Splendid Solution - by Jeffrey Kluger (Paperback)

About the Book

Chronicling Dr. Jonas Salk's race against time and a growing polio epidemic that reached 57,000 cases in the summer of 1952, this biography brings to life the medical breakthrough that made Salk a cultural hero and icon.

Book Synopsis

The compelling true story of Dr. Jonas Salk's quest to develop a vaccine for polio.

In 1916, the United States was hit with one of the worst polio epidemics in history. The disease was a terrifying enigma: striking out of nowhere, it afflicted tens of thousands of children and left them--literally overnight--paralyzed. Others it simply killed. At the same time, a child named Jonas Salk was born....

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio shortly before assuming the Presidency, Salk was given an impetus to study this deadly illness. After assisting in the creation of an influenza vaccine, Salk took up the challenge. His progress in combating the virus was hindered by the politics of medicine and by a rival researcher determined to discredit his proposed solution. But Salk's perseverance made history--and for close to seventy years his vaccine has saved countless lives, bringing humanity close to eradicating polio throughout the world.

Splendid Solution chronicles Dr. Salk's race against time to achieve an unparalleled breakthrough that made him a cultural hero and icon of modern medicine.

Review Quotes

Praise for Splendid Solution

"Gripping...colorful and fast-paced...brings Salk to life."--The New York Times Book Review

"Provides [a] shot of adrenaline in retelling [the] polio vaccine race...To tell this tale, Jeffrey Kluger has pulled intricate scientific concepts from remote lab shelves and has shone a readable, engaging light on them. Splendid Solution is meticulously reported and gracefully told, with medical, social, and political factors made equal parts of a very large equation."--The Boston Globe

"Tense and gripping...Tells how polio was beaten fifty years ago in one of the triumphs of modern medicine."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author

Jeffrey Kluger is Editor at Large for TIME magazine and the author of twelve books, including The Narcissist Next Door, Splendid Solution, Apollo 13, Apollo 8 and the novel Holdout. He has written more than 40 cover stories for TIME on topics ranging from space to human behavior to climate to medicine. Along with others at TIME, Kluger is an Emmy nominee for the web series A Year in Space.