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Title details for The Genius Factory by David Plotz - Available

The Genius Factory

The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank

by David Plotz
Stefan Rudnicki
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
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3 of 3 copies available
From the former editor of Slate and CEO of Atlas Obscura comes the unbelievable story of “the Nobel Prize sperm bank” and the children it produced—“a superb book about the quest for genius and, ultimately, family” (Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Talking to Strangers).
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
 
It was the most radical human-breeding experiment in American history. The Repository for Germinal Choice—nicknamed “the Nobel Prize sperm bank”—opened to notorious fanfare in 1980, and for two decades women flocked to it from all over the country to choose a sperm donor from its roster of Nobel-laureate scientists, mathematical prodigies, successful businessmen, and star athletes. But the bank quietly closed its doors in 1999—its founder dead, its confidential records sealed, and the fate of its children and donors unknown. Crisscrossing the country and tracking down previously unknown family members, award-winning Slate columnist David Plotz unfolds the full and astonishing story of the Nobel Prize sperm bank and its founder’s radical scheme to change our world.
Praise for The Genius Factory
“[David] Plotz’s wonderful history of the Nobel sperm bank is filled with wit, pathos and insight. . . . [He acts] as narrator, ethnographer, historian, social critic and even go-between, brokering reunions between children and their genitors.”—Chicago Tribune
 
“Perfectly pitched—blithe, smart, skeptical, yet entranced by its subject.”—The New York Times
 
“By turns personal, confounding, creepy, defiant of expectations and touching . . .The Genius Factory isn’t merely curious, it’s useful.”—San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Tense, hilarious, and touching . . . wonderfully readable and eye-opening.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
“Terrific . . . [a] lively account.”—The Washington Post Book World

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 28, 2005

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415953150
      • File size: 290390 KB
      • Duration: 10:04:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      David Plotz relates the odd story of a California sperm bank. Robert K. Graham's aim was to gather the sperm of Nobel Prize winners, impregnate educated white women with it, and thus create a new cadre of geniuses. Stefan Rudnicki captures Plotz's amused and appalled tone at this bizarre mission. Plotz finds himself a sort of "semen detective," tracking down children and donors. Rudnicki's deep, resonant voice sensitively expresses the feelings of some of the sperm-bank children, who struggle to understand their relationships with others, including donors. He also adeptly characterizes some of the donors-folks who range from a dilettante to a humble scientist who has a desperate craving to know "his" children. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 4, 2005
      Building on a series of articles he wrote for Slate
      , Plotz investigates the legacy of the Repository for Germinal Choice, a California sperm bank that was to have been stocked exclusively by Nobel laureates. Very few donors in the institution's 19-year run really had Nobels, and the one publicly acknowledged laureate was William Shockley, a notorious racist. Plotz has fun poking holes in the eugenic vision of the repository's founder, self-made millionaire Robert Graham, and his ambition to collect "the Godiva of sperm." More captivating, however, is Plotz's recounting of the efforts of the women who visited the repository to discover the identities of their donors. As he gets to know a cluster of families and donors, Plotz reaches insightful conclusions about the unforeseen emotional consequences of artificial insemination. The "reunions" his research helps bring about include the elderly scientist who adopts a grandfatherly role in a young girl's life and a teenager who takes his wife and infant son along to meet his "dad" and finds him sharing a house with Florida drug dealers. The attempt to breed genius babies may have an aura of surreal humor, but the sensitive narration always reminds us of the real lives affected—and created—through this oddball utopian scheme. B&w photos. Agent, Rafe Sagalyn.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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