When not on the phone, entertaining visiting scientists, or perusing data Wynder was traveling. He was constantly sought after as a speaker, and his round-the-world trips were legendary. Wynder used transit time to revise and rewrite, sending back hand-written manuscript outlines on in-flight stationery from Pan Am and hotels in exotic places such as the Excelsior Copacabana – Rio de Janeiro. Even in the air his thoughts were often on our research. Figure 1 shows a hand-written note from 1979 written on Lufthansa stationery with the header "An Bord des Lufthansa-Flugzeuges von London nach Düsseldorf" with the inscription "So you can see where I get my inspiration." In that note he goes on to say "I just lunched with Nick Wald [a prominent British researcher in tobacco and health]. He should get the next draft of this paper. As you know he feels that duration is more potent a factor than quantity. On the basis of analytical research, our findings would appear to be correct." This general piece of encouragement was followed by eight closely written pages outlining proposed changes to our current manuscript, and concluding with the request: "I hope you can make these modifications and have the next draft on my desk by July 2. Please give it to Mr. [David] Davies [AHF Executive Vice President] who then can take the paper to my home in Scarborough. I also hope that you can get a draft of paper II prepared at that time." This note also mentions a scheduled conference with Cornfield.

A note datelined Hotel Plaza-Athénée in Paris is of special interest. It consists of revisions to our 1977 paper "Comparative Epidemiology of Tobacco-Related Cancers"32 and refers to a 1957 paper of Wynder's that identified sideropenic dysphagia as a risk factor for cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract.33 In his note (and eventually our paper) he wrote: "The sex ratio of tobacco-related cancers is consistent with long term smoking habits of men and women. A notable exception is cancer of the mouth, extrinsic larynx, and esophagus. Cancers at these sites seemingly occur more commonly in non-smoking women than non-smoking men. For cancers of the mouth – especially the tongue and buccal cavity are affected. We believe this particular female susceptibility to be related to a subclinical type of Plummer-Vinson disease, a condition more common in women because of their inherently greater risk for iron deficiency." (Figure 2). Wynder always regarded his 1957 study as one of his most important findings because it shed light on a possible metabolic precursor of cancer, a very rare observation for those days.33 For many years afterwards he felt that this link was unjustifiably overlooked by many investigators.