Working closely with William Gruber, the inventor of the View-Master, the three-dimensional viewing system that GAF Corporation popularized as a toy in the 1960s, Dr. Bassett created the 25-volume “Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy” in 1962. It included some 1,500 pairs of slides, along with line drawings that made the details more discernible. The paired slides could be examined with a View-Master, making the chest cavity look cavernous, and making details of structure and tissue stand out unforgettably.

We've all heard of it. Many of us have flicked through it in a bargain book shop. It has gone through more than 30 revised editions on each side of the Atlantic and has sold more than five million copies. Gray's Anatomy is surely one of the world's great books. But, as Bill Hayes discovered in researching this publishing marvel, evidence of how it came about is scant.