The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

First edition
Author	Rebecca Skloot
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Crown
Publication date	February 2, 2010
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	381
ISBN	978-1-4000-5217-2

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) is a nonfiction book by American author Rebecca Skloot. It is about Henrietta Lacks and the immortal cell line, known as HeLa, that came from Lacks's cervical cancer cells in 1951. The book is notable for its science writing and dealing with ethical issues of race and class in medical research. Skloot said that some of the information was taken from the journal of Deborah Lacks, Henrietta Lacks's daughter, as well as from "archival photos and documents, scientific and historical research." It is Skloot's first book.^[1]

Academic and critical reception

Critical reception was largely favorable. It was named a best book of the year by more than 60 media outlets, including New York Times, Oprah, NPR, and Entertainment Weekly.^[2] Lisa Margonelli reviewing in The New York Times Book Review said:

Skloot narrates the science lucidly, tracks the racial politics of medicine thoughtfully and tells the Lacks family’s often painful history with grace. She also confronts the spookiness of the cells themselves, intrepidly crossing into the spiritual plane on which the family has come to understand their mother’s continued presence in the world. Science writing is often just about “the facts.” Skloot’s book, her first, is far deeper, braver and more wonderful.^[3]

Dwight Garner of The New York Times wrote:

I put down Rebecca Skloot’s first book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” more than once. Ten times, probably. Once to poke the fire. Once to silence a pinging BlackBerry. And eight times to chase my wife and assorted visitors around the house, to tell them I was holding one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time …It has brains and pacing and nerve and heart.^[4]

One reviewer for The New Atlantis, while mostly positive about the book, questioned its ethical arguments about tissue markets and informed consent involving scientists such as Chester M. Southam, and claimed to have found factual errors: one related to the role of HeLa cells in early space missions, and, another related to a statement in the book that says "if all HeLa cells ever grown could have been gathered on a scale, their total weight would have measured more than 50 million metric tons.^[5] Skloot addresses this question on her website, where she explains how the 50 million metric tons figure was calculated, saying "That calculation was based on the way HeLa cells are known to divide (specifically how often they double their numbers) and the amount of time they’d been alive at the time the calculation was made." She clarifies that "it was a hypothetical calculation because that many cells couldn’t have been saved and put on a scale." She also says that the figures "were verified before the book went to press by the scientists who did the original calculations, and outside experts." ^[6]

The book was awarded the National Academies Best Book of the Year Award,^[7] the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Young Adult Science Book award,^[8] and the Wellcome Trust Book Prize, awarded annually to an outstanding work of fiction or non-fiction on the theme of health and medicine.^[9] It also won the Heartland Prize for non-fiction,^[10] among others, including a Salon Book Award, and a 100 New York Times Notable Books of the Year. The paperback edition had spent 75 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[11]

The book was adopted as a common reading text at more than 125 universities and was widely taught in high school, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral classrooms.^[2]

In September 2015, schools in Knox County, Tennessee were faced with demands from a parent that the book be removed from Knox County classrooms and libraries; the parent in question alleged that the scene in which Lacks discovered her tumor was depicted in a "pornographic" way.^[12]

Editions

The book was initially released in hardcover, published by Crown, on February 2, 2010 (ISBN 978-1-4000-5217-2). On the same date, an audiobook edition was published by Random House Audio, narrated by Casandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin (ISBN 978-0-307-71250-9), as well as electronic editions in mobi (Kindle) and Epub formats. A paperback edition was published by Broadway Books on March 8, 2011 (ISBN 978-1-4000-5218-9). It has also been translated into more than 25 foreign language editions.^[13]

Film adaptation

In 2010, it was announced that a television film project based on the book was in development. Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball were teaming together to bring the biopic to HBO.^[14] In 2016, HBO announced that production will begin on the film in the summer. Winfrey will executive-produce and star as Deborah, the daughter of Henrietta Lacks.^[15] George C. Wolfe wrote the screenplay and will direct the film. Lacks' sons and granddaughter will serve as consultants.^[16]

See also

• Crownsville Hospital Center, Elsie's asylum.
• Clover, Virginia, Henrietta's home town.
• Dundalk, Maryland, location of Turners Station in Baltimore.

References

External links

• The Immortal Life, authors official book website (audio/video, photos)
• Henrietta Lacks Foundation, non-profit org founded by Rebecca Skloot using proceeds from the book.
• The Lacks Family, family website.
• Excerpt from "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", "Oprah Magazine, February 2010
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Sequel "New York Times" March 23,2013
• Your Cells. Their Research. Your Permission? "New York Times" Dec 30, 2015
• The Way of All Flesh by Adam Curtis, 1997 BBC documentary discussed in the book.
• The Way of All Flesh at the Internet Movie Database
• Henrietta Everlasting: 1950s Cells Still Alive, Helping Science, Wired magazine, flowchart.
• The Skloot Lacks Nothing, audio interview with Skloot, Dr. Kiki's Science Hour 43, TWiT.tv, April 23, 2010