Carl Djerassi has been called the "father of the birth-control pill." As a youth in his twenties Djerassi headed a research team of young scientists in a small, obscure Mexican laboratory where, using a locally grown yam, he first was able to synthesize cortisone, a drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Within twelve months, he also created the first steroid that effectively blocked fertillization. The resulting use of the contraceptive, commonly called the Pill, has raised controversy around the world.

Djerassi was born in Vienna on October 29, 1923. His parents, Samuel and Anna Friedmann, both physicians, were Austrian Jews. Djerassi had his early schooling in Vienna, but when the German army invaded Poland in 1938, Djerassi's mother--separated from Djerassi's father in 1929--moved with her son to Bulgaria. After a year in Sofia, mother and son left for the United States, arriving penniless in America in the winter of 1939.

Djerassi attended...