Ellis Island, The Coal Mines, to the Asbestos Capital of the World (1987)

An oral history of Manville, New Jersey, edited by Edward J. Purzycki and issued by the Manville Public Library in 1987 under a New Jersey Historical Commission grant, with a foreword by Lee Iacocca. Taped interviews with residents, many from Pennsylvania coal country, are supplemented with newspaper accounts. Interviewees recall working at Johns-Manville, asbestos 'snow' over the town, salvaging transite pipe and asbestos wall board from the company dump, and a 1970 talk by Dr. Selicoff at the union office. The introduction links dust inhalation to Johns-Manville's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.