There are so many good essays in “Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from a Children’s Book.” And I was sometimes during the process asked by editor which one did I like the best? And I’d have to say to him that, Simon, I love them all. They all do different things and they all reveal different aspects of books. But there was one that I kept going back to again and again because it gave me a chill every time that I read this essay.
William DeVries was the cardiothoracic surgeon who inserted the artificial heart, the first Jarvik-7 heart. And he’s now at Walter Reed Hospital and he in this very short piece, talks about the power of a single book in his life and I’d just like to read that essay.
“One of the first books my mother introduced me to was “The Wizard of Oz”, I read all of the books in the series and was very impressed by them. I particularly liked the Tin Woodsman. In the book, the Wizard of Oz talks to the Tin Woodsman about whether or not he really wants a heart. The Wizard believes that having a heart is not such a good thing, it makes most people unhappy. But the Tin Woodsman says, ‘for my part, I will bear all the unhappiness without a murmur if you will give me a heart.’ In my work I have thought about those lines many, many times.”
So here we have an example of a single line in a children’s book, staying with a heart surgeon for his entire career and that to me is just an amazing story.