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Author Jacobs, Charlotte, author.

Title Jonas Salk : a life / Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2015]

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Description 1 online resource (x, 559 pages)
Contents Prologue: Two plagues -- Born to serve -- Finding his place -- A wedding and a war -- Joining the fight against influenza -- Vaccine neophyte -- Pittsburgh's virgin territory -- Polio -- The chosen -- Ready to run -- Research sub rosa -- Out of his hands -- The world's largest clinical trial -- Relief from fear -- The Cutter affair -- Fame and its consequences -- Act II -- Two cultures under one roof -- The price of a masterpiece -- Seeking Shangri-La -- A troubled marriage -- Harnessing the immune system -- A most unusual arrangement -- Salk unfolding -- Fall from grace -- Final fling -- Marginalized -- The swine flu snafu -- Return to the polio vaccine controversy -- A Trojan horse -- Disciples, sycophants, and lovers -- AIDS: Salk's next mountain -- Unbowed
Summary "The first full biography of Jonas Salk offers a complete picture of the enigmatic figure, from his early years working on an influenza vaccine--for which he never fully got credit--to his seminal creation of the Polio vaccine, up through his later work to find a cure for AIDS"-- Provided by publisher
"When a waiting world learned on April 12, 1955, that Jonas Salk had successfully created a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis, he became a hero overnight. Born in a New York tenement, humble in manner, Salk had all the makings of a twentieth-century icon-a knight in a white coat. In the wake of his achievement, he received a staggering number of awards and honors; for years his name ranked with Gandhi and Churchill on lists of the most revered people. And yet the one group whose adulation he craved--the scientific community--remained ominously silent. "The worst tragedy that could have befallen me was my success," Salk later said. "I knew right away that I was through-cast out." In the first complete biography of Jonas Salk, Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs unravels Salk's story to reveal an unconventional scientist and a misunderstood and vulnerable man. Despite his incredible success in developing the polio vaccine, Salk was ostracized by his fellow scientists, who accused him of failing to give proper credit to other researchers and scorned his taste for media attention. Even before success catapulted him into the limelight, Salk was an inscrutable man disliked by many of his peers. Driven by an intense desire to aid mankind, he was initially oblivious and eventually resigned to the personal cost--as well as the costs suffered by his family and friends. And yet Salk remained, in the eyes of the public, an adored hero. Based on hundreds of personal interviews and unprecedented access to Salk's sealed archives, Jacobs' biography offers the most complete picture of this complicated figure. Salk's story has never been fully told; until now, his role in preventing polio has overshadowed his part in co-developing the first influenza vaccine, his effort to meld the sciences and humanities in the magnificent Salk Institute, and his pioneering work on AIDS. A vivid and intimate portrait, this will become the standard work on the remarkable life of Jonas Salk"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 515-525) and index
Notes English
Online resource; title from e-book title screen (EBL platform, viewed March 21, 2016)
Subject Salk, Jonas, 1914-1995.
SUBJECT Salk, Jonas, 1914-1995
Salk, Jonas, 1914-1995 fast
Subject Virologists -- United States -- Biography
Poliomyelitis -- United States -- History
Poliomyelitis -- Vaccination -- United States -- History
Poliomyelitis vaccine -- History
Influenza vaccines -- History
AIDS vaccines.
Virology.
Physicians.
Poliomyelitis -- prevention & control
Virology
Physicians
Vaccination -- history
History, 20th Century
AIDS Vaccines -- history
Influenza Vaccines -- history
Poliomyelitis -- history
Poliovirus Vaccines -- history
AIDS Vaccines
physicians.
MEDICAL -- Diseases.
SCIENCE -- History.
MEDICAL -- History.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Science & Technology.
SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Biology.
SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Microbiology.
Virology
Physicians
AIDS vaccines
Influenza vaccines
Poliomyelitis
Poliomyelitis -- Vaccination
Poliomyelitis vaccine
Virologists
SUBJECT United States
Subject United States
Genre/Form Biographies
History
Biographies.
Biographies.
Biographies.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2014040267
ISBN 9780199334421
0199334420
0199334439
9780199334438