Doc Susie – The True Story of a County Physician in the Colorado Rockies by Virginia Cornell has brought national recognition to one of Colorado’s heroic pioneers. The book has been chosen by mayors and town managers of Grand County to be its "One Grand Book" for 2005. The Grand County Library District sponsors the program to promote reading and discussion of ideas within local libraries. The author will be in Grand County in July to participate in several scheduled discussions.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by sportswriter Mitch Albom was chosen as the first "One Grand Book" in 2004. Residents were enthusiastic about sharing their reactions to and ideas about the best-seller. The choice of Doc Susie was unanimous, according to Anna Winkel, Fraser Valley Branch Librarian.

Susan Anderson, M.D. arrived in the county in 1907, ill with tuberculosis. She survived to practice medicine under tough circumstances – constantly battling the cold weather, primitive sanitation and the ignorance of some of her patients. The author, too, spent a good deal of her life in the Fraser Valley. Although she lives in California now, Cornell’s family founded a ski lodge known as Millers Idlewild Inn in 1946; much later, she owned and edited the Winter Park Manifest weekly newspaper. She has written three other books. She spends much of the year as a destination lecturer on cruise ships.

Since it came out 14 years ago in 1991, Doc Susie has been reprinted 14 times by Manifest Publications. For seven years it was also licensed to Ivy Ballantine, a division of Random House, for a mass-market edition. Somewhere over 100,000 copies have been sold. In book circles, Doc Susie is now considered an "evergreen" book. That is, it sells about the same number of books every year and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

"The book received very good reviews when it first came out," noted Dr. Cornell. "But it thrives now on good old-fashioned word of mouth. People love the woman’s grit and admire her story. I look forward returning to my beloved mountains and to seeing my friends again. And I am so happy that Susan Anderson has at last achieved the recognition she so richly deserved during her lifetime."