The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

questions. Leonard Hayflick spent more than a dozen hours on the phone with me, often tak-
ing my calls when he was traveling or in the midst of his own work. His memory and scientific
expertise were a tremendous resource. He offered extremely valuable comments on a draft of
this book, as did Robert Stevenson, who supported this project from the beginning, when not
all scientists did. He was an enormous asset.
I’m grateful to Roland Pattillo for taking the time to figure me out, for believing in me, for
schooling me, and for helping me contact Deborah. He and his wife, Pat, opened themselves
and their home to me early on, and have been supportive since. They also read a draft of the
book and offered helpful suggestions.
Christoph Lengauer’s passion and his willingness to be swept into the Lackses’ story were
inspiring. I thank him for his patience, openness, and forward thinking. He answered many
questions and read this book in draft form, offering honest and extremely helpful feedback.
Several writers who have covered the HeLa story were generous with their time. Michael
Gold wrote about the contamination story in great detail in his book, A Conspiracy of Cells,
which was a wonderful resource. It was always a joy to talk with Michael Rogers, whose 1976
Rolling Stone article about HeLa was an important resource when I began working on this
book. Harriet Washington, author of Medical Apartheid, has been a wonderful champion of
this book; she talked with me about her experience interviewing the Lacks family for a 1994
Emerge article, and offered helpful comments on a draft of the book.
Special thanks to Ethan Skerry and Lowenstein Sandler PC for the pro bono work they did
to help me establish the Henrietta Lacks Foundation. Thanks to the University of Memphis for
a grant that helped with final research and fact-checking for this book. I’m grateful to both my
students and colleagues, particularly Kristen Iversen and Richard Bausch, wonderful teach-
ers, writers, and friends. Special thanks to John Cal de-razzo and Lee Gutkind for more than
a decade of encouragement, support, and close friendship. John realized I was a writer long
before I did, and has always been an inspiration. Lee taught me to care deeply about story
structure and gave me entrée into the worlds of professional writing, and working at 5:00 A.M.
Many thanks also to Donald Defler, for introducing me to Henrietta, and teaching biology with
passion.
This book was intensively fact-checked. As part of that process, many experts read it be-
fore publication to help ensure its accuracy. I thank them for their time and valuable feedback:
Erik Angner (a close friend and strong supporter of this book from its inception), Stanley
Gartler, Linda MacDonald Glenn, Jerry Menikoff, Linda Griffith, Miriam Kelty (who also
provided helpful documents from her personal archive), Joanne Manaster (aka
@sciencegoddess), Alondra Nelson (who deserves special thanks for her honesty, and for
saving me from a serious omission), Rich Purcell, Omar Quintero (who also provided beautiful