When retired neurosurgeon Dr. Craig Yorke first got the idea of writing about his past, he planned it as a letter to his two adult sons, Zach and Chris. Then he found himself facing the Black Studies section of a local bookstore. He was impressed by the scholarly books that diagnosed America's problems, but noticed they gave little mention of solving them.
Thus was born "Steep: A Black Neurosurgeon's Journey".
Yorke says, "The goal was to get shelf space in the Black Studies section, but to lengthen the shelf a little bit and redefine in a small way what black studies means, therefore expanding the audience."
At first, the book may seem like a rags-to-riches narrative like those by Horatio Alger. Yorke was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, known as Boston's Black Ghetto. He went on to attend the prestigious Boston Latin School. A talented violinist, he played for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra in both Carnegie Hall and for President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy at the White House. During his senior year, he was named a Presidential Scholar, which produced an invitation back to the White House for a reception hosted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird.
Yorke went on to attend Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. He served his residency at the University of California San Francisco. Then, thanks to the efforts of Jack Runnels of the Menninger Foundation, he spent the next 25 years as a practicing neurosurgeon in Topeka, living in a large older home with his wife Mary and their sons.
Though the book highlights Yorke's many successes, there is a deeper underlying theme to the writing. Yorke explains, "I intended to write a book about how we inhabit and relate to our history. I'm convinced that almost all of us are unconscious of history's power over us. And therefore, that power is very great. And "Steep" is a book of trying to nuzzle up to the part of the past that hurts. And as you do that, you start to get friendly with it, and it starts to lose its power. You begin to get a little bit of liberation, from not just the past, but you get liberated a little bit from the future, too. Now, I have never met a fully liberated person," he continues. "But I will say that writing the book showed me the trailhead to that path. And honestly, I recommend it to everybody. It is certainly the cheapest therapy you'll ever get."
In the book, Yorke shows how his parents not only wanted him to be successful, but they also used his achievements as a kind of shield to protect themselves from those who saw them as less than. It was a way to avenge centuries of pain. His success proved they were not contemptible, but he paid a heavy price for their ambitions.
"It's less about the weight of bigotry than the price and value of success. The price of success for me was significant. It cost me my childhood, and I spent decades living the life of somebody else. Living my ancestor's life," Yorke says.
Steep opens with a quote from James Baldwin: "The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it."
"That was me," says Yorke. "And that is a whole lot of people."
Since the book's publication in May 2025, Yorke has met many readers who identify with his story. Perhaps most surprising, many of those people are white.
He says, "Writing the book is a way of blurring the margins of self and opening yourself, your identity, to being surprised by what you share with unlikely people. I like to think that my story is seldom told, but it certainly isn't alien. That's what I mean by steeping yourself. Kind of ripening, flowering, taking off the armor."
"Steep: A Black Neurosurgeon’s Journey" is published by Flint Hills Publishing. It is available at local bookstores, Bookshop.org, and Amazon. For more information, visit craigyorke.com.
Yorke has met many readers who identify with his story.