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Rebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer, and author of the New York Times Bestselling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It tells the story of HeLa -- the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture (pictured in the blog's banner) -- the woman those cells came from, and the family she left behind. The book has been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, CBS Sunday Morning, The Colbert Report, and many others. To see those segments and find information, reviews, book special features, and more, visit her website. Skloot is also a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine; she's worked as a correspondent for WNYC's RadioLab, and PBS's Nova ScienceNOW. Her writing appears in The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover and others.
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Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Book Tour Trailer Part 1
Category: HeLa • HeLa FAQs • The Immortal Book Tour • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Posted on: March 29, 2010 9:25 AM, by Rebecca Skloot
People often ask whether the Lacks family has joined me for any of my book tour events, and how they feel about the book. Here, in the first of what will be several trailers of The Immortal Book Tour, you can see bits of the tour, including the blizzard that nearly prevented me from getting there, many great photos, footage of several Lacks family members talking about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and more (video by Mr. Culture Dish, David Prete):
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Comments
Rebecca - I have just finished reading The Immortal Life Henrietta Lacks and want to offer my sincere congratulations on a magnificent book – what an incredible story! And I am very pleased you presented members of the Lacks family – that really told the entire story of HeLa and what those cells mean to the world. You have made an invaluable contribution to our understanding of what life is all about and I want to say thank you. You have done Henrietta and her family proud.
Bob
Posted by: Bob | March 29, 2010 11:28 AM
Awwww... From the headline, I was hoping that you were actually doing the Immortal Tour in an old-fashioned trailer and that we were going to see pics thereof ;-)
Posted by: Ed Yong | March 29, 2010 11:56 AM
I really wish I had been able to attend your talk when you came to Madison, WI. I planned on going, but I came down with a bad cold, and I figured you and everyone else wouldn't have appreciated my presence there. Maybe next time.
Posted by: Mark F. | March 29, 2010 2:34 PM
I read your book and from the first page to the last I couldn't put it down. I loved how you got into the smallest detail and clearly you have great respect for both the Lacks family and the science field. I felt it was a very unbiased view of the entire story in which you presented both sides fairly. I cannot wait until you come to Tempe in May. I will be there...will you be bringing the Lacks family? They sounds like a wonderfully colorful family who I'd love to have to my house for dinner! (and you too!). Thank you for bringing this very important story to life!
Posted by: Claire Yar | March 29, 2010 4:49 PM
Rebecca, I just finished your book and it is truly a work of art and of heart. Such an important story, and the way you told it makes it so accessible for so many. Congratulations! And congrats on the much deserved accolades.
I plan to see you at Powell's in April!
Terri - in very rainy Portland
Posted by: Terri Grayum | March 29, 2010 5:58 PM
Woohoo! Thanks for including pics from New Hampshire. Good luck out there in "The Other Portland" as we call it.
RiverRun
Home of the Brave
Portsmouth, NH
Posted by: RiverRun Bookstore | March 29, 2010 6:09 PM
I read the book with a lump in my throat nearly the entire time it took to read it with tears. I find it so hard to fathom people being treated in such a manner. The people who treated this family so callously should be ashamed. Greed is a terrible task master...and there is such a thing as "just doing the right thing." Thank you for writing such an important book.
Bravo!
Glenda
Posted by: Glenda | March 29, 2010 8:59 PM
As I savored each page of your superb book, I kept hearing a refrain: the words that Elinor Gadon writes in The Once and Future Goddess, A Symbol for Our Times:
Henrietta's story has mythic, archetypal resonance with the Dark Goddess, the Black Madonna -- in Jungian author Marion Woodman's words, the Big Chocolate Woman.
For thousands of years, patriarchal culture has literally denigrated women, women's pro-creative power, the Sacred Feminine. Henrietta's story illustrates this process exactly.
I hope her story moves us to honor, rather than exploit, the Sacred Feminine. I hope her story inspires women all the more to reclaim our womb-power -- the power to promote creation in whatever dimension we choose.
Lisa Sarasohn
author of
The Woman's Belly Book:
Finding Your True Center for More Energy, Confidence, and Pleasure
Asheville, NC
Posted by: Lisa Sarasohn | March 30, 2010 9:53 AM
I'm glad to have read your book because I learned much from it and I'm super happy you are donating proceeds from the book to the foundation you created for the family. How much of the book's proceeds will go towards the foundation? I think your hard work is most deserving of a good portion of the proceeds but was curious if you felt any moral dilemma with this issue as your book frequently talks about people making money off the Lacks' family.
Posted by: Bonnie | March 30, 2010 9:32 PM
Just finished the audiobook, and it was such a superb listening experience. I'm glad to find your blog and website--great photos and videos! Wishing you the best of success in another fabulous topic for your next book.
Posted by: Holly | April 2, 2010 10:03 PM
I just watched the first Immortal Book Tour clip with a lump in my throat. After reading your amazing book, I couldn't help but be moved by the comments of Jeri, Kimberley, and Sonny Lacks. It's wonderful to know that Henrietta's family is finally getting some well-deserved recognition. BTW, the book is one of the best works of nonfiction I've ever read - so compelling on so many different levels that I had to start rereading it as soon as I'd finished. If you can, please bring the Immortal Book Tour to Vancouver, BC!
Posted by: Carmen | April 7, 2010 1:27 PM
What an amazing and compelling story! And you told it so beautifully. Will you be touring in the Chicago area at all?
Posted by: Roberta Wolk | May 3, 2010 1:39 PM