In July 1922, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Evans Hughes lay near death. At slightly under five feet tall, she weighed only forty-five pounds, half the normal weight for a girl her height. She was emaciated, and her abdomen and pelvic bones were protruding. Her skin was dry and scaly her hair thin, and her muscles wasted. She felt so weak, she could barely stand up, and walking was difficult. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Elizabeth Hughes's is a small story, filled with the optimism of a 14-year-old with unbounded dreams. But there was nothing small about the discovery of insulin and the trials in August 1922 that saved Hughes and revolutionized the treatment of diabetes: patients "in a wretched, depleted state... brought back from imminent death" in what one researcher called "near resurrections." Hughes lucked out: her father, Charles, as governor of New York and a GOP heavyweight, was able to get her into the original trial. Alternating the teen's painful, isolated childhood with the struggle of researchers hoping to save patients diagnosed with a then fatal disease, Cox (a historian at the University of the Pacific) weaves a compelling tale of commitment and discovery. Elizabeth "always had confidence in her future," Cox writes, even as she withered away on a near-starvation diet-the only known treatment before insulin. Her saviors-including 1923 Nobel Prize winners Frederick Banting and John Macleod-ultimately reaped "fame, glory and prizes," but found it tempered by bitterness and divisions within the team. Here is both a remarkable medical history and an inspiring lesson in hope. (Nov.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Cox (history, Univ. of the Pacific) interweaves the stories of Elizabeth Hughes, the diabetic daughter of secretary of state and later Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes, and the early treatments of diabetes with the events and personalities that led to insulin's discovery. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of aristocratic life in the early 20th century, which did not spare the ill from the starvation diets used to treat diabetes prior to insulin. In this engaging account of the discovery of insulin, Cox honestly describes the mixture of service and ego that led to the breakthrough. Elizabeth's recovery story reminds readers that medical discoveries can powerfully transform lives and of the resiliency of young adults in the face of disease. VERDICT Despite its uneven quality, the book has moments of analytic clarity and moving portrayal reminiscent of other books that combine biography and medicine, such as Jay Neugeboren's Imagining Robert and Jane Taylor McDonnell's News from the Border.-Aaron Klink, Duke Univ., Durham, NC Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Prologue	p. ix
1 The Dread Diabetes	p. 1
2 A Good, Obedient Daughter	p. 23
3 A Long Time to Be Away	p. 51
4 Showing Traces All the Time	p. 77
5 How I Do Love Writing	p. 99
6 Oh How I Dote on Reading	p. 127
7 Born Under a Lucky Star	p. 151
8 The Shot Heard Round the World	p. 175
9 I Have Nothing to Complain Of	p. 201
About This Book	p. 231
Bibliography	p. 235
Index	p. 245

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