A Journal for Lalie: Living Through Prostate Cancer - Tapa dura

In 1993, retired CBS News correspondent David Dick was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a life-threatening disease that affects thousands of men. Over the years since that first diagnosis, he has seen his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) number rise and fall in response to a long list of medical procedures administered by a host of skilled medical specialists. He has written about each uncertain step of the way in a book, A Journal for Lalie—Living Through Prostate Cancer, which has been dedicated to Lalie, his helpmeet. The publication date is January, 2008; however, the book is shipping to stores now in order to take advantage of year-end holiday sales. A Journal for Lalie is a book for men who have, or may someday have, prostate cancer, but equally for the women who will follow in David and Lalie Dick's footsteps as they negotiate the same rocky medical trail. It is David Dick's most personal book, yet one that will bring hope, laughter and inspiration to the thousands who have laughed and loved through his eleven previous books, including The View from Plum Lick, The Scourges of Heaven, and Rivers of Kentucky. David Dick's newest book is intended for a national readership at a time when prostate cancer has become increasingly widespread. Dick says, “Of all the books I have written since leaving CBS News, A Journal for Lalie is without a doubt the most important. Through laughter and tears, it comes to terms with the reality of a treatable disease that claims the lives of so many. If the journal I have kept in the years from 1993 to 2007 saves just one life, the writing will have been worth all the effort.”

In 1993, David Dick was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a life-threatening disease that affects thousands of men – potentially most men. Over the years since that first diagnosis, Dick has seen his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) number rise and fall in response to a long list of medical procedures administered by a host of skilled medical specialists. More important, however, has been the support of his partner for life, Eulalie Cumbo Dick, known to friends and Dicks' devoted readership as Lalie. “We're in this together,” she told him in the beginning. And the journal Dick has kept in the years since 1993 warmly chronicles their journey together through the medical maze of cancer treatment and, more importantly, through lives devoted to one another, to family, to writing and publishing and teaching, and to sustaining an outlook on the world that gives meaning to the word “life.” Besides Lalie, David Dick has had another supporter, cheerleader, and guru in the person of a dog named Cat, one of the smartest and wisest canines to grace the pages of a book in many a year. Cat and Dick discuss cancer and other kinds of “coyotes” in an extended series of discussions that touch on issues of life and death, virtue and folly, and the ironies of modern living. Cat will be welcomed to the pantheon of famous literary dogs, from Cervantes' Cipión to Berganza. A Journal for Lalie is a book for men who have, or may someday have, prostate cancer, and equally for the women who will follow in the Dick's footsteps as they negotiate the same rocky medical trail with their loved ones. It is David Dick's most personal book, yet one that will bring hope, laughter and inspiration to the thousands who have laughed and loved their way through his ten previous books. David and Lalie Dick live and write from his ancestral farm on Plum Lick Creek in Bourbon County, Kentucky. David retired as a CBS News correspondent in 1985, and from the University of Kentucky's School of Journalism in 1996. He received an Emmy award in 1973 for his coverage of the shooting of Governor George Wallace. He also covered the Jonestown massacre in Guyana, and wars and uprisings in Central and South America and the Middle East. Since his second retirement, he (often with Lalie) has written and published ten books as well as a monthly column, “The View from Plum Lick,” in the Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperatives' monthly magazine, Kentucky Living. Their most recent book is Kentucky – A State of Mind and all of their books may be viewed using their website: www.kyauthors.com