my Book -- "All Life is family : this Manhattan Project was from Venus"

 This non-fiction  BOOK (still in manuscript) is about an event that a recent survey of WOMEN voted as "the most important news story of the 20th century".

 It is the story of the 'other' Manhattan Project. One as small and inclusive as the famous one was big and secretive.

 Centered on life-sustaining penicillin as opposed to the death-dealing Bomb, it nevertheless helped end the war. Not with a horrific bang, but with a hopeful whimper --- from a contented newborn.

 Ramzi Yousef bombed the WORLD TRADE CENTER he says to 'repay those killed by the biggest Manhattan Project' . Would he - and his much more deadly successors - have done so if they had known of the good done by "The smallest Manhattan Project" ?

I have spent years researching and writing this story because I find it a very rare moral 'Good News Story' from WWII's decidedly Bad News War.

This page will eventually become a Table of Contents (a TOC in publisher-speak).

It will  give access to all the chapters of the manuscript to (a) reader-experts critiquing various chapters as they are being written and re-written  (b) to potential agents and publishers evaluating it for possible publication .


The chapters will be ordered chronologically, to follow the course of the original factual events recounted in the book  , from the Fall of 1940 to the Spring of 1946.

But they will be initially written and posted in no particular chronological order, depending on how my muse moves me.

They will be in very rough draft form initially and subject to extensive changes.

Each chapter will focus primarily on the activities of one particular group on  particular period in one particular location.

For example one chapter will look at some  events at New York's Columbia Presbyterian hospital on May 1940 , followed by a chapter looked at related events taking place at Oxford's Dunn Institute for Pathology on  June 1940, etc.

My wish - my dream - is that each blog post cum short chapter can stand somewhat alone as a rounded little story, while also adding to the narrative push of the entire three part book .

(Part I : from the beginning of September 1940 to the end of December 1941, I have entitled as "The Exalting of The Small".

Part II, from the beginning of January 1942 till August 11th 1943, I call it "The Betrayal of the Small".

Part III, from August 12 1943 till mid March 1946", I will call "The Triumph of the Small".)

If I feel, upon reflection, that I need add some additional events and locales, I will insert them where they are appropriate in the chronological sequence - so say perhaps adding a chapter focused  upon events at the editorial offices of America's leading mental health journal on in late May 1940.

Initially most chapters will be but a brief precis and working title, more something to remind myself as to what goes where and when.

This work of narrative non-fiction is about an event that a recent survey of WOMEN readers voted as "the most important news story of the 20th century".

Interestingly, men readers in the same survey did not agree with that assessment, but choose to focus on the biggest Manhattan Project instead -- as have all publishers to date.

It is not as if Groves-Oppenheimer project did not truly reflect one facet of Manhattan's personality - today's Manhattan still has its "masters of the universe" after all.

But Manhattan is Janus-like.

So this book is about that 'other' Manhattan and the 'other' Manhattan Project : one a lot less Gordon Gekko and a lot more Emma Lazarus.

One that was as small, inclusive and humane as the famous one was big, secretive and inhumane.

 Centered on life-sustaining penicillin, as opposed to the death-dealing Bomb, it nevertheless helped end the war. Not with a horrific bang, but with a hopeful whimper --- from a contented newborn.

 In 1993, Ramzi Yousef bombed the WORLD TRADE CENTER,  he says he did so to 'repay those killed by the biggest Manhattan Project' .

I started on this book,  because I wondered would he - and his much more deadly successors - have done so if they had known of the great good done by "The very smallest Manhattan Project" ?

How the lives of Billions have been bettered ?

I have enjoyed the years researching, thinking about and writing this story because I find it a very rare 'Good News Story' from WWII's decidedly Bad News War.

Subtitle ?


 Not on the book jacket. Possibly somewhere in the metadata I will deposit a suitably academic-sounding subtitle along the lines of ----

 " The smallest Manhattan Project : Battling the unfair rationing of a costly lifesaver " 

so as to get reviews in bioethics journals and the like.

But I really think that the doctors and scientists and professionals and experts and academics and bureaucrats should read it in their own downtime, just like the public does - because it is a propulsive page turner.

************

This page on the blog will eventually become the book manuscripts's Table of Contents (aTOC in publisher-speak).

It will give ready access to all the chapters of the manuscript to (a) reader-experts critiquing various chapters as they are being written and re-written and  (b) to potential agents and publishers evaluating it for possible publication .

The chapters will generally be ordered chronologically, to follow the course of the original factual events recounted in the book , from the Fall of 1940 to the Fall of 1944.

But they will be initially written and posted in no particular chronological order, depending on how my muse moves me.

They will be in very rough draft form initially and subject to extensive changes.

Each chapter will focus primarily on the activities of one particular group on  particular period in one particular location.

For example one chapter will look at some  events at New York's Columbia Presbyterian hospital on May 1940 , followed by a chapter looked at related events taking place at Oxford's Dunn Institute for Pathology on  June 1940, etc.

My wish - my dream - is that each blog post cum short chapter can stand somewhat alone as a rounded little story, while also adding to the narrative push of the entire four part book .

Part I : from the beginning of September 1940 to the end of September 1941, I have entitled as "The Exalting of The Small".

Part II, from the beginning of October 1941 till the end of October 1942, I call it "The Betrayal of the Small".

Part III, from the beginning of November 1942 until the end of  November 1943 , I will call "The Arousing of the Small".

Part IV, from the beginning of December 1943 till the end of December 1944, will be "The Triumph of the Small".

If I feel, upon reflection, that I need add some additional events and locales, I will insert them where they are appropriate in the chronological sequence - so say perhaps adding a chapter focused  upon events at the editorial offices of America's leading mental health journal on in late May 1940.

Initially most chapters will be but a brief precis and working title, more something to remind myself as to what goes where and when.

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