This book is the textual response to polio from the postwar era to the present. It considers women's magazines, in which polio was both a fitfully treated subject and a frequently important subtext; polio memoirs, which boomed in the postwar period but continue to influence the illness-memoir marketplace today; and, polio novels, the vast majority of which were not published until nearly two decades following the Salk vaccine. The author interprets the gendered and generational aspects of these vital polio texts, as well as themes of denial, depression, ableism, acceptance, illness, impairment, and the American past.In the final chapter she reads a wide array of texts generated by and for the polio-affected community, beginning with newsletters issued by rehabilitation centers such as those at Warm Springs, Ga. (founded by FDR), and continued as internationally circulated special-interest magazines and, more recently, Web sites and discussion venues in which those dealing with post-polio syndrome inform and sustain each other. Complementing the wealth of polio histories that have recently appeared (many in conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of the Salk vaccine), the literary analysis continues to explore this meaningful context, while focusing specifically on the polio story - its fictions, revelations, and rhetorical strategies - as this has shaped our understanding of a major twentieth-century medical. Jacqueline Foertsch is Professor of English at the University of North Texas.