Throughout history doctors have felt the need to express themselves in
prose and poetry, often on subjects far removed from their medical
interests. Renowned surgeon Seymour I. Schwartz felt this same
compulsion to write and eventually decided to investigate other authors
with a background in medicine. The result is this informative and
entertaining compilation of biographical profiles spanning the Middle
Ages to the present era.In many cases, literary fame has eclipsed memory
of these authors' medical expertise: Most people today talk about
Maimonides, Rabelais, Locke, Schiller, Keats, Conan Doyle, and Chekhov
because of their literary works, not because they practiced medicine.
But the lesser-known individuals are just as interesting in many ways:
such people as Cadwallader Colden, the loyalist lieutenant governor of
New York during the American Revolution, who wrote the first English
history of the Iroquois; Margaret Georgina Todd, author of popular
novels in the Victorian era, which promoted the idea of women in
medicine; and Rudolph John Chauncey Fisher, who was not only a
physician, researcher, and radiologist, but played a role in the Harlem
Renaissance as an orator, musician, musical arranger, and literary
figure.Concluding with profiles of contemporary doctors who are also
respected authors, this diverse collection shows that, despite
increasing specialization, medicine and the humanities continue to
complement each other to enrich our lives.
