Although a number of friends, including writers, have suggested to me since I started my blog that I should "write something," or at least rework the material in my blog into a book, I wondered if they weren't simply being kind about my writing, given my circumstances. Moreover, I doubted that I would have time to start a new book from scratch, and I couldn't be confident that I would have enough energy or time even to rework the material in the blog into book form. Not until Matthew, an oft-published author and editor, and a trusted friend of mine for decades, proposed to me a month or so ago that he and his team go to work with me on such a project did I stop dithering.
Matthew presented to me a solution that would ensure the production of a ready-to-print manuscript even if I could no longer work on it before it was finished. Matthew keeps reminding us that "Every day counts," and we have made substantial progress. With the agreement with CSHLP in place and a literary executor, Al Perry, designated in my will, I am now confident that the book will not only go forward, but also be limited in its quality only by my writing and thinking.
Although Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is especially well known for its basic research in cancer, I was both surprised and humbly grateful for CSHLP's interest in this project, as this prestigious university press is known primarily for its science books. While I was aware that CSHLP publishes some non-technical books as well, such as a recent biography of Francis Crick by Robert Olby, I did not think that anything written by or about a person of no historic significance like me would be a fit for CSHLP.
Because I have so little remaining time, I never presented the blog-to-book idea to agents or publishers. CSHL became aware of my interest in producing a book through a conversation that I had with a friend, Dill Ayres, the head of administration of CSHL, about some nascent ideas that I have regarding how I, or my estate, might utilize such a book in conjunction with fundraising for cancer research. Dill asked if he could tell John Inglis, the Executive Director and Publisher of CSHLP, about my interest in producing a book. To John's credit, negotiations proceeded swiftly thereafter.
The book will be published this fall in hard cover: some 70,000 words printed on about 200 pages, with black-and-white photographs integrated into the text. Any author's profits will be donated by my estate, as directed by Susan, to cancer research. The overarching motif of the book is captured by Viktor Frankl's observation that ..."Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
