Author and Polio Survivor

Wayne Raffesberger remembered that quote from Mark Twain and uses it as a rallying cry for the way he would live his life, as told vividly in his memoir, Thank God I Got Polio: A Life of Adventure and the Adventure of Life. While Raffesberger refers to polio in his book title, describes the physical and emotional challenges he encountered as a young boy, and acknowledges that it shaped his life, this is not so much a book about polio as it is about a person who rose to the occasion on account of it, wanting to prove something to his early-life naysayers and doubters — as well as himself — and seek out adventures that fully healthy people might be hard-pressed to undertake.