The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.… (more)

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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (kidzdoc)
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The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (bunnygirl)
bunnygirl: personal history and stories linked with the larger African American history. if you were wondering about Skloot's reference to the Lacks family being part of the Great Migration, this book explains exactly what it is and tells the stories of three families in a similar manner.… (more)
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VenusofUrbino: If you like well-researched and well-written non-fiction like "Immortal Life" then you will also appreciate Mary Roach.
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A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines (krazy4katz)
krazy4katz: Reading "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," I was pained by the impoverished lives of people who still lived on plantations in the 1940s - lack of schooling, lack of health care, lack of any kind of decent housing etc. "A Lesson Before Dying" more directly addresses the life of people still living on plantations in the '40s. Even though I sort of knew this, it was an emotional shock to truly recognize that all the abuse and oppression did not end with the Civil War but was still there 80 years later.… (more)
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krazy4katz: Both of these books capture and humanize the process of medical discovery and the experiences of the patients. Although the authors have somewhat different backgrounds — Rebecca Skloot is a journalist with an undergraduate degree in biology, whereas Rikki Lewis has a PhD in genetics — I think the discussion of the scientific issues and the ethical issues regarding informed consent would appeal to the same readers.… (more)
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BookshelfMonstrosity: Cell cultures are being used to study diseases as well as cure them. Learn about the cell cultures called 'HeLa' in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and read about cell cultures' utility as a whole in Life Itself.
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The Green Dragon : Book Discussion: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ~ SPOILER FREE~	66 unread / 66	krazy4katz, August 2013
The Green Dragon : Book Discussion: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks CAUTION ~ Contains SPOILERS ~	26 unread / 26	sandragon, May 2011

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▾Member reviews

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Showing 1-5 of 649 (next | show all)

Brilliantly paced, alternating between the past and the future, this book is engaging. The author manages to elegantly express a nexus of intricate topics including history, race-relations, medicine, and ethics. The author's first person narrative of researching these topics also makes for an interesting tale. At worst, this is mildly indulgent, but at best it adds a narrative, excitement, and humanity to the book, so clearly the benefit outweighs the negatives.

This book is worthy of reading for anyone who has even tangentially benefited from HeLa cells. Given their impact, that could be virtually anyone on the planet. (

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loaff | May 29, 2020 |

Great book. Phenomenal book actually. Very good read. (

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cgfaulknerog | May 28, 2020 |

An incredibly powerful and emotional read

If you have ever wondered about the history behind the creation of vaccines, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a good starting point. It's a powerful read and a reminder that the life we have now was only possible because of the sacrifices of others.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is also a reminder that racism is not as dead as we like to think. This entire story spanned over just fifty years or so. And we're still seeing a lot of bias in the medical field. (

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Booksunknown23 | May 18, 2020 |

Superb. Has it all: human interest, sympathy for hardship, page-turning story, clear and fascinating scientific explanation. Even elements of mystery: why this one woman's cells? why this extreme blanking out of Henrietta and her family? one more mystery: why has Skloot not published another book? (

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vguy | May 14, 2020 |

A great biography. I don't even think that it was so much Henrietta Lacks' story that made this such a great book. I was intrigued by how much all of science could be changed by one person's cells. On top of that, I was appalled by the different scientific experiments that have been conducted over the years. It was like reading synopses of horror stories. I think, though, that the driving force in this book was the stories of Henrietta's children. I felt for them and felt their pain in the loss of their mother and not understanding the things they were reading about cells and the injustice of their situation. (

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melrailey | Apr 7, 2020 |

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Showing 1-5 of 649 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

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Skloot narrates the science lucidly, tracks the racial politics of medicine thoughtfully and tells the Lacks family’s often painful history with grace. She also confronts the spookiness of the cells themselves, intrepidly crossing into the spiritual plane on which the family has come to understand their mother’s continued presence in the world. Science writing is often just about “the facts.” Skloot’s book, her first, is far deeper, braver and more wonderful.

added by Shortride | editThe New York Times Book Review, Lisa Margonelli (Feb 7, 2010)

I put down Rebecca Skloot’s first book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” more than once. Ten times, probably. Once to poke the fire. Once to silence a pinging BlackBerry. And eight times to chase my wife and assorted visitors around the house, to tell them I was holding one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time.

added by jlelliott | editThe New York Times, Dwight Garner (Feb 2, 2010)

Writing with a novelist's artistry, a biologist's expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Skloot tells a truly astonishing story of racism and poverty, science and conscience, spirituality and family, all driven by a galvanizing inquiry into the sanctity of the body and the very nature of the life force.

added by sduff222 | editBooklist, Donna Seaman (Dec 1, 2009)

Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in a “colored” hospital ward in Baltimore in 1951. She would have gone forever unnoticed by the outside world if not for the dime-sized slice of her tumor sent to a lab for research eight months earlier. ...
Skloot, a science writer, has been fascinated with Lacks since she first took a biology class at age 16. As she went on to earn a degree in the subject, she yearned to know more about the woman, anonymous for years, who was responsible for those ubiquitous cells....

added by RBeffa | editBloomberg News, Robin D. Schatz

Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people.

added by Shortride | editPublishers Weekly

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▾Other authors

» Add other authors (9 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Rebecca Skloot	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Campbell, Cassandra	Narrator	main author	some editions	confirmed
Turpin, Bahni	Narrator	main author	some editions	confirmed
Acedo, Sara R.	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Grip, Göran	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Townsend, Manda	Photographer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Has as a reference guide/companion

A Guide to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot by Liss Ross

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Original title

Information from the Italian Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Richard Wesley TeLinde

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Important places

Clover, Virginia, USA

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Maryland, USA

Virginia, USA

(show all 8 items)

Important events

Awards and honors

New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction, 2010)

Wellcome Trust Book Prize (2010)

Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Best Books: 2010

New York Times Notable Book of the Year (Nonfiction, 2010)

Salon Book Award (Nonfiction, 2010)

(show all 20 items)

Epigraph

We must not see any person as an abstraction.
Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets,
with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish,
and with some measure of triumph.

----Elie Wiesel
from The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code

Dedication

For my family:

My parents, Betsy and Floyd; their spouses, Terry and Beverly;
my brother and sister-in-law, Matt and Renee;
and my wonderful nephews, Nick and Justin.
They all did without me for far too long because of this book,
but never stopped believing in it, or me.

And in loving memory of my grandfather,
James Robert Lee (1912-2003),
who treasured books more than anyone I've known.

First words

On January 29, 1951, David Lacks sat behind the wheel of his old Buick, watching the rain fall.

Quotations

...But I always have thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can't afford to see no doctors? Don't make no sense. People got rich off my mother without us even knowin about them takin her cells, now we don't get a dime. I used to get so mad about that to where it made me sick and I had to take pills. But I don't got it in me no more to fight. I just want to know who my mother was.
----Deborah Lacks

When I tell people the story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells, the first question is usually Wasn't it illegal for doctors to take Henrietta's cells without her knowledge? Don't doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in research? The answer is no--not in 1951, and not in 2009, when this book went to press.

Last words

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