A Summer Plague: Polio and Its Survivors

Part autobiography, part social, medical and historical overview, this anecdotal accounting of the polio epidemic makes its special mark from the British author, Tony Gould. From the early outbreaks of 1916 New York, to the 1959 British awakening to the importance of polio prevention, this story focuses on the high-profile people in the war on polio: President Franklin Roosevelt and Basil O'Connor, champions of the Infantile Paralysis Foundation; Sister Kenney's unorthodox physical therapies; rival vaccine scientists Salk and Sabin; and John Enders, a pioneer virologist (and one of three Nobel prizewinners) who made the crucial breakthrough in the laboratory. The book includes personal accounts of British and American paralytic polio survivors, including the author himself.