It is no accident that [Bellevue Literary Press] was founded a few steps down the hall in Bellevue Hospital [from] where Lewis Thomas wrote Lives of a Cell, a book that turned the attention of the literary world to the world of science. That slim volume of essays made inhabitants of both worlds realize that imagination, pluck and skill can bring them together by the sheer power of good writing. . . . Alas! The days are over when Lewis Thomas was sought out by the likes of Viking (publisher) and Elizabeth Sifton (editor) as one or another of the major houses has been captured by consortia. Small presses—with BLP at the forefront—are all that remain of that sensibility. . . . The usual university presses essentially publish nonfiction and doctoral theses while, as a rule, smaller independent presses devote themselves to works of the existential moment. The only vehicle now available to bridge the gap between these two styles of publication is the Bellevue Literary Press.