Author Guide · Science Writing
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In 1988, at sixteen, Rebecca Skloot sat in a community college biology class in Portland, Oregon, and heard her teacher mention HeLa: human cells that had kept dividing in laboratories since 1951, taken from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks who had died of cervical cancer at 31. Nobody in the class knew who she was. Skloot went on to study biology, work for more than a decade in veterinary medicine and become a science journalist, and she kept looking for the answer. It became her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, published by Crown in February 2010, which reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and became an HBO film with Oprah Winfrey in 2017. This guide covers her one book: what it is about and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 1 key book · 2010–2010 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Rebecca Skloot has written one book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010), about the woman behind the HeLa cell line and her family. It won the Wellcome Trust Book Prize and was filmed by HBO in 2017. Start there; she also co-edited The Best American Science Writing 2011 with her father, Floyd Skloot.
Where to Start with Rebecca Skloot
If you have never read her
→ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) — her only book, science and family history told side by side.
If you want the story behind modern cell research
→ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) — how HeLa cells were taken, grown and sold, and who never knew.
If you have seen the HBO film
→ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) — the book gives far more of the science and of the Lacks family.
Rebecca Skloot’s Book
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
In 1951 doctors at Johns Hopkins took a sample of Henrietta Lacks’s cervical tumour without her knowledge; her cells, HeLa, became the first human cells to keep growing in a laboratory and were used to test the polio vaccine and in decades of research. Skloot tells that history alongside the story of Lacks’s five children, especially her daughter Deborah, who learned about the cells years later and whose journal Skloot drew on. Crown published it on 2 February 2010; it reached No. 1 on the New York Times list (the paperback alone spent 75 weeks on it), was translated into 25 languages and also won the Heartland Prize and the National Academies Communication Award.
How to Read Rebecca Skloot
There is one book, and it moves between three stories: Henrietta Lacks’s life and death in the early 1950s, what scientists did with her cells over the following decades, and Skloot’s own years of reporting with the Lacks family, especially Deborah Lacks. Read it straight through; the threads only make full sense together.
After the book you can watch the HBO film (2017), written and directed by George C. Wolfe, with Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks and Rose Byrne as Skloot. The Best American Science Writing 2011, which Skloot co-edited with her father, shows the kind of science journalism she admires.
A reading path
1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010)
2. The HBO film (2017)
3. The Best American Science Writing 2011
Everything Else Rebecca Skloot Published
Beyond the 1 key book: 1 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Anthology and journalism
1
1 book · 2011
- 2011The Best American Science Writing 2011anthology co-edited with her father, the writer Floyd Skloot
The years · 1972–2017
Quick facts about Rebecca Skloot
- Known for
- Telling the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and became the HeLa line, and of the family who learned about it decades later.
- 1972
- Born in Springfield, Illinois
- 1988
- First hears of Henrietta Lacks, aged 16
- 2017
- HBO film with Oprah Winfrey
- Born
- 19 September 1972, Springfield, Illinois; grew up partly in Portland, Oregon
- Family
- Daughter of the poet and essayist Floyd Skloot and the knitwear designer Betsy McCarthy
- Education
- BS in biological sciences, Colorado State University; MFA in creative nonfiction, University of Pittsburgh
- Worked
- Science journalist (more than 200 features and essays); correspondent for Radiolab and PBS NOVA scienceNOW; taught at Pittsburgh, NYU and the University of Memphis
- Founded
- The Henrietta Lacks Foundation (2010), which gives grants to families of people used in research without their consent
- Recognition
- Wellcome Trust Book Prize, Heartland Prize and National Academies Communication Award for her book
The red mark is 2010: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, her first and so far only book.
How Rebecca Skloot Writes: Science and the People It Used
Skloot trained as a scientist before she became a writer: a degree in biological sciences, more than a decade working in veterinary medicine, then an MFA in creative nonfiction. The book shows both. She explains cell culture, contamination and patents in plain terms, but keeps them tied to people: the doctors at Johns Hopkins, the researchers who grew the cells, and the family who were never told.
She writes herself into the story. Much of the book is the record of her years of reporting with the Lacks family, especially Deborah Lacks, including the mistrust she had to overcome and the trips they made together to look for what had happened to Henrietta and her daughter Elsie. That gives the book its structure: three timelines that move toward each other, the 1950s, the decades of research, and the reporting itself.
The book also raises questions it does not fully settle: consent, who profits from human tissue, and who tells a family’s story. Skloot set up the Henrietta Lacks Foundation in 2010 and gave part of the book’s proceeds to it. For writers who work the same ground between science and people, see Authors like Rebecca Skloot.
Watch
Rebecca Skloot on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Skloot gives DePauw University’s Ubben Lecture in September 2010 on the Lacks family, consent and ownership of human tissue, and how to write about science for everyone.
Frequently asked questions about Rebecca Skloot’s books
How many books has Rebecca Skloot written?
One: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010). She also co-edited the anthology The Best American Science Writing 2011 with her father, Floyd Skloot, and has published more than 200 features and essays.
How many books has Rebecca Skloot written?
There is one book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010), followed by the anthology she co-edited, The Best American Science Writing 2011. A second book, on humans, animals and the ethics of animal research, has been under contract since 2011 under the working title The Human Animal Bond.
Where should I start with Rebecca Skloot?
With The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, her only book. Watch the 2017 HBO film afterwards rather than instead.
What is Rebecca Skloot’s most famous book?
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010). It reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, was translated into 25 languages and won the Wellcome Trust Book Prize.
What is Rebecca Skloot known for?
For telling the story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells became the HeLa line, and of her family, in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Before that she was a science and medicine journalist for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine and Discover.
Is there a film of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?
Yes. HBO aired the film on 22 April 2017. George C. Wolfe wrote and directed it; Oprah Winfrey played Deborah Lacks and Rose Byrne played Skloot. It was nominated for an Emmy.
What happened to Henrietta Lacks?
She died of cervical cancer on 4 October 1951, aged 31. Months before, doctors at Johns Hopkins had taken a sample of her tumour without her knowledge; the cells kept dividing in the lab and, as HeLa, were used in research around the world.
Did the Lacks family criticise the book?
Some members did. In 2017 Henrietta’s eldest son, Lawrence Lacks, and his son Ron publicly criticised the book and the HBO film, and later said their main concern was the book’s accuracy. Skloot and her publisher stood by the book; HBO said it had worked with five other family members as paid consultants. Separately, in 2015 a parent in Knox County, Tennessee, asked for the book to be removed from schools.
What is the Henrietta Lacks Foundation?
A charity Skloot founded in January 2010, funded in part by proceeds from the book. It gives grants for education and medical care to people, including Lacks family members, whose relatives were used in research without their knowledge or consent.
Is Rebecca Skloot related to Floyd Skloot?
Yes. Floyd Skloot, the poet, novelist and essayist, is her father. Together they edited The Best American Science Writing 2011.
Is Rebecca Skloot still alive?
Yes. She was born on 19 September 1972 in Springfield, Illinois.
What should I read after The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?
Writers who mix science and human stories, such as Deborah Blum and Siddhartha Mukherjee. See Authors like Rebecca Skloot for ten suggestions.
Footnotes
- Rebecca Skloot — Wikipedia
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — Wikipedia
- About Rebecca — rebeccaskloot.com
- FAQ — The Henrietta Lacks Foundation
- Henrietta Lacks film review — NPR, 2017
- Excerpt: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — BookBrowse
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“There’s a photo on my wall of a woman I’ve never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape.”
— Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010), the first line of the prologue
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