Judith L. Pearson – författare

“A searing tribute . . . [to] America in its bleakest hour” (Sen. John McCain, New York Times–bestselling author of Faith of My Fathers).   On December 13, 1944, POW Estel Myers was herded aboard the Japanese prison ship, the Oryoku Maru, with more than sixteen hundred other American captives. More than eleven hundred of them would be dead by journey’s end . . .   The son of a Kentucky sharecropper and an enlistee in the navy’s medical corps, Myers arrived in Manila shortly before the bombings of Pearl Harbor and the other six targets of the Imperial Japanese military. While he and his fellow corpsmen tended to the bloody tide of soldiers pouring into their once peaceful naval hospital, the Japanese overwhelmed the Pacific islands, capturing seventy-eight thousand POWs by April 1942. Myers was one of the first captured.   After a brutal three-year encampment, Myers and his fellow POWs were forced onto an enemy hell ship bound for Japan. Suffocation, malnutrition, disease, dehydration, infestation, madness, and complete despair claimed the lives of nearly three quarters of those who boarded “the beast.”   Myers survived.   A compelling account of a rarely recorded event in military history, this is more than Myers’s true story—this is an homage to the unfailing courage of men at war, an inspiring chronicle of self-sacrifice and endurance, and a tribute to the power of faith, the strength of the soul, and the triumph of the human spirit.   “An inspiring look at one of World War II’s darkest hours.” —James Bradley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Flags of our Fathers and Flyboys   “A searing chronicle.” —Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the 2023 Florida Book Award Bronze MedalFor fans of Women in White Coats and The Woman They Could Not Silence comes the never-before-told story of a woman who moved mountains for medical research and human health“Lasker, very often the only woman in the room, comes to life--her smarts, power, money, discipline and work ethic producing some of the most important achievements in funding for medical research of the 20th century.” —Julia Sweig, New York Times bestselling author of Lady Bird JohnsonMary Woodard Lasker had a singular goal: saving lives by increasing medical research. Together with her husband, advertising genius  Albert, they created the Lasker Foundation, bestowing the Lasker Awards. Known as the  “American Nobels,” these became the most prestigious research awards in America. The Laskers’ next step was transforming the sleepy  and ineffectual American Society for the Control of Cancer, reinventing it as the American Cancer Society in 1944. But the real increase in medical research funding occurred when Mary discovered a  revolutionary source: the federal government. “I’m just a catalytic agent,” she would insist, while she tirelessly lobbied Congress and presidents  alike. She played a major role in expanding  the National Institutes of Health from a single entity to the largest research facility in the world. A feminist who used her femininity wisely, Mary’s ultimate victory was bringing together two political adversaries to help launch the original cancer moonshot: the 1971 National Cancer Act. This deeply researched biography paints the portrait of a woman who was savvy, steely, and deliberate. Mary Lasker courageously positioned  herself at the crossroads of politics, science, and medicine. At a time when women in research laboratories and the halls of Congress were anomalies, she smashed stereotypes in the fashion of Jeannette Rankin, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Shirley Chisholm. As eloquently described in this absorbing history, the country’s march to conquer humanity’s most feared maladies was well-fueled by its fearless and feisty crusader, Mary Lasker.

Winner of the 2023 Florida Book Award Bronze MedalFor fans of Women in White Coats and The Woman They Could Not Silence comes the never-before-told story of a woman who moved mountains for medical research and human health“Lasker, very often the only woman in the room, comes to life--her smarts, power, money, discipline and work ethic producing some of the most important achievements in funding for medical research of the 20th century.” —Julia Sweig, New York Times bestselling author of Lady Bird JohnsonMary Woodard Lasker had a singular goal: saving lives by increasing medical research. Together with her husband, advertising genius  Albert, they created the Lasker Foundation, bestowing the Lasker Awards. Known as the  “American Nobels,” these became the most prestigious research awards in America. The Laskers’ next step was transforming the sleepy  and ineffectual American Society for the Control of Cancer, reinventing it as the American Cancer Society in 1944.  But the real increase in medical research funding occurred when Mary discovered a  revolutionary source: the federal government. “I’m just a catalytic agent,” she would insist, while she tirelessly lobbied Congress and presidents  alike. She played a major role in expanding  the National Institutes of Health from a single entity to the largest research facility in the world. A feminist who used her femininity wisely, Mary’s ultimate victory was bringing together two political adversaries to help launch the original cancer moonshot: the 1971 National Cancer Act.  This deeply researched biography paints the portrait of a woman who was savvy, steely, and deliberate. Mary Lasker courageously positioned  herself at the crossroads of politics, science, and medicine. At a time when women in research laboratories and the halls of Congress were anomalies, she smashed stereotypes in the fashion of Jeannette Rankin, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Shirley Chisholm. As eloquently described in this absorbing history, the country’s march to conquer humanity’s most feared maladies was well-fueled by its fearless and feisty crusader, Mary Lasker.