Physician writers are medical doctors who write creatively in fields outside their practice of medicine. Their works include short stories, novels, poetry, drama, screenplays, children’s literature, speculative fiction, scholarly works, essays, biography and translations. The following is a partial list of physician-writers by historic epoch or century in which the author was born, arranged in alphabetical order. Most have a Wikipedia entry. For those who do not, a reference to another internet site, providing biographical information, has often been added. Antiquity - Ctesias (5th century B.C.) Greek historian
Middle Ages - Avicenna (980-1037) major early contributor to medical, philosophical and Islamic literature
15th century - Biernat of Lublin (1465–1529) was a Polish poet, fabulist and physician. He was one of the first Polish-language writers known by name, and the most interesting of the earliest ones.
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a Polish mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist, best known for his epoch-making book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.
16th century thumb|100px|Servetusthumb|100px|Vesalius 17th century - Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) British writer with mastery in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric
- Francesco Redi (1626–97) Italian poet, best known work being Bacchus in Tuscany
18th century - Mungo Park (1771–1806) Scottish explorer of the African continent
- Tobias Smollett (1721–71) Scottish author, known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748); best known work is The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker
19th century thumb|100px|[[Sir Henry Thompson, 1st Baronet|Thompson]] - Hans Carossa (1878–1956) German novelist and poet, known mostly for his autobiographical novels, and his innere Emigration (inner emigration) during the Nazi era.
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline pen name of French writer Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (1894–1961) developed a new style of writing that modernized both French and World literature
- Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) celebrated Russian short-story writer and playwright
- Géza Csáth (né József Brenner) (1887–1919) Hungarian writer, playwright, musician, music critic and psychiatrist
- Warwick Deeping (1877–1950) prolific English novelist and short story writer; most famous novel is Sorrell and Son (1925)
- Alfred Döblin (1878–1957) German expressionist novelist, best known for Berlin Alexanderplatz
- Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) French author who, in 1920, published Confession de minuit featuring the anti-hero Salavin; in 1935, elected member of Académie française
- Havelock Ellis (1859–1940) British writer and poet, author of The Psychology of Sex
- Rudolph Fisher (1897–1934) African-American writer who was an active participant in the Harlem Renaissance, primarily as a novelist, but also as a musician
- R. Austin Freeman (1862–1943) British writer of detective stories, most featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. He invented the inverted detective story
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) one of the best regarded American poets of the 19th century; helped found the literary magazine The Atlantic Monthly, his collected essays published as The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, highly popular in its day
- David H. Keller (1880–1966) (most often published as David H. Keller, MD, but also known by the pseudonyms Monk Smith, Matthew Smith, Amy Worth, Henry Cecil, Cecilia Henry and Jacobus Hubelaire); a writer for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century who wrote science fiction, fantasy and horror
- F. Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882) Estonian folklorist and poet who compiled the national epic poem Kalevipoeg
- František Langer (1888–1965) Czech author, script writer, essayist, literary critic and publicist
- C. Louis Leipoldt (1880–1947) South African poet who wrote novels, plays, stories, children's books, cookbooks and a travel diary; numbered amongst the greatest of the Afrikaner poets
- Paolo Mantegazza (1831–1910) Italian writer, wrote the science fiction book, L'Anno 3000
- S. Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) prominent American neurologist who wrote short stories, poetry and more than a dozen novels (Hugh Wynne, Dr North, Characteristics), including the celebrated fictional story The Strange Case of George Dedlow.
- Mori Ōgai or Mori Rintaro (1862–1922) Japanese translator, novelist and poet; The Wild Geese is considered his major work; began as a writer of partly autobiographical fiction with strong overtones of German Romantic writings; midway in his career he shifted to historical novels
- Axel Martin Fredrik Munthe (1857–1949) Swedish psychiatrist, best known as the author of The Story of San Michele (1929), an autobiographical account of his work and life
- Sir William Osler(1849–1919) Canadian-born; one of the greatest icons of medicine and described as the Father of Modern Medicine
- Bozo Pericić (1865–1947) Croatian author of travel books, reviews on famous writers and a translation of Hamlet
- Jose P. Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino polymath, nationalist and the most prominent advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era; a polyglot conversant in at least ten languages, he was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
- Sir Ronald Ross (1857–1932) a "Renaissance man"; demonstrated the life cycle of the malarial parasite; made contributions in pure and epidemiologic mathematics, and wrote novels, plays and poetry
- Henry Thompson, (1820–1904) indefatigable British polymath, scholar and novelist
- Saul Tschernichowsky (1875–1943) Jewish-Russian military physician during the First World War; decorated by the Russian government; nomadic life spent writing, translating, editing
- Adolfo Valderrama (1834–1902) Chilean man of letters and senator
- Frederik Willem van Eeden (1829–1901) 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
- Ernst Weiß (1882–1940) Jewish-Austrian writer, friend of Kafka, died by his own hand in Paris in 1940 as the Nazis entered the city
- Charlotte Wolff (1897–1986) Jewish-German psychoanalyst, she is one of the few scientifically trained people to have seriously investigated the diagnostic significance of the hand; Studies in Handreading was published in 1936
20th century thumb|100px|[[Marek Edelman|Edelman]] - Dannie Abse (born 1923) Welch chest specialist who is also one of Europe’s most prolific doctor-poets
- Iain Bamforth (born 1959) a doctor and scientific translator from Glasgow who lives and works in Strasbourg
- Martin Bax (born 1933) British founder and editor of the literary journal Ambit (1959); a developmental pediatrician and editor of the journal, Developmental and Child Neurology. He is also author of the cult novel, The Hospital Ship.
- Ben Byron, UK author of two medical suspense novels
- Rafael Campo (born 1964) director of the Harvard Program in the Medical Humanities; his practice serves mostly Latinos, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered people, and people with HIV infection
- Paul Carson (born 1949) from Dublin; editor of Irish Doctor magazine; has published several novels which have been best-sellers in Ireland and internationally
- Ron Charach (born 1951) Canadian poet and practicing psychiatrist
- William T. Choctaw (born 1947) American author of Avoiding Medical Malpractice: A Physician's Guide to the Law (Springer Publishing)
- Peter Clement, American novelist who has written the Earl Garnet medical thriller series, Lethal Practice, Death Rounds, and The Procedure; tries to ‘put the reader inside the head of an ER physician’
- Jack Coulehan (born 1943) Director, Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society, Stony Brook, New York
- Alice Dwyer-Joyce (1913-86) Irish novelist who wrote over thirty novels; many in the gothic/romantic genre
- Valgarður Egilsson (born 1940) Icelandic author; member of the Icelandic Writers’ Union
- Michael Fitzwilliam, pseudonym of J.B. Lyons (born 1922), professor of medical history at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, who wrote fiction in the 1960s
- Viktor Frankl (1905–1997) Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, author of Man's Search for Meaning
- Graeme Garden (born 1943) British comedy writer and performer from Scotland, actor, television director, and author, he became well-known as a member of The Goodies comedy trio; author of a novel The Seventh Man
- Peter Goldsworthy (1951) Australian writer who has won many awards for his short stories, poetry, novels, and opera libretti
- Richard Gordon, pen name of Gordon Ostlere (born 1921) English author of novels, screenplays for film and television and accounts of popular history; most famous for comic novels on a medical theme starting with Doctor in the House, and their film, television and stage adaptations; The Alarming History of Medicine was published in 1993 followed by The Alarming History of Sex
- James Ene Henshaw (1924-2007) one of the pioneering dramatists in Nigeria, he was also one of the first to be published outside West Africa
- Miroslav Holub (1923-1998) Czech poet, heavily influenced by his experiences as an immunologist, wrote many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect
- Wil Huygen (born 1923) Dutch author and painter, best known for the picture books on gnomes
- Yusuf Idris, also Yusif Idris (1927–91) Egyptian writer of plays, short stories, and novels who wrote realistic stories about ordinary and poor people. Many of his works are in the Egyptian vernacular, and he was considered a master of the short story
- P. C. Jersild (born 1935) Swedish writer, best-known for Barnens ö (The Island of the Children) filmed in 1980 by Kay Pollak
- Bernard Knight, CBE (born 1931) has written about thirty books, including contemporary crime fiction, historical novels about Wales, biography, non-fiction popular works on forensic medicine, twelve medico-legal textbooks and the current highly-acclaimed Crowner John Mysteries series of 12th-century historical mysteries
- Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) Polish science fiction, philosophical and satirical writer whose books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies
- Carlo Levi (1902–1975) Italian novelist and writer; author of Christ Stopped at Eboli
- Serge Liberman (born 1942) Jewish-Russian author of short stories including, On Firmer Shores, A Universe of Clowns, and Voices from the Corner; has lived in Australia since 1951
- John Edward Mack (1929–2004) Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, considered to be a leading authority on the spiritual or transformational effects of alleged alien encounter experiences
- Martin MacIntyre (born 1965) from Glasgow; works in both Gaelic and English
- Giovanni Magri (born 1937) Italian writer whose recent books include Notte lungo i Navigli - dieci storie milanesi (2003), I luoghi di una vita (2004), and Viaggio senza ritorno - tre racconti" (2006)
- J. Nozipo Maraire (born 1966) Zimbabwean writer; she is the author of Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter
- Felix Marti-Ibanez (1912-1972) Spanish author and minister for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War; exiled during Franco’s era, he became a United States citizen and published the popular MD magazine in 1950s
- Luis Martin Santos (1924-1964) Spanish novelist who tried to develop a psychology of the whole person
- Jed Mercurio (born 1966) British writer who also writes under the name John MacUre; created the television series Cardiac Arrest and Bodies; has also written and directed for The Grimleys
- George Milkomane (1903- 1996) Russian author; wrote under a variety of pseudonyms (e.g.George Sava) author of over one hundred and twenty books
- Amitabh Mitra (born 1955) extensively published on the Internet and in print, acclaimed as one of the most popular Indian poets writing in English today
- Taghi Modarressi (1931-1997) Iranian novelist who wrote in English and Persian; was married to the writer Ann Tyler
- David Monger (1908-72) first president of the Guild of Welsh Playwrights; wrote in both English and Welsh, and contributed several radio plays to the BBC
- David Moolten (born 1961) American poet ("Plums & Ashes,"1994; "Especially Then," 2005)
- Merrill Moore (1903-57) contributor to The Fugitive, became a member of the great literary circle that started the "modern Southern literature," the Southern Agrarian Movement; most prolific sonneteer ever, he wrote over forty thousand sonnets
- László Németh (1901-75) from Hungary made his literary debut in Nyugat with a closely observed portrait of a peasant woman (Mrs Horváth Dies, 1925); wrote and edited his own periodical, Witness (1932-36)
- Erlick Nelson: first novel was GermLine; also published medical thriller, The Xeno Solution (which covers xenotransplantation)
- M. Scott Peck (1936–2005), American psychiatrist whose The Road Less Traveled sold more than seven million copies and was on the New York Times best-seller list for over six years
- Steve Pieczenik (born 1943) is author of psycho-political thrillers and the co-creator of the best-selling Tom Clancy's Op-Center and Tom Clancy's Net Force paperback series
- Bill Pomidor: author of a series of thrillers featuring husband and wife medical detectives
- Carlos Vieira Reis (born 1935) Portuguese writer who has published several novels, books of poetry and essays; current president of the World Union of Physician Writers
- Theodore Isaac Rubin (born 1923) iconoclastic psychiatrist, wrote more than twenty-five works of fiction and nonfiction; his David and Lisa was made into an acclaimed film in 1962
- Oliver Wolf Sacks (born 1933) has written popular books about his patients (e.g. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat), the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro
- Ghulam Husayn Sa'idi (1936-1985) Iranian author whose satires became anathema to the Shah's regime; he was imprisoned, tortured, and exiled; one story, "The Rubbish Heap" was made into a film, shown in the United States as The Cycle
- Ferrol Sams (born 1922) American novelist; author of Run With The Horsemen, who draws heavily on southern storytelling tradition
- Charles Savona-Ventura (born 1955) Maltese obstetrician-gynaecologist, a prolific publisher on the Natural Sciences, particularly Geology, Herpetology and many aspects of life and history of Malta.
- Moacyr Scliar (born 1937) Jewish-Brazilian writer; most of his writing centers on issues of Jewish identity in the Diaspora and particularly on being Jewish in Brazil
- Richard Selzer (born 1928) American author of such celebrated works as Mortal Lessons, Confessions of a Knife, Letters to a Young Doctor and Taking the World in for Repairs which blur the line between case reporting and fiction
- David Shobin (born 1945) American writer of thrillers with a medical theme
- Alison Sinclair (born 1959) writes award-winning science fiction
- Frank Slaughter, pseudonym C.V. Terry (1908 - 2001) American bestselling novelist whose themes include history, the Biblical world, new findings in medical research and technology; wrote Doctors' Wives
- John Stone (born 1936) American poet, essayist, and lecturer
- Ken Strauss (born 1953) novelist who helps promote the work of other physician writers
- Han Suyin pen name of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth (born 1917), Chinese-born author of several books on modern China, novels set in East Asia, and autobiographical works; she currently resides in Lausanne and has written in English and French
- Barbara Szeffer–Marcinkowska (born in Warsaw) is a Polish maxillary and trauma surgeon and president of the Polish Union of Physician Writers (Unia Polskich Pisarzy Medyków)
- Raymond Tallis (born 1946) British author has published a novel, three volumes of poetry and over a dozen books on philosophy, literary theory, art and cultural criticism; in 2004 he was identified in Prospect magazine as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the United Kingdom; wrote The Enduring Significance of Parmenides: Unthinkable Thought
- Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) celebrated American essayist and poet
- Leonid Tsypkin (1926—1982) Jewish-Russian writer born in Minsk, best known for his book Summer in Baden-Baden
- Vaino Vahing (born 1940) former psychiatrist, one of the most famous and gifted of Estonian writers; most of his publications date from the 1970’s and ‘80’s.
- Arturo Vivante (born 1923) publishes in numerous prominent magazines, most notably in The New Yorker where he has published over 70 short stories
- Karl Edward Wagner (1945 –1994) American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy
- Phil Whitaker (born 1966) book reviewer for the New Statesman and a novelist
- F. Paul Wilson (born 1946) writes novels and short stories primarily in the science fiction and horror genres
- Irvin Yalom (born 1931) existentialist and accomplished psychotherapist; produced a number novels and also experimented with writing techniques; in Everyday Gets a Little Closer he invited a patient to co-write about the experience of therapy
Why physicians write Physicians have a long history, dating back to Greek medicine, of literary activities. This may have its origins in mythology. Apollo was the god of both poetry and medicine. Pallas Athene was the goddess of poetry, healing and war; Brigit is the Celtic patron of poets, smiths and healers. It is thought that through their privileged and intimate contact with those moments of greatest human drama (birth, illness, injury, suffering, disease, death) physicians are in a unique position to observe, record and create the stories that make us human. ‘The clinical gaze (has) much in common with the artist's eye.’ Robert Louis Stevenson, in his Preface to Underwoods , described this unique privilege as follows: There are men and classes of men that stand above the common herd: the soldier, the sailor, and the shepherd not infrequently; the artist rarely; rarelier still, the clergyman; the physician almost as a rule. He is the flower (such as it is) of our civilization; and when that stage of man is done with, and only to be marvelled at in history, he will be thought to have shared as little, as any in the defects of the period, and most notably exhibited the virtues of the race. Generosity he has, such as is possible to those who practise an art, never to those who drive a trade; discretion, tested by a hundred secrets; tact, tried in a thousand embarrassments; and what are more important, Heraclean cheerfulness and courage. So that he brings air and cheer into the sick room, and often enough, though not so often as he wishes, brings healing. A factor that may predispose some physicians to write is a superior level of intelligence and concomitant curiosity. The average physician has an I.Q. of 130. Professional writers often wonder how busy doctors find the time to write. Many doctors have had to quit medical practice in order to find the time. Those who do not quit inevitably struggle with the conflict of patient responsibilities over the pull of literature. Another question often raised is, is it right to use patients as material for literature? Doctors are sworn to medical secrecy and cannot ethically reveal confidential facts, such as names and diagnoses, of their patients. However, as with most authors, their characters are usually composites of many individuals. Worldwide organizations In 1955 a group of physician-writers created the International Federation of Societies of Physician-Writers (FISEM). One of the founders was Dr. André Soubiran, author of Hommes en blanc (Men in White). Other founders included Italian Professors Nasi and Lombroso, Belgian Drs. Sévery and Thiriet, Swiss physicians Junod and René Kaech, and eminent French writers of the medical academy. Dr. Mirko Skoficz was a key figure at the first FISEM congress in San Remo, Italy, along with his wife, Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida. In 1973 FISEM changed its name to UMEM— Union Mondiale des Écrivains Médécins, or World Union of Physician Writers. Its current president is Dr. Carlos Vieira Reis of Portugal. UMEM is an umbrella organization that subsumes physician-writer groups in: - Belgium, Groupement Belge des Médecins-Écrivains
- Brazil, Sociedade Brasileira de Médicos-Escritores SOBRAMES
- Bulgaria, Club des Écrivains Médecins en Bulgarie
- France, Groupement des Ecrivains – Médecins [GEM]
- Germany, Bundesverband Deutscher Schirftstellerarzte [BDSA]
- Greece, Hellenic Society of Physician Writers
- Poland, Unia Polskich Pisarzy Medyków [UPPL]
- Portugal, Sociedade Portuguesa dos Escritores Médicos [SOPEM]
- Romania, Societaea Medicilor Scriitori şi Publicişti din România
- Spain, Asociación Española de Médicos Escritores e Artistas [AEMEA]
- Switzerland, Association Suisse des Écrivains Médecins [ASEM]
Anglophone associations In the Anglophone world, the lead has been taken by New York University (NYU) with their encyclopedic Literature, Arts & Medicine Database (http://litmed.med.nyu.edu) and blog (http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/blog/). An associated resource is the Medical Humanities directory: http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/directory.html. These sites were established in 1994 at the New York University School of Medicine and were: “dedicated to providing a resource for scholars, educators, students, patients, and others who are interested in the work of medical humanities. We define the term ‘medical humanities’ broadly to include an interdisciplinary field of humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion), social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology), and the arts (literature, theater, film, and visual arts) and their application to medical education and practice. The humanities and arts provide insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood, our responsibility to each other, and offer a historical perspective on medical practice. Attention to literature and the arts helps to develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis, empathy, and self-reflection -- skills that are essential for humane medical care. The social sciences help us to understand how bioscience and medicine take place within cultural and social contexts and how culture interacts with the individual experience of illness and the way medicine is practiced.” Dr. Daniel Bryant, an American internist, has compiled an extensive list of fellow physician writers which can be assessed at http://library.med.nyu.edu/library/eresources/featuredcollections/bryant/roster.html or at http://members.aol.com/dbryantmd/index.html?f=fs The Johns Hopkins University Press publishes Literature and Medicine, “a journal devoted to exploring interfaces between literary and medical knowledge and understanding. Issues of illness, health, medical science, violence, and the body are examined through literary and cultural texts.” The British Medical Association keeps an updated, though selective, list of Physician-Writers on its web site: http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/LIBDoctorWriters See also
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