Sarah Everts—The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration

THE JOY OF SWEAT:
THE STRANGE SCIENCE OF PERSPIRATION
Sarah Everts
W. W. Norton, July 13, 2021, $26.95
ISBN-10:‎ 0393635678, ISBN-13:‎ 978-0393635676
ASIN: B08L6Y1MQ7

Everts reports:

I’m a voluminous sweater: in any workout, I’m reaching for the towel during the warm-up. I was somewhat mortified by my perspiration, and yet as a science journalist, I knew that evolutionary biologists count bountiful sweating as one of the unique characteristics of being human, along with big brains and nakedness.

I decided to dig into the science of sweat, and oh my there was a bounty of fascinating stuff to mine–from people who sweat in a rainbow of colors, to the history of deodorants and anti-perspirants, to the chemistry of fingerprints, which are inked in sweat, to the strange search for human pheromones.

I was fortunate to get a Ullyot Scholarship from the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, where I spent a delicious few months plowing through deodorant and antiperspirant patents. Then two years later, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin hosted me as a Journalist in Residence, where I worked on the book proposal. Meanwhile, as a writer for Chemical & Engineering News, I focused on the odor and olfaction beat.

I was just in the process of seeking an agent when Matt Weiland, an editor at W.W. Norton, reached out to me after reading an article I wrote about art conservation in Scientific American. He was enormously enthusiastic about a book on sweat, and even suggested a few potential agents. I’ve worked with both Christy Fletcher and Sarah Fuentes at Fletcher and Co. as agents, and they are both fabulous.

With hindsight, I wish I’d fallen in love with Scrivener A LOT earlier in the research and writing process. And I’d skip the self-flagellation when I didn’t pump out the book in a matter of months. Life takes unexpected turns: I had a kid, which was wonderful and distracting. I also had cancer, which was not wonderful but also distracting. It took me many years to finish The Joy of Sweat. I’m so grateful for the support of so many kind souls along the way.

Contact info:

• Sarah Everts, Skype: Saraheverts, saraheverts@gmail.com, http://saraheverts.com/, @saraheverts
• Book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635676
• Publicist: Will Scarlett, wscarlett@wwnorton.com
• Agents: Sarah Fuentes sarah@fletcherandco.com, Christy Fletcher, christy@fletcherandco.com

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