Jonas Salk : a life / Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacobs, Charlotte, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Salk, Jonas, 1914-1995.

Salk, Jonas.

Virologists--United States--Biography.

Virologists.

Poliomyelitis--United States--History.

Poliomyelitis.

Poliomyelitis--Vaccination--United States--History.

Poliomyelitis vaccine--History.

Poliomyelitis vaccine.

Influenza vaccines--History.

Influenza vaccines.

AIDS vaccines.

Poliomyelitis--Vaccination.

History.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 559 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2015]

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

"He first full biography of Jonas Salk offers a complete picture of the enigmatic figure, from his early years working on an influenza vaccine--for which he never fully got credit--to his seminal creation of the Polio vaccine, up through his later work to find a cure for AIDS"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Born to Serve 7

2 Finding His Place 16

3 A Wedding and a War 26

4 Joining the Fight Against Influenza 34

5 Vaccine Neophyte 41

6 Pittsburgh's Virgin Territory 53

7 Polio 64

8 The Chosen 80

9 Ready to Run 95

10 Research Sub Rosa 106

11 Out of His Hands 121

12 The World's Largest Clinical Trial 143

13 Relief from Fear 160

14 The Cutter Affair 180

15 Fame and Its Consequences 200

16 Act II 215

17 Two Cultures Under One Roof 231

18 The Price of a Masterpiece 251

19 Seeking Shangri-La 263

20 A Troubled Marriage 275

21 Harnessing the Immune System 288

22 A Most Unusual Arrangement 297

23 Salk Unfolding 310

24 Fall from Grace 325

25 Final Fling 341

26 Marginalized 356

27 The Swine Flu Snafu 366

28 Return to the Polio Vaccine Controversy 378

29 A Trojan Horse 397

30 Disciples, Sycophants, and Lovers 406

31 AIDS: Salk's Next Mountain 422

32 Unbowed 444.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199334414

0199334412

OCLC:

893389691