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).
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.
