Incredible story

For my master thesis i'm looking for all kinds of written text (letters, speeches, etc.) to analyze with some software. After i found a cool essay by Frank Herbert a few days ago, which i also posted on this blog, today i found this incredible story, which i'll try to summarize:

In 1973, a 9-year old kid named Anthony Hollander discovered a dying bird in his garden. After this, he wrote a letter to a BBC tv show for kids and asked for assistance to "make people or animals alive". Here is an exact transcript of his letter:


"Dear Val, Jhon, Peter and Lesslie,

This may seem very strange, but I think I no how to make people or animals alive. Why Im teling you is because I cant get the things I need.

A list of what I need.

1. Diagram of how evreything works. [inside youre body.]
2. Model of a heart split in half. [both halvs.]
3. The sort of sering they yous for cleaning ears. [Tsering must be very very clean.]
4. Tools for cutting people open.
5. Tools for stiches.
6. Fiberglass box, 8 foot tall, 3 foot width.
7. Picture of a man showing all the arteries.

Sorry but in number 6 in the list the box needs lid. If you do get them on 1st March I can pay £10, £11, £12, £13 or £14.

Send your answer to me,

Love from Anthony,
London, NW11"



And he got this answer:


"Dear Anthony,

Thank you very much for your letter. It was nice to hear from you again after such a long time and we are sorry we have been delayed replying.

We are receiving over 4,000 letters every week and are having difficulty answering them as quickly as we would like.

We were interested to hear that you think you know how to make living people - and your list of necessary items intrigued us!

We are sorry we can't help you at all, but we wondered if you had thought of talking to your family doctor - he might be glad to help you with some diagrams and other information.

We are sending you a photograph of the "Blue Peter" team - it has been signed specially for you.

With best wishes from Valerie, John, Peter, Lesley and all of us on the programme.

Yours sincerely

B (Biddy Baxter)
Editor"



Today, Anthony Hollander is a professor of rheumatology and tissue engineering. He played a key role in a surgery first: the successful implantation of an artificially grown windpipe... I can't say much more after this, if you want to read the full story, check this out.