Viking Wins Self-Published Stroke Memoir
by Matthew Thornton -- Publishers Weekly, 5/7/2008 7:27:00 AM
Viking president Clare Ferraro has just won world rights to Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight: A Brian Scientist’s Personal Journey in an auction conducted by Ellen Stiefler of Stiefler Law Group, and Viking is rushing the previously self-published book into print this month to capitalize on the author’s rapidly rising profile.
Taylor, recently named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, is a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine. In the book, which she published in 2006 through lulu.com, Taylor shares the insight she gained from experiencing and recovering from a massive stroke—and studying it as it happened. At 37, a blood vessel exploded in Taylor’s brain. As her mind deteriorated, she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, write or recall any of her life, but aided by her understanding of how the brain works (and an amazing mother) she was able to fight her way to complete recovery.
Taylor and her book will be featured on Oprah’s Soul Series radio show starting May 12; the talk show host has been discussing Taylor with Eckhart Tolle during his recent webinars for Oprah’s book club. A talk Taylor herself recently gave on her experience at a TED conference has become a popular video on YouTube.
Taylor is the national spokesperson for the mentally ill for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Brain Bank) and the consulting neuroanatomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. She is also an active member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
