In 1926, Paul de Kruif, an American microbiologist, published the The Microbe Hunters which became a popular book about bacteriology, still in print and still popular today.

In his classic bestseller, de Kruif dramatized the pioneering bacteriological work of scientists including Leeuwenhoek, Spallanzani, Koch, Pasteur, Reed, and Ehrlich.

Before becomgin a writer, de Kruif conducted front-line bacteriological research at Michigan University (Ph.D. 1916); served as a US medical corps officer during the First World War in France; and later worked at the Rockefeller Institute, New York.