Robert Edwards (1925

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Biography

Robert Edwards, also known as Bobby Edwards, was an American artist, musician, and writer, and a prominent figure among New York City's Greenwich Village in the 1920s and '30s. He was editor and publisher of the Greenwich Village Quill, and was known as the "Bard of Bohemia" and the "Village Troubadour" for his many songs he wrote and sang publicly.

Timeline

The story of Robert Edwards, told in moments.

1968 Event

Partnered with gynecologist Patrick Steptoe. Together they began trying to fertilize a human egg outside the body. The medical establishment was hostile. Funding was denied.

How did you keep going when the medical establishment was hostile? What made Patrick Steptoe the right partner? Did denied funding make you angrier or more creative?

1978 Event

Louise Brown, the world's first baby conceived through in vitro fertilization, was born in Oldham, Lancashire. Edwards and Steptoe had worked for ten years to reach this moment.

What was in the room when Louise Brown was born? How did ten years of work feel in that moment? Did you know it would change millions of lives?

2010 Event

Won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at 85. Over four million IVF babies had been born by then. Steptoe had died in 1988 and couldn't share the prize.

Was the Nobel at 85 bittersweet without Steptoe? Do four million IVF babies feel like enough acknowledgment? What would Steptoe have said at the ceremony?

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