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Simon & Schuster signs Schama’s ‘epic’ human history of contagion
Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations by Simon Schama has been signed by Simon & Schuster.
Ian Chapman, c.e.o. and publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Caroline Michel for publication in hardback on 25th May. Suzanne Baboneau, managing director, is handling with Kat Ailes, desk editor.
The synopsis reads: “Cities and countries engulfed by panic and death, desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring. This is what the world has just gone through with Covid-19. But as Simon Schama shows in his epic history of vulnerable humanity caught between the terror of contagion and the ingenuity of science, it has happened before.
“Characteristically, with Schama the message is delivered through gripping, page-turning stories set in the 18th and 19th centuries: cities and countries engulfed by panic and death, desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring.
“At the heart of it all, an unsung hero: Waldemar Haffkine. A gun-toting Jewish student in Odessa turned microbiologist at the Pasteur Institute, hailed in England as ‘the saviour of mankind’ for vaccinating millions against cholera and bubonic plague in British India while being cold-shouldered by the medical establishment of the Raj. Creator of the world’s first mass production line of vaccines in Mumbai, he is tragically brought down in an act of shocking injustice.
"Foreign Bodies crosses borders between east and west, Asia and Europe, the worlds of rich and poor, politics and science. Its thrilling story carries with it the credo of its author on the interconnectedness of humanity and nature; of the powerful and the people. Ultimately, Schama says, as we face the challenges of our times together, ‘there are no foreigners, only familiars’.”
Schama is a professor of art history and history at Columbia University and is the author of numerous award-winning books including The History of the Jews (The Bodley Head) and Rough Crossings (Vintage), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction. He is a cultural essayist for the New Yorker and has written and presented more than 30 documentaries for the BBC, PBS, and the History Channel, including "The Power of Art", which won the 2007 International Emmy for Best Arts Programming.
Chapman said: “No one is better placed than Simon Schama to tell the monumental story of human endeavour that is Foreign Bodies. With his characteristic flair and inimitable insight, he takes us on a fascinating journey, bringing to our attention those formidable individuals to whom we owe so much. We are immensely proud to be publishing this truly remarkable and timely book.”
