A Roster of Twentieth-Century Physicians Writing in English

^A Roster of Twentieth Century Physicians Writing in English* Daniel C. Bryant Throughout the twentieth century, and long before the emergence of literature and medicine as an identified field, scholars have been intrigued by physicians who write creatively. Bibliographies, anthologies , and collections of work by physician-writers reflect an ongoing interest in this phenomenon. In 1916, Charles Dana offered Poetry and the Doctors, a bibliographic list, based largely on his own library, of 160 physicians who had produced literary works since classical times.1 In 1945, Mary Lou McDonough published Poet-Physicians, an anthology of poems by some 100 physicians, followed by an index of over 380 poetphysicians dating as far back as Lucretius and St. Luke.2 Twenty years later, the New York Public Library printed Doctors as Men of Letters, a catalog of an exhibit from its Albert A. Berg and Henry W. Berg Collection, which provided biographical summaries of 80 medically trained individuals beginning with Linacre in the fifteenth century.3 From the 1970s through 1990, several additional listings have appeared. Joanne Trautmann and Carol Pollard's Literature and Medicine: Topics, Titles & Notes was one of the first publications to link literature with medicine formally.4 Its annotated bibliography of literary works that treat medical themes also identifies physician-writers. The American Physicians Poetry Association Library, established at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1982,5 contains volumes from thirty-odd nineteenth- and twentieth-century physicians. And three anthologies— Edward Lowbury's Apollo,6 Ron Charach's The Naked Physician? and Neil M. Paige and Thomas Alloggiamento's Vital Signs8—offer collec- *I wish to thank Mr. Andrew Scotton for research assistance and Mr. Glenn E. Palomaki (Director, Biometry Division, Foundation for Blood Research, Scarborough, Maine) for statistical advice in the preparation of this paper. Literature and Mediane 13, no. 2 (Fall 1994) 284-305 © 1994 by The Johns Hopkins University Press Daniel C. Bryant 285 tions of poetry by physicians from England, Canada, and the United States. My intention in offering yet another list is to call attention to writers who are perhaps less well-known; to eliminate authors such as Gertrude Stein and Robinson Jeffers, whose medical training did not result in a medical degree; and to present this information in a tabular and I hope accessible form. The writers included here are drawn from a variety of sources in addition to the references listed above: the Contemporary Authors series,9 Contemporary Authors New Revision Series,10 Contemporary Poets,11 Contemporary Novelists,12 Contemporary Dramatists,13 the journal Literature and Medicine, and from the suggestions of a variety of antiquarian book dealers. I have limited the roster to physicians writing since 1900 (though a few of them wrote predominantly in the nineteenth century), because the designation "physician" or "M.D." has been standardized in the United States only since the Flexner Report of 1910 led to the standardization of much of medical education. Englishtrained practitioners with the degree of B.Ch. (Baccalaureus Chirurgiae, i.e., Bachelor of Surgery), B.M. (Bachelor of Medicine),14 or higher are included. I have not yet discovered any osteopathic physician-writers. By writer I mean someone who has published at least one literary book, exclusive of autobiography, chapbook, or strictly scientific essay, with a commercial press (as opposed to self-published works). The distinction I draw between literary and scientific writing is admittedly arbitrary, but for my purposes the former kind of writing emphasizes imagination , while the latter term designates technical material. Finally, although most of the authors presented here have practiced medicine for at least a few years, they need not have; although many of them may be considered "good" writers, they need not be. At 173 names, the roster is not complete, nor could it ever be. In addition to names, it contains information about the birth, nationality, sex, year of completion of medical training, specialty, and genre(s) in which the author has published. Such a compilation invites additional lists and comparisons. And, while statistical analysis perhaps is not entirely justified because of the somewhat haphazard way in which the names were discovered, several observations might be permitted. Merrill Moore, psychiatrist-sonneteer, estimated that "the percentage...