Biographical Information on Physician Writers
D-G
John Chalmers Dacosta
1863-1933
An 1885 graduate of the Jefferson Medical College, DaCosta became a surgeon, rising to the rank of professor at his alma mater in 1900. In 1907 he was named the first Samuel D. Gross Professor of Surgery. In addition to his other medical writing and addresses, he is remembered for his textbook of surgery, which continued through ten editions.
Background
Dictionary of American BiographyPoetry
Poems of John Chalmers DaCosta (1942)NonFiction
Selections from the Papers and Speeches (1931)
Anthony Daniels
Pseudonym Anthony Dalrymple
1949-
A graduate of Birmingham University School of Medical (?year), Daniels took further psychiatric training and has worked in a variety of locales, from Africa to British prisons. In addition to his books, he has written numerous essays for a variety of periodicals (City Journal, The Spectator).
Background
Contemporary Authors
Fiction
So Little Done: The Testament of Serial Killer (1996)
Nonfiction
Fool or Physician: The Memoirs of a Sceptical Doctor (1987)
Utopias Elsewhere: Journeys in a Vanishing World (1991)
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass (2002)
Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses (2005)
Erasmus Darwin
1731-1802
The grandfather of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton received his M.B. degree from Cambridge in 1755, and M.D. from Edinburgh in 1756. A true polymath, he had a successful medical practice in Lichfield, England; so successful that he turned down George III's offer that he become the king's personal physician. He founded the influential Lunar Society in 1766, and introduced, often in verse, many ideas relevant to his grandson's theory of evolution.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.Poetry
King-Hele D. The Essential Writings of Erasmus Darwin. London: MacGibbon & Kee; 1968.
Loyal Davis
1896-1982
Davis, later the father-in-law of Ronald Reagan, received his medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School in 1918. Widely recognized both for his contributions to the field of neurosurgery and for his outspokeness in matters of medical ethics, he became chairman of the Department of Surgery at Northwestern. For many years he was editor of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, and was an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
Background
Obituary, New York Times, 20 August 1982.Fiction
Go in Peace (1954)
Stacey B(iswas) Day
1927-
Day received his MD degree from the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, in 1955, a PhD from McGill in 1964, and a DSc from the University of Cincinnati in 1971. His wide interests have led him to work in the fields of surgery, medical research, behavioral and community medicine.
Background
Contemporary Authors
Poetry
Collected Lines (1966)
American Lines (1967)
Poems and Etudes (1968)
Fiction
Rosalita (1968)
Bellechasse (1970)
Drama
By the Waters of Babylon (1966)
East and West: A Play in Three Acts (1967)
The Music Box (1967)
Warwick Deeping
1877-1950
Deeping graduated in medicine from Cambridge in 1902, served in the Royal Medical Corps in the First World War, but then practiced medicine for only one year. During his life he wrote about seventy novels, only a few of which are listed.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
Uther and Ingraine (1903)
Love Among the Ruins (1904)
Sorrel and Son (1925
Old Pybus (1928)
The Man Who Went Back (1940)
Louis-Ferdinand Destouches
1894-1961
Known to the public as Celine, Destouches received his medical degree from Rennes Medical School in 1924, and published his doctoral thesis on the life of Semmelweis. His medical work began with the League of Nations, followed by service in various municipal clinics in France, and as a ship's doctor. He was arrested in Copenhagen in 1945, charged with collaboration with the Nazis; and not until 1951 did he return to France to resume his medical practice. Condemned for his alleged fascist and antisemitic views as well as a misanthropy that seems at odds with his work with the poor; Celine is nonetheless recognized as a major innovator in twentieth century literature.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Vitoux F. Celine - A Biography. New York: Paragon House; 1992.Fiction
Journey to the End of Night (1934)
Death on the Installment Plan (1938)
Guignol's Band (1954)
Castle to Castle (1968)
North (1972)
Rigadoon (1974)
Conversations with Professor Y (1986)
London Bridge (1995)NonFiction
Mea Culpa and the Life and Work of Semmelweis (1937)
Ernest C. Deza
1923-
A 1951 medical graduate of the University of Santo Tomas. Deza emigrated to the United States where he practiced psychiatry. I have not been able to locate either of the books listed.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsPoetry
Laugh Poems (1969)
New Laugh Poems (1974)
Henry Binga Dismond
1891-1956
Dismond received his M.D. degree from Rush Medical College in 1923, and specialized in radiology. He is associated with the New Negro movement of 1925-35; and for services rendered following the Haitian-Dominican Massacres of 1937, he was made a Chevalier of the National Order of Honor and Merit by the Republic of Haiti.
Background
Who's Who in Colored AmericaPoetry
We Who Would Die (1943)
Alfred Doblin
1878-1957
Doblin received his medical degree from Freiburg University in 1905, worked as a journalist and then practiced psychiatry. During World War I he served as a medical officer in the German army, but after the Nazi takeover, being a Jew, fled Germany to live in Switzerland, then the United States. From 1940 to 1941 he worked as a script writer for MGM. In 1945 he returned to Europe and died in 1957 after suffering from a prolonged paralyzing illness. His best-known work, Alexanderplatz, was made into a fifteen hour film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1980.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Dollenmayer DB. Berlin Novels of Alfred Doblin. University of California Press; 1988.
Books and WritersFiction
Alexanderplatz (1931)
Men without Mercy (1976)
A People Betrayed (1983)
Karl and Rosa (1983)
Tales of a Long Night (1984) NonFiction Destiny's Journey (autobiography) (1992)
Thomas Dorsett
1945-
A 1972 graduate of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in1972, Dorsett is a pediatrician working with the Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corporation. His poetry has appeared in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies.
Poetry
Dance Fire Dance (1993)
Hugh Downman
1740-1809
Ordained a priest at Oxford in 1763, Downman went on to study medicine at Edinburgh where he boarded with the blind poet Thomas Blacklock. In 1770 he received a master's degree in medicine from Cambridge, and began intermittently practicing medicine in Exeter until ill-health forced his retirement.
Background
McDonough ML. Poet-Physicians: An Anthology of Medical Poetry Written by Physicians. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas; 1945.
Stephen NL, Lee S. The Dictionary of National Biography. London: Oxford University Press; 1917.Poetry
Poems to Thespia, to Which Are Added, Sonnets, Etc.(1791)
Infancy; or, The Management of Children; A Didactic Poem, in 6 Books (1803)Drama
Tragedies (1792)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1859-1930
Doyle graduated M.B., C.M. in 1881 from the University of Edinburgh, where he studied under Dr. Joseph Bell, said to be the model for Sherlock Holmes. He served as ship's doctor aboard a Greenland whaler during medical school, and on a voyage to West Africa afterwards. During the 80's he practiced general medicine, and in 1890 studied eye diseases in Vienna; but by 1891 he had decided to give up medicine and devote himself fulltime to writing. His only other medical involvement was to be supervision of a hospital in South Africa during the Boer War; for which efforts he was knighted in 1902. He spent his later years studying and writing about spiritualism. Only a few of his many books are listed below.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Carr JD. The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Harper & Brothers; 1949
The Arthur Conan Doyle Society web siteFiction
A Study in Scarlet (1888)
Micah Clark (1889)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
Round the Red Lamp (1894)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)Poetry
The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle (1922)
Theodore S. Drachman
1904-1988
Drachman received his M.D. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1938, and an M.S.P.H. degree from Columbia University in 1941. A specialist in preventive medicine and epidemiology, he worked as a health commisioner and as consultant to various health organizations around the world.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
False Faces (1931)
Cry Plague (1953)
Something for the Birds (1958)
Addicted to Murder (1960)
Reason for Madness (1970)
The Deadly Dream (1982)NonFiction
The Grande Lapu-Lapu (memoirs) (1972)
Joseph Drake
1795-1820
In 1816, Drake received his medical degree from two associated institutions, the New Medical Institution of the State of New York, and Queen's College, New Jersey (later Rutgers University). He devoted much of his time to writing, collaborating with poet Fitx-Greene Halleck on the satirical Croaker Papers. He practiced in New York City until incapacitated, like his almost exact contemporary Keats, by tuberculosis.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Pleadwell FL. The Life and Works of Joseph Rodman Drake. Boston: The Merrymount Press; 1935Poetry
Culprit Fay and Other Poems (1935)
Willliam H. Drummond
1854-1907
Born in Ireland, Drummond was brought to Canada by his parents as a boy, and earned a medical degree at Bishop's College in Quebec in 1884. He practiced in Montreal, occupied the chair of Medical Jurisprudence at Bishop's College, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of England, and of the Royal Society of Canada. His poetry is marked by the patois of many of his patients, and he was eulogized by fellow physician poet S. Weir Mitchell:
The toilworn doctor, women, children, men,
The humble heroes of the lumber drives,
Love, laugh, or weep along his peopled verse,
Blithe 'mid the pathos of their meagre lives.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
MacDonald JF. William Henry Drummond. Toronto: The Ryerson Press; 1923Poetry
The Poetical Works of William Henry Drummond (1912)
Philip Edward Duffy
1923-
Duffy graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1947 and specialized in neurology. He became the director of neuropathology at his alma mater, and published medical texts as well as numerous scientific papers.
Fiction
Moments, A Collection of Short Stories (1990)
Undertones, A Collection of Short Stories (1996)
Georges Duhamel
1884-1966
Duhamel received his M.D. degree from the University of Paris in 1907. During medical school he joined several other intellectuals in founding an artist colony, L'Abbaye, which survived only briefly; and afterwards worked as a medical researcher. For four years during World War I he worked as a military surgeon, an experience which haunted him for years to come and drove his humanism. After 1920 he devoted himself entirely to his literary career, and in 1935 was admitted to the Academie Francaise.
Background
Contemporary Authors Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Knapp BL. Georges Duhamel. New York: Twayne Publishers;1972Fiction
Salavin (vol. 1-4) (1936)
Pasquier Chronicles (vol. 1-10) (1937-46)Drama
The Light (1914)
In the Shadow of Statues (1914)
The Combat (1915)Poetry
Not translated as far as I can tell
Hugh Patrick Dunn
1916-
Dunn received his M.B., Ch.B. degrees from Otago University in his native New Zealand. An obstetrician-gynecologist of strong Christian leanings, he wrote several medical works for the lay press, and founded the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. His fiction is aimed at the juvenille population .
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
The Capture of Black Pete (1968)
The School Detective (1980)
Liam Durcan
?-
Following his medical degree (?year) from the University of Manitoba, Durcan became a neurologist and professor at McGill University.
Background
Contemporary Authors
http://www.liamdurcan.com/
Fiction
A Short Journey by Car (2004)
Garcia’s Heart (2007)
Alice Dwyer-Joyce
1913-
Dwyer-Joyce graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, in 1936; and went into general practice with her husband in the Cambridge area. During her career she has written over thirty novels, only a few of which are listed.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
Price of Inheritance (1963)
Dr.Ross of Harton (1966)
Cry the Soft Rain (1972)
The Moonlit Way (1974)
The Swiftest Eagle (1979)
Gibbet Fen (1984)
R. Sarif Easmon
1930-
After earning M.B., B.S. degrees in "Europe," Easmon practiced medicine in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. The famous African writer Wole Soyinka directed and starred in Easmon's play, Dear Parent and Ogre.
Background
Herdeck DE. African Authors: A Compantion to Black African Writing.Washington, D.C.: Black Orpheus Press; 1973Fiction
The Burnt-out Marriage (1967)Drama
Dear Parent and Ogre (1964)
The New Patriots (1965)
Frederik Willem Van Eeden
1860-1932
Eeden studied medicine at Amsterdam (? year of graduation), and practiced medicine near Hilversum, Holland. A man of many social interests, he started a literary periodical, founded an agricultural colony, translated Rabindranath Tagore's work into Dutch, and wrote social and literary treatises in addition to fiction, poetry, and plays.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.Fiction
The Deeps of Deliverance (1902)
The Quest (1907)NonFiction
Studies (6 vol.) (1890-1918)
Ronald L. Eisenberg
1945-
Eisenberg received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969, and specialized in radiology, particularly gastrointestinal radiology. In addition to writing technical works, Eisenberg is an accomplished pianist, and has written one novel.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
The Iguana Corps of the Haganah (1977)
Havelock Ellis
1859-1940
Ellis, "undoubtedly the most civilized Englishman of his generation" (H.L. Mencken), took seven years to qualify as a doctor (Licentiate in Medicine Surgery and Midwifery of the Society of Apothecaries, 1888) at St. Thomas' Hospital, London; though he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians some fifty years later. Interested and knowledgeable in many fields, he knew H.G. Wells and G.B. Shaw through the Fabian Society; edited the Mermaid Series of Old Dramatists and The Contemporary Science Series; studied and revolutionized the study of sexuality (Studies in the Psychology of Sex); wrote over fifty books including literary and social criticism; and had the distinction of having many of his works outlawed in his own country.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Calder-Marshall A. Havelock Ellis - A Biography. London: Rupert Hart-Davis;1959Fiction
Kanga Creek - An Australian Idyll (1922)Poetry
Sonnets, with Folk Songs from the Spanish (1925)
Poems (1937)
Nawal El Saadawi
1931-
The prominent Egyptian feminist El Saadawi qualified as a doctor in 1955 at Cairo University, and received an M.P.H. degree from Columbia University in 1966. She has worked as a psychiatrist and written extensively about women's issues and sexuality in the third world. Because of her views she has been dismissed from positions in the Ministry of Health, with a health journal, and with the Egyptian Medical Association. Arrested briefly in 1981, she subsequently founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
Two Women in One (1975)
Woman at Point Zero (1983)NonFiction
The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World (1980)
Nawal El Saadawi Reader (1997)
A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi (1999)
Kirsten Emmot
1947-
Emmot, a Vancouver, British Columbia, general practitioner, received her medical degree from the University of British Columbia in 1973. A clinical associate professor at UBC, she was an early member of the Vancouver Industrial Writers' Union. She dedicates How Do You Feel to two individuals, one of them being fellow physician poet Kenneth Dale Beernink.
Poetry
How Do You Feel? (1992)
Alan D. Engelberg
1941-
Engelberg received his M.D. degree from the University of California in 1970. He practices internal medicine in Los Angeles.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
Variant (1988)
Thomas Dunn English
1819-1902
Not only was English graduated as Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839, but was admitted to the bar in 1842. He practiced in Virginia, then moved to New Jersey where he was elected to Congress in 1890. Throughout his life he wrote poetry, though only one poem, "Ben Bolt," achieved any lasting recognition. And, like Thomas Holley Chivers, he carried on a feud with Edgar Allen Poe.
Background
McDonough ML. Poet-Physicians: An Anthology of Medical Poetry Written by Physicians. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas; 1945.
Johnson J, Malone D. Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons; 1930.Poetry
The Select Poems of Dr. Thomas Dunn English (1894)Fiction
Jacob Schuyler's Millions (1886)
Fairy Stories and Wonder Tales (1897)
John R. Feegel
1932-2003
Feegel became a forensic pathologist (one of his cases was Elvis Presley) following his MD degree from the University of Ottawa in 1960 and his JD degree from the University of Denver in 1964. His first novel, Autopsy, won an Edgar.
Background
Contemporary Authors
Fiction
Autopsy (1975)
Death Sails the Bay (1978)
The Dance Card (1981)
Malpractice (1981)
Not a Stranger: A Novel (1983)
Jacques Ferron
1921-1985
Ferron graduated with an M.D. degree from Universite Laval in 1945, and practiced medicine in Quebec. In 1954 he was president of the Canadian Peace Congress, and in 1963 founded the absurdist Rhinoceros Party. Only a few of his many plays, novels, stories and poems have been translated into English.
Background
Contemporary Authors
Jacques Ferron - EcrivainFiction
Dr. Cotnoir (1973)
Wild Roses: A Story Followed by a Love Letter (1976)
Quince Jam (1977)
The Penniless Redeemer (1984)
Selected Tales of Jacques Ferron (1984)
Michael John Fisher
1933-
A 1956 graduate (M.B.,Ch.B.) of the University of Capetown, Fisher did his residency in London and New York, and became director of product communications for Geigy Pharmaceuticals.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
The Sharp Edge of the Sun (1960)
Captives (1970)
Voyager (1972)
Rudolph Fisher
1897-1934
After earning a master's degree in biology from Brown University, Fisher went on to Howard University where he graduated with a medical degree in 1924. In addition to practicing as a radiologist in Harlem, he was superintendant of Harlem's International Hospital. His first story, "The City of Refuge," written while he was a medical student, and published in the Atlantic Monthly, marked the beginning of a literary career that placed him solidly in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930's. For ongoing commentary on Fisher and the Renaissance, http://www.fishernews.org is a useful resource.
Background
Contemporary Authors
Perspectives in American LiteratureFiction
The Walls of Jericho (1928)
The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem (1932)
McCluskey J. The City of Refuge - The Collected Stories of Rudolph Fisher. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press; 1991
Paul Fleming
1609-1640
While studying medicine at Leipzig, Fleming began writing poetry, was crowned an imperial poet laureate in 1632, and is recognized today as one of the most innovative lyric poets of the 17th century. He received a doctor of medicine degree in 1640, with a dissertation on venereal disease, and tragically died later that year. I have yet to locate complete translations of his work.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Sperberg-McQueen MR. The German Poetry of Paul Fleming: Studies in Genre and History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press; 1990.
Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 164. Detroit: Gale Research Inc.Poetry
The Penguin Book of German Verse. London: Penguin; 1957.
Bruce Forester
1939-
Forester received his M.D. degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, class of 1965; and has been engaged in the practice of psychiatry. In addition to his novels, he has written for professional and popular magazines.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
In Strict Confidence (1982)
Signs and Omens (1984)
Fatal Memory 1987)
Blood Fever (1990)
Bleedout (1993)
Arthur Norman Foxe
1902-1982
Foxe earned his M.D. degree at Jefferson Medical College in 1927. In addition to his professional work as a psychiatrist, he wrote over 375 books and articles on a wide variety of subjects including medical history, criminology, and ice skating. He also served as editor of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases and the Psychoanalytic Review.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsPoetry
Early Poems (1971)
Nocturne: Poesy, Prophecy, Legacy (1975)
Diurne: Poetic Interpretations of Day (1977)
Girolamo Fracastoro
1478-1553
Broadly and thoroughly educated, Fracastoro received his M.D. degree from the University of Padua at age 20, about the same time that he was given the chair of logic and philosophy at that institution. He practiced medicine from 1509 through 1530, studied epidemic diseases, and is recognized as the first proponent of the germ theory of disease. A colleague of Copernicus, he is also credited with some of the ideas that led to that scientist's solar theory. "Syphilis" derives from the "sinister shepard" of his poem that first described that disease in detail.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.Poetry
Van Wyck W. The Sinister Shepard: A Translation of Girolamo Fracastoro's Syphilidis Sive de Morbo Gallico Libri Tres. Los Angeles: The Primavera Press; 1934.
Spencer Michael Free
1856-1938
Free graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Johns Hopkins University in 1880, and practiced medicine and surgery for some fifty years thereafter. In addition to some one hundred medical papers, he wrote many poems, including "The human touch," which has been widely quoted, now even on the internet.
Background
McDonough ML. Poet-Physicians: An Anthology of Medical Poetry Written by Physicians. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas; 1945.Poetry
The Human Touch and Other Poems (1925)
Shawnee Cabin and Other Poems (1931)
Richard Austin Freeman
1862-1943
Freeman studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital and qualified as physician and surgeon in 1887. He joined the Colonial Service and worked in West Africa until a febrile illness forced him to return to England. After several years of locum tenens (including prison) work, he gave up medicine to concentrate on writing detective fiction, featuring Dr. John Thorndyke, the pathologist-detective. A contemporary of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Freeman is credited with introducing to the detective fiction genre the truly scientific detective, and the "inverted mystery," in which the criminal is identified early on.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Contemporary Authors
Donaldson N. In Search of Dr. Thorndyke - The Story of R. Austin Freeman's Great Scientific Investigator and His Creator. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press;1971.Fiction
The Red Thumb Mark (1907)
The Singing Bone (1912)
The Mystery of Angelina Frood (1924)
As a Thief in the Night (1928)
Mr. Pottermack's Oversight (1930)
Dr. Thorndyke Omnibus (1932)
The Jacob Street Mystery (1942)
Samuel Garth
1661-1719
Garth studied medicine at the University of Leyden, and received his M.D. degree from Cambridge in 1691. He was a fellow of the College of Physicians and the Royal Society, was appointed physician-in-ordinary to King George I, and in 1714 was knighted. In addition to writing The Dispensary and other works; his literary interests led him to membership in the political-literary Kit-Cat Club, and to deliver the eulogy at Dryden's funeral, to translate Plutarch, Demosthenes and Ovid, and to write the epilogue to Addison's Cato.
Background
Cook RI. Sir Samuel Garth. Boston: Twayne Publishers; 1980Poetry
The Dispensary: With a Short Account of the Proceedings of the College of Physicians, London, in Relation to the Sick Poor (1697) and Claremont (1715). Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints; 1975.
Atul Gawande
1965-
After earning degrees in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford University, and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School (1995), Gawande began a surgical residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. His writing, primarily non-fiction, has included speech writing for President Clinton and articles for New Yorker magazine, where he is on the writing staff.
NonFiction
Good Medicine (2000)
Terry Gerritsen
1953-
Gerritsen received her M.D. degree from the University of California in 1979, did an internal medicine residency and worked for several years as an internist in Hawaii. In 1987 she began writing the first of eight romance novels; followed, in 1996, by the first of several medical thrillers. Often on the best seller list, and with several film rights sold, she has retired from medicine.
Background
Official Tess Gerritsen SiteFiction
Call after Midnight (1987)
Peggy Sue Got Murdered (1994)
Harvest (1997)
Life Support (1997)
Bloodstream (1998)
Gravity (1999)
Ronald J. Glasser
1940-
Glasser graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1965, did a pediatric residency, and during the Viet Nam War was assigned to an evacuation hospital in Japan. He subsequently became a pediatric nephrologist in Minnesota.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
365 Days (1961)
Ward 402 (1973)
Another War, Another Peace (1985)NonFiction
Body Is the Hero (1976)
The Light in the Skull (1997)
Olover St. John Gogarty
1878-1957
Gogarty took some eight years to achieve his medical degree at Trinity College, Dublin, which he finally did in 1907. During that time he was recognized as a versatile conversationalist, a promising poet, and a champion bicyclist; and lived for a while with James Joyce who is said to have modeled Buck Mulligan of Ulysses on the young student. His subsequent medical practice was restricted to otorhinolaryngology (he was said to be an excellent surgeon); but he pursued many other interests, as well, not only writing, but politics (he served in the senate and at one point was kidnapped), camaraderie with many other members of the Irish Renascence, flying, travel, and lecturing.
Background
Lyons JB. Oliver St. John Gogarty - The Man of Many Talents.Dublin: Blackwater Press;1980.
O'Connor U. Oliver St. John Gogarty. London: Jonathan Cape; 1964.Poetry
The Collected Poems (1951)Fiction
As I Was Going Down Sackville Street (1937)
Tumbling in the Hay (1939)
Going Native (1940)
Mad Grandeur (1941)
Mr. Petunia (1945)
Mourning Became Mrs. Spendlove (1948)
It Isn't That Time of Year at All (1954)
A Weekend in the Middle of the Week (1958) Drama - The Plays of Oliver St. John Gogarty (1971)
E. Marshall Goldberg
1930-
Goldberg received his M.D. degree from Tufts University in 1956. Further trained as an internist, he became professor of medicine at Michigan State University and Chief of Medicine at Hurley Hospital in Flint, Michigan. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and, in addition to his writing, has hosted and appeared on a number of television programs, and been a member of the Medgar Evers Foundation.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
The Karamanov Equations (1972)
The Anatomy Lesson (1974)
Natural Killers (1976)
Disposable People (1976)
Critical List (1977)
The Family Scalpel (1995)
Deadly Operation (1996)
Intelligence (1996)
Nerve (1999)
Leonard S. Goldberg
1936-
A 1959 medical graduate of the Medical College of South Carolina, Goldberg did a medical residency followed by further training in hematology and immunology. He has been a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California since 1979; and is an American Board of Internal Medicine diplomate in medicine, hematology and rheumatology, as well as fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Background
Barnes and Noble biographical sketch (http://barnesandnoble.com/)Fiction
A Deadly Practice (1992)
Deadly Medicine (1992)
Deadly Care (1996)
Deadly Harvest (1997)
Deadly Exposure (1998)
Peter Goldsworthy
1951-
Goldsworthy was graduated B.Med, B. Surg. from the University of Adelaide, Australia, in 1974. A medical practioner in Adelaide, he devotes half his time to writing, and has received many literary awards, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Australian Bicentennial Literary Award.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsPoetry
Readings from Ecclesiastes (1982)
This Goes with This (1988)
After the Ball (1992)
If, Then (1996)Fiction
Archipelagoes (1982)
Zooing (1986)
Bleak Rooms (1988)
Maestro (1989)NonFiction
Navel Gazing (1998)
Henryk Goldszmit
1878-1942
Though wishing to become a writer, Goldszmit was persuaded by his family to take up medicine. He graduated from the University of Warsaw in 1905, one of the few Jews to do so, took further training in pediatrics, and studied with Virchow, Marfan, and Charcot. Deeply interested in the physical and psychological health of children, he worked in the children's hospital in Warsaw and in various orphanages, some of which he founded. He also participated in four wars - the Russo-Japanese War, both world wars, and the Polish-Soviet War - and it was during the Nazi occupation of Poland that he was murdered, along with some two hundred orphans he was trying to console, at Treblinka.
Background
Contemporary Authors
Jewish Medical History site
Lifton BJ. The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak. New York: Farrar, Straus; 1978.Fiction
Big Business Billy (1939)
Selected Works of Janusz Korczak (1967)
King Matt the First (1986)NonFiction
Ghetto Diary (1978)
Frank Gonzalez-Crussi
1936-
A 1961 medical graduate of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and a pathologist, Gonzalez-Crussi immigrated to the United States in 1973. He became professor of pathology at Northwestern University and head of laboratories at Children's Memorial Hospital, both in Chicago. In addition to his medical writing, he has written award-winning nonfiction.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsNonFiction
Notes of an Anatomist (1985)
Three Forms of Sudden Death; and Other Reflections of the Grandeur and Misery of the Body (1986)
On the Nature of Things Erotic (1988)
The Five Senses (1989)
The Day of the Dead and Other Mortal Reflections (1994)
There is a World Elsewhere: Autobiographical Pages (1998)
Enrique Gonzalez Martinez
1871-1952
Gonzalez Martinez received his medical degree in Guadalajara, the city of his birth, in 1893, and practiced for seventeen years. At the time of the Mexican Revolution (1911) he served in the Ministry of Education and as a diplomate, and that same year wrote his famous "Wring the neck of the swan with the false plumage" poem, denouncing Romantic excesses in writing. Unfortunately, I am unable to locate any English editions of his work.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.Poetry
Poesias (3 vol.,1938-40)
James Grainger
1721-1766
Apprenticed to a surgeon, Grainger studied medicine in Edinburgh, served as military surgeon between 1745 and 1748, and later practiced in Scotland and London. Eventually he moved to the West Indies.
Background
McDonough ML. Poet-Physicians: An Anthology of Medical Poetry Written by Physicians. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas; 1945.Poetry
Sugar Cane (1764)
Poems of James Grainger (1810)NonFiction
Essays Physical and Literary (1756)
Essays on the More Common West Indian Diseases and the Remedies Which That Country Itself Produces (1964)Translation
Poetical Translation of the Elegies of Tibullus and the Poems of Sulpica (1759)
James Russell Grant
1924-
Grant was graduated M.B., Ch.B. from the University of Glasgow in 1945, and practiced medicine and psychiatry in London. He also served as medical officer at King's Cross Hostel for the Homeless in London. In addition to his poetry, he wrote for the British and Canadian Broadcasting Corporations.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsPoetry
Hyphens (1958)
Poems (1959)
The Excitement of Being Sam (1977)
The Cracked Weather Set (1980)
Myths of My Age (1985)
Hattonrig Road (1986)
In the '4 Cats' (1997)
John Grant
1933-
Grant graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. in 1958, and went on to earn D. Path., D.Bact., D.H.M., M.D., and D.T.M.H. degrees as well. He has worked as a general practitioner, and as a pathologist in various countries; and was head of the Bacteriology Unit at the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Most of his books were written under the Jonathan Gash pseudonynm (only a few are listed below), and the popular Lovejoy detective novels were made into a comedy series for BBC television.
Background
Contemporary Authors
Fiction
The Judas Pair (1977)
Gold from Gemini (1978)
Firefly Gadroon (11982)
The Gondola Scam (1983)
Jade Woman (1988)
The Great California Game (1990)
A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair (1999)Drama
Terminus (1976)
Douglas Greer
1939-
After graduating from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1966, Greer did further training in ophthalmalogy and practices that specialty in Washington, D.C. His novel, Blind Ambition, which can be classified as a medical thriller, has caught the attention of some concerned about LASIK procedures for nearsightedness.
Fiction
Blind Ambition (2000)
Jacques Grevin
1538-1570
Grevin studied medicine at the University of Paris, but was forced to leave France for religious reasons in 1560. He became physician to the Duchess of Savoy (Margaret of France), and wrote several medical treatises. A disciple of Pierre de Ronsard, he is, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, "credited with writing the first original French plays to observe the form of classical tragedies and comedies." Unfortunately, I am only able to locate the one English translation listed below.
Background
Encyclopedia BritannicaDrama
Taken by Surprise (1985)
Arthur Guirdham
1905-
Guirdham's exact medical credentials are unknown to me, though he studied at Charing Cross Hospital in 1929, and is referred to on dust jackets as "MD." He practiced psychiatry in Bath, England, from 1935 through 1973; while writing a number of fictional and nonfictional works relating to psychic experiences and reincarnation.
Background
Contemporary AuthorsFiction
The Lights Were Going Out (1973)
These Paid (1946)
I a Stranger (1949)
The Gibbet and the Cross (1971)
The Island (1980)
Lars Gyllensten
1921-
In 1948 Gyllensten received his medical degree from the Caroline Institute in Stockholm, where he was subsequently professor of medicine for eighteen years. He pursued research in such areas as the lymphatic system and blood cell production; all the while publishing philosophical novels and engaging in public debate on various ethical issues. In 1966 he was elected member of the Swedish Academy, in 1968 was appointed to the Nobel Committee for literature (the 1978 presentation speech to Isaac Bashevis Singer was delivered by Gyllensten), and in 1975 was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, and puzzlingly, little of his copious literary output is available in English.
Background
Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th. ed.
Isaksson H. Lars Gyllensten. Boston: Twayne Publishers; 1978.Fiction
The Testament of Cain (1967)
