Lynn Cullen: On the Hidden Female Figures in Scientific History
Author Lynn Cullen discusses uncovering history’s forgotten female scientists to help write her new historical fiction novel, The Woman With the Cure.
Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and is the bestselling author of The Sisters of Summit Avenue, Twain’s End, and Mrs. Poe, which was named an NPR 2013 Great Read and an Indie Next List selection. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their dog, and two unscrupulous cats. Find her on Facebook and Instagram.
In this post, Lynn discusses uncovering history’s forgotten female scientists to help write her new historical fiction novel, The Woman With the Cure, her advice for writers, and more!
Name: Lynn Cullen
Literary agent: Margaret Sutherland Brown, Folio Literary Management
Book title: The Woman With the Cure
Publisher: Berkley Books/Penguin Group
Release date: February 21, 2023
Genre/category: Historical Fiction
Previous titles: Mrs. Poe, The Sisters of Summit Avenue, Twain’s End, Reign of Madness, The Creation of Eve, I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter
Elevator pitch for the book: Applying the same determination that lifted her from a humble background as the daughter of immigrants to becoming a doctor—often the only woman in the room in 1940s and 50s medical research—Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, hunts down polio where it lurks: in the blood. Based on a true story, The Woman With the Cure brings to light a courageous but forgotten scientist who changed the world.
What prompted you to write this book?
Our own COVID-19 pandemic didn’t prompt me to write this book about the polio pandemic that raged for 40 years during the 20th century, surprisingly enough. Although scientists in Wuhan, China announced to the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019, that a novel respiratory virus was afoot, I had no idea of this when I first laid hands on the keyboard to begin my book that very day.
I’d been thinking for years about writing a story about the race between Drs. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to find a vaccine for the poliovirus that was killing thousands of children and young adults every summer, but I couldn’t get started. I wanted to tell the story from a woman’s point of view, and I couldn’t find my heroine. Women in science in the 1950s are truly hidden figures.
Once I found Dorothy Horstmann, though, I was on fire. Here was a woman who, while her male colleagues obsessed about making names for themselves, busied herself with figuring out how polio worked in order to beat it, personal credit be damned. It’s exciting to think that The Woman With the Cure might finally bring her the recognition she deserves.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
The kernel for The Woman With the Cure came to me in 2015, while on my Friday walks with Sabin biographer, Karen Torghele, who was then working as an oral historian for the Centers for Disease Control. It was Karen, with her eye-popping tales of pioneering scientists, who whetted my interest in the race for the polio vaccine.
Yet, it would be four more years until I commenced, and another year after that for the story to take off. Although many women made crucial advances in beating polio—actually a woman, Isabel Morgan, created the first modern polio vaccine, Salk only modified it—I had to try out various protagonists.
Once I saw the race through Dorothy’s eyes, the writing flew. I got to know her by writing about her, and I couldn’t write fast enough. It was like watching a movie of her life—I wanted to find out how it ended.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The publishing process took longer than for my previous books because I changed publishing houses. Then the COVID pandemic gained momentum and things moved even more slowly. I’m someone who loves revision, though, and now I had lots of time to do countless (literally—I lost track) revisions with a great new editor.
I learned to be patient and to find goodness, beauty, and wonder during that desolate time, not just in my real-life characters but in my immediate surroundings. It was a time for introspection. I think my story benefitted from that.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
As I said, I love revision. Each round of revising peels back another layer, exposing the true story that I hope to tell. In one of the last revisions before copyediting, my editor pointed out who the real hidden hero of the story was.
The person had been there all along, but it took a year of unpeeling and my editor’s sharp eye for me to understand this. A whole new ending came from it. That was really exciting to this writing nerd!
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope they’ll ponder the fact the most powerful things in the world are invisible—like viruses, like antibodies, like love.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Look for the wonders that are all around you, just waiting for you to notice. Find them, savor them, then write about them, one hard-won page at a time.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
