." - New York Times Book Review
...[R]emarkable, warts-and-all biography... sweeping and sympathetic narrative." - Wall Street Journal
...[I]nsightful... With an unerring sense of pace, Jacobs... relates the story of this complex man and his remarkable life as a scientific pioneer and a popular icon." - Chicago Tribune
...[F]ills a gap worth filling." - Washington Post
An extraordinarily rich biography of the doctor Americans adored and all but regarded as a saint... Jacobs makes a convincing case that Salk was a shy man who never succeeded in making the scientific or personal connections that could bring happiness, but his idealism proved a boon to mankind." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
[A] treasure trove of facts and stories... Recommended to readers of scientific biographies and those interested in the practice of science in America." - Library Journal
The story of Jonas Salk is an endlessly fascinating one and in Charlotte Jacobs's capable hands this will be a winner and an important book. * Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone and Professor and Doctor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine *
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Book Information
ISBN 9780190679163
Author Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
Format Paperback
Page Count 576
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 621g
Dimensions(mm) 140mm * 208mm * 38mm