The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

HeLa photos and video footage for the book and its website), Laura Stark, and Keith Woods.
Thanks also to the many people who read selected chapters, particularly Nathaniel Comfort
and Hannah Landecker (whose extensive work on HeLa and the history of cell culture, espe-
cially her book, Culturing Life, was a tremendous resource).
Every writer should be lucky enough to find an expert source as generous with his time as
Vincent Racaniello. He read multiple drafts, sent many resources, and offered invaluable
feedback. His belief in the importance of communicating science to the general public in an
accurate and accessible way (witnessed in his “This Week in Virology” podcasts at TWiV.tv
and his Twitter feed @profvrr) is a great model for other scientists. The same is true for David
Kroll (@abelpharmboy), a big supporter of this book, who writes about science on his blog,
Scienceblogs.com/terrasig. He provided helpful feedback and research material, and even
took his scanner to a library to gather a few key documents for me. I feel very fortunate to call
him a friend.
My graduate assistant Leigh Ann Vanscoy dove into her job with great enthusiasm, work-
ing hard to track down photos and permissions, and helping with fact-checking during the final
hours. Pat Walters (patwalters.net), research assistant extraordinaire, talented young writer
and reporter, and good friend, fact-checked this entire book and devoted himself to the pro-
cess with unparalleled enthusiasm, precision, and attention to detail. He dug out hard-to-find
facts, and his work saved me from numerous errors (including my apparent inability to do ba-
sic math). This book benefited greatly from his contributions. I’m lucky to have found him, and
I look forward to seeing his bright future unfold.
Several other people helped with research and fact-checking and I thank them all. The
great Charles Wilson at The New York Times Magazine fact-checked the portions of this book
that originally appeared in the magazine, and was a joy to work with. Heather Harris acted as
my stand-in when I couldn’t get to Baltimore, doggedly gathering court and archival docu-
ments, often on short notice. Av Brown of yourmaninthestacks.com was, indeed, my man in
the stacks, always thorough and fast with research requests. Paige Williams swooped in to
help with some last-minute fact-checking in the midst of her own busy writing career. And my
longtime friend Lisa Thorne deserves special thanks (and probably some wrist splints) for
transcribing the majority of my interview tapes and offering wonderful commentary on what
she heard.
I’m thankful to many great reporters, writers, and editors who offered encouragement, ad-
vice, feedback, and friendship along the way, particularly Jad Abumrad, Alan Burdick, Lisa
Davis, Nicole Dyer, Jenny Everett, Jonathan Franzen, Elizabeth Gilbert, Cindy Gill, Andrew
Hearst, Don Hoyt Gorman, Alison Gwinn, Robert Krulwich, Robin Marantz Henig, Mark Jan-
not, Albert Lee, Erica Lloyd, Joyce Maynard, James McBride, Robin Michaelson, Gregory