Louis Pasteur

Patrice Debre heads the biological immunology laboratory at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris and directs a research unit associated with the French National Center for Scientific Research. He has also published a biographical study of the French Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod. Elborg Forster's translations for Johns Hopkins include Medieval Marriage by Georges Duby and Illness and Self in Society by Claudine Herzlich and Janine Pierret.

• ForewordPreface to the English-Language EditionPreface to the French EditionAcknowledgments1. My Father Is A Hero2. Crystals: A New Law3. The Philosopher's Stone4. The World of the Liquefied Forests5. Fermentation and Life6. Rue D'Ulm Revisited7. The So-Called Spontaneous Generations8. The Microscope and The Silkworm9. Industrial Pasteurization10. A Chemist Among the Doctors11. Anthrax in Sheep and Chickens12. Culture Broths13. From One Academy to Another14. The Wager of Pouilly-Le-Fort15. Rabies Must Be Defeated!16. The Capstone17. The Last Life SciencesChronologyNotesBibliographyIndex

Trained in physics and chemistry, beginning his career as a teacher of those subjects and a researcher in crystallography, Pasteur as a young man would not have seemed likely to make an international reputation in medical research. But he did, and Debre in this fine biography traces the steps in the transition and illuminates Pasteur's many achievements in the field. Scientific American Splendid. -- Alice M. Stewart Times Higher Education Supplement Writing in an engaging style, the author has created a balanced and detailed account of Pasteur's personal and professional life... Highly recommended. Library Journal (starred review) Originally published in France to commemorate the centennial of Pasteur's death and now deftly rendered in English, this masterful biography offers the most complete portrait yet of a multifaceted genius. Booklist Debre's biography contributes substantially to an understanding of the scientific, material, personal, and institutional circumstances of the major experimental discoveries commonly credited to Pasteur. -- Martha L. Hildreth Social History of Medicine A candid, detailed, and lively biography that demystifies this cult figure, showing him in front of his test tubes or at work in his dog kennel. L'Express A superior specimen of traditional narrative biography... Debre tells Pasteur's story with pace and flair. -- Roy Porter Times Literary Supplement