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| Volume 47, Number 1, Spring 1999 |
Blood: An Epic History of Medicine
and Commerce by NASW member Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf,
1998) has won the 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, in the science
and technology category. The book is a comprehensive history and
analysis of blood banks, transfusions, and research...[that] begins
with the first documented transfusions in France to the latest
efforts toward creating artificial blood.
Starr is a professor in the Boston University College of Communication and is co-director of the school's Science Journalism Program. Previously he's written for national magazines, newspapers and public television. Blood is Starr's first book. It involved research in eight foreign countries and took six years to write.
Blood has been optioned by
New York public television station WNET-TV for a major documentary
series and has been named to the "Best Books of 1998"
lists of Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal.
The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have been presented annually since 1980. Prizes are awarded in eight categories. Each winner receives a citation and a $1000 cash award. (Source: publisher and L.A. Times news release.)
NOTE: A finalist in the science and technology book category
was Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human
Mind, co-authored by NASW member Sandra Blakeslee.