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Reveling in Red: From Obstacle to Opportunity

As Told By: Amy Butler Greenfield

Amy Butler Greenfield was on a path to becoming a history professor when she was diagnosed with lupus at age 26. Recalling how her hands had ballooned, she says, "I was in excruciating pain most of the time and it felt like my body was falling apart."

Greenfield suspects she experienced lupus symptoms as young as age 17. "I occasionally get laryngitis, which is one of the more bizarre symptoms that people get."

While working toward earning a Ph.D., she found it painful to type, her joints were aching, and being in the sun was difficult. "I thought it was just stress. I was going through oral exams for my Ph.D., and I was getting married and moving abroad."

Greenfield, now 37, says on one hand, she was grateful for what she'd already experienced in life. She had lived in England, traveled to Spain, earned two college degrees, and married "a wonderful man." On the other hand, she wondered, what now?

Newly married, she took a leave of absence from her Ph.D. program to manage her health. The goal of living an academic life lost its appeal, and Greenfield asked herself what she really wanted to accomplish. The answer soon became clear. "I wanted to write a book that somehow told a story that spoke to people."

"It was less than a month from the time I decided not to go back [to the Ph.D. program] that the idea for A Perfect Red came to me," Greenfield says. "I don't think that's a coincidence. I've always heard that a clenched fist can't accept anything. You have to have an open hand. You have to let go for it to be filled. So this book was the gift I got that I would not have gotten any other way. It stretched me as a historian more than a dissertation would have done. It was the kind of book I wanted to write."

Before her diagnosis, Greenfield earned her master's degree at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. Her thesis detailed the introduction of chocolate to Europe, which required her to spend several weeks in Spain for research. While there, she happened upon a surprising discovery: she found evidence that cochineal - a traditional red dye of pre-Hispanic Mexico that comes from an insect - was shipped from the Americas to Spain during the Renaissance. Recalling this discovery years after her diagnosis sparked the idea to write a compelling and true story about secrets, espionage, and piracy - all for the sake of the color red. What resulted was her popular history book, A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.

Nearly a decade after her diagnosis, Greenfield has found success with her writing. To avoid the additional pains in her hands caused by typing, she uses voice-recognition software to dictate her stories. She's also published a children's novel - under the penname Amy Butler - called Virginia Bound, about a 17th century London orphan who's kidnapped, sold as an indentured servant, and shipped to colonial Virginia.

Greenfield often gives talks about her life and explains how having lupus has shaped her as a writer. "I've found that raising awareness about the disease, and providing encouragement to others with lupus, is one of the most rewarding things I do."