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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks book cover

Summary

"Writing with a novelist's artistry, a biologist's expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Skloot tells a truly astonishing story of racism and poverty, science and conscience, spirituality and family, all driven by a galvanizing inquiry into the sanctity of the body and the very nature of the life force." From Booklist. 107.9-10 (Jan. 1, 2011): p4.


"From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories?" --Tom Nissley (Amazon.com)

Cast of Characters - lists the cast of characters in the book.
Timeline: From 1889 when Johns Hopkins Hospital was founded to 2009 on gene patents.

Literary Criticisms

From CCBC Databases- off campus instructions to view articles

In Literature Resource Center and the other literature databases, you will find many book reviews of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.Here are just a few:

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Interviews & Audio files, Broadcast transcripts

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