An eminent Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon's autobiography will be the next book designated by city leaders as the second annual "Baltimore's Book" for city residents to read and discuss over the summer.
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, published in 1990 and written by Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson with Cecil Murphy, tells of Carson's rise from difficult circumstances as a child in Detroit to Yale University, medical school and the Hopkins faculty, where he performs intricate brain surgery almost daily.
"I'd like to help young people understand that the person who has most to do with success is himself or herself, not an outside force," Carson said yesterday.
Mayor Martin O'Malley and Enoch Pratt Free Library Director Carla D. Hayden chose Carson's book to follow last year's selection, a historical slave narrative. The first volume of the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, who rose to become an antebellum abolitionist orator, was the inaugural Baltimore's Book.
Hayden said yesterday the Carson book was chosen as a fitting modern parallel to Douglass' life. Both African-American men stressed the importance of reading and childhood literacy with helping them overcome daunting poverty. In Carson's case, his mother made him write two book reports a week when he was young.
"Reading was their ticket to opportunity from slavery and the ghetto," Hayden said. "Dr. Carson is a living example, working in Baltimore."
Hayden and O'Malley will announce the Carson book selection 11 a.m. June 11, at Mount Vernon Square.
The $6 paperback is available through the Carson Scholars Fund, with proceeds going to support a charity which gives college scholarships to children and teens with academic talent.
The Carson Scholars Fund is in Towson. Information: 410-828-1005 or www.carson scholars.org.
