Polio was as dreaded as the atomic bomb in America of the 1940s and early-‘50s, with many who managed to survive the disease continuing to face lifelong crippling consequences. The best scientific minds in the world were engaged in the race to find a vaccine.
We all know of Dr. Jonas Salk, but his pioneering work would not have happened without the brilliance and tenacity of “the woman with the cure.”
The Woman with the Cure, by Atlanta-based author Lynn Cullen, is a historical novel about Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, who was not focused on beating her colleagues to the vaccine; she just wanted the world to have a cure.
Horstmann applied the same determination that lifted her from a humble background as the daughter of immigrants to become a doctor, often the only woman in the room.
She was the first woman appointed as a Yale School of Medicine professor, but her most notable contribution to medical science was her demonstration that proved the polio virus reached the central nervous system via the bloodstream. This upended conventional wisdom and paved the way for a polio vaccine.
Cullen’s book opens in Nashville in 1941 when Horstmann arrives at Vanderbilt University as a new resident, surprising the chief of medicine. On paper, her credentials read only D.M. Horstmann, a product of Dorothy knowing she was working in a “man’s profession” and needed to do all she could to downplay her gender.
The chief of medicine was not happy about Dorothy being a woman; however, she did not care.
With a quick wit, she signaled she was there to stay. Still, blending in was challenging for her at 6-foot-1, making her tower over most men, but she was determined to stand her ground.
“Everyone knows Sabin and Salk created the polio vaccine,” wrote The New York Times' bestselling author Bonnie Garmus, who was also the author of Lessons in Chemistry. “But without the work of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, there never would have been a vaccine in the first place.”
Cullen is the bestselling author of historical novels The Sisters of Summit Avenue, Twain’s End, Mrs. Poe, Reign of Madness, and I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter. Her novel, Mrs. Poe, was named a People Magazine Book of the Week and an Oprah Book of the Week, and Atlanta Magazine named it one of the Best Books of 2013.
Twain’s End was also a Townsend Prize finalist and named a “Book All Georgians Should Read” by the Georgia Center for the Book.
Cullen’s novels have been translated into 17 languages, and she has appeared on the PBS show American Masters.
Cullen will be GWM’s Meet the Author presenter on July 16 at The Plaza Arts Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for a 7 p.m. start. Tickets are $40 each and are available online now at georgiawritersmuseum.org.
You can also pre-order a copy of Cullen’s book for delivery and signing at the event.