A Roster of Twentieth Century Physicians Writing in English

Bryant, Daniel

Primary Category: Literature / Nonfiction

Genre: Essay

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Oct-21-1996
  • Last revised: Sep-07-2006

Summary

The author lists 173 twentieth century physician-writers, including both well-known and relatively obscure figures. The roster features each author’s dates, nationality, gender, year of medical degree, medical specialty, and his or her literary genre (fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction). The information about each author is documented by a reference to source material. The article also contains tables indicating (1) the percentage of physicians in the United States who were published physician-writers by decade from 1930 to the present; (2) a breakdown of physician-writers by medical specialty; and (3) literary genres by medical specialty.

Commentary

This article is a useful source of information about lesser known American, British, Canadian, and other twentieth century physicians publishing literary works in English. Dr. Bryant’s roster complements Physicians Practicing Other Occupations, Especially Literature (1993) by Jack Peter Green (see this database), which provides more detailed information on well-known physician authors of various countries and historical periods.

9/7/06. Editor's note: In 2004, Daniel Bryant donated his collection of over 1000 books by physician writers to the Ehrman Medical Library at New York University School of Medicine. For information about the collection and a catalog of the books, see the online site above.

Primary Source

Literature and Medicine: 13 (2): 284-305 (1994)

Publisher

Johns Hopkins Univ. Press

Place Published

Baltimore