Book Notes
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Robert J. Haggerty and Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr. Charles A. Janeway: Pediatrician to the World’s Children. Boston: Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 2007. xii + 453 pp. Ill. $35.00 (0-674-02380-3).
In their biography of Charles A. Janeway, authors Robert J. Haggerty and Frederick H. Lovejoy make use of correspondence, diaries, unpublished materials, and interviews with associates, students, and friends of Janeway to chronicle his life story. Janeway’s tale is presented chronologically, from his early career as a researcher to his appointments as Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and head of the department of medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston through his efforts at starting teaching hospitals in developing countries.
In presenting Janeway’s biography, the authors hope “that recording his remarkable life will inspire others, as it has inspired us, to reach for the stars, to seek to fulfill our potential, to do good, and to do it well” (p. x).
The Editors
Robert Martensen. A Life Worth Living: A Doctor’s Reflections on Illness in a High-Tech Era. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008. xii + 220. $23.00 (ISBN-10: 0-374-26666-2, ISBN-13: 978-0-374-26666-0).
In this book, written “for those of us who face difficult choices about how to live with serious chronic illnesses or conditions” (p. ix), historian Robert Martensen draws on his many years as a physician to examine the life cycle of the dilemmas and decisions relating to such illnesses. The form of the book, notes Martensen, is “hybrid: part memoir, part philosophy, and part guide” (p. xii).
Chapters 1 and 2, “Trials of the Body” and “Less-Traveled Paths,” relate the stories of two individuals diagnosed with serious illnesses and the paths of treatment that each chose. Chapter 3, “Illusions of Control,” takes place in intensive care units, and chapter 4, “Elective Choices,” concerns treatment choices “when no choice can return one to one’s previous state of health” (p. xi). The treatment of the young is examined in chapter 5, “Reflections on the Plight of Sick Children,” and chapter 6, “If This Is a Person,” describes the experiences of two teenagers who suffered serious neurological impairment. Chapter 7, “Life in the Narrows,” explores the plight of the more vulnerable members of society. The last chapter, “As Night Draws Nigh,” follows the final days of the author’s father and explores the issues of improving the dying experiences of older Americans.
The Editors [End Page 425]
Mark E. Silverman and W. Bruce Fye. J. Willis Hurst: His Life and Teachings. Mahwah, N.J.: Foundation for Advances in Medicine and Science, Inc., 2007. iii + 206 pp. Ill. $22.50 (978-0-615-13546-5).
Mark E. Silverman and W. Bruce Fye present an homage to Dr. J. Willis Hurst, “one of the most revered and respected teachers of medicine and cardiology of his time” (p. ii), in this biography and collection of writings by and about the cardiologist. Chapter 1 comprises a brief biography, including descriptions of Hurst’s early life; time in the military; and work at Massachusetts General Hospital, the U.S. Naval Hospital, and Emory University. Chapter 2, “Selected Essays by J. Willis Hurst,” features those essays “which reflect his wisdom about medical themes that are both timely and timeless” (p. 16). Writings include “The Attributes of a True Teacher,” “Medical Teaching as a Profession,” and “Quest for Excellence: Modus Operandi (1957–1986).” Chapter 3 presents...
