Physician writers are physicians who write
creatively in fields outside their practice
of medicine.
The following is a partial list of physician-writers
by historic epoch or century in which the
author was born, arranged in alphabetical
order.
== Antiquity ==
Ctesias (5th century BCE) Greek historian
St. Luke (1st century CE) apostle
== Middle Ages ==
Avicenna (980–1037) early contributor to
medical, philosophical and Islamic literature
Yehuda Halevi (c.1075–1141) Jewish-Spanish
philosopher and poet
Maimonides (1138–1204) rabbi, and philosopher
in Andalusia, Morocco and Egypt
== 15th century ==
Adam of Łowicz (also known as Adamus Polonus;
died 1514) was a professor of medicine at
Poland's Kraków Academy, its rector in 1510–11,
royal court physician, a humanist, writer
and philosopher.
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.
Girolamo Fracastoro (Fracastorius; 1478–1553)
Italian scholar (in mathematics, geography
and astronomy), poet and atomist; as a physician,
he proposed ideas very similar to the germ
theory of disease.
Paracelsus (1493–1541) Swiss-born botanist,
alchemist, occultist.
François Rabelais (1483–1553) French satirist
and author of The Lives, Heroic Deeds and
Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel.
== 16th century ==
Luis Barahona de Soto (1548–1595) Spanish
poet admired by Cervantes
Jan Brożek (Broscius, 1585–1652), Polish
mathematician, astronomer, physician, poet,
writer, musician, rector of the Kraków Academy
Thomas Campion (1567–1620) English composer
and poet
William Gilbert (1544–1603) English natural
philosopher
Jacques Grévin (c. 1539–1570) French dramatist
Arthur Johnston (1587–1641) Scottish poet
Thomas Lodge (c. 1558–1625) English dramatist
and writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean
periods; best remembered as the author of
Rosalynde, on which Shakespeare based As You
Like It
Sebastian Petrycy of Pilzno (1554–1626)
was a Polish philosopher and physician.
Michael Servetus (1511–53), Spanish theologian,
cartographer, humanist; the first European
to describe pulmonary circulation; burned
at the stake, for his religious views, in
John Calvin's Geneva.
Andreas Vesalius (1514–64) Belgian anatomist,
author of De humani corporis fabrica
== 17th century ==
Patrick Abercromby (1656–c.1716) Scottish
antiquarian, noted for being physician to
King James VII (II of England)
John Arbuthnot (1667–1735) one of Queen
Anne's physicians and an associate of Jonathan
Swift and Alexander Pope in the Scriblerus
Club
Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) British writer
with mastery in diverse fields including medicine,
religion, science and the esoteric.
Samuel Garth (1661–1719) British author
and translator of classics
Paul Fleming (1609–1640) was a lyricist
he stood in the front rank of German poets
Giulio Mancini (1559–1630) papal physician,
art collector, and author of treatises on
painting, nobility, dancing, government, and
health
Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) Dutch philosopher,
political economist and satirist who lived
most of his life in England and used English
for most of his published works; became famous
(or infamous) for The Fable of the Bees
Francesco Redi (1626–97) Italian poet, best
known work being Bacchus in Tuscany
Angelus Silesius, né Johannes Scheffler (1624–77)
German mystic and poet who wrote the lyrics
to many Christian hymns
Henry Vaughan (1622–1695) Welsh metaphysical
poet
John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher,
father of liberalism and one of the most influential
thinkers.
== 18th century ==
Mark Akenside (1721-1770) English poet and
physician, known for his poem The Pleasures
of the Imagination (1744)
Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) British poet,
grandfather of Charles Darwin
James Grainger (1721–66) poet from a Cumberland
family; friend of Dr. Johnson
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–74) Anglo-Irish writer
and poet known for his novel The Vicar of
Wakefield (1766)
Albrecht von Haller (1708–77) Swiss anatomist,
physiologist, naturalist and poet
Edward Jenner, FRS, (1749–1823) famous for
introducing the smallpox vaccine; also a poet
of some note
Johann Heinrich Jung (1740–1817) German
author, best known by his assumed name, Heinrich
Stillin; friend of Goethe
John Keats (1795–1821) one of the principal
poets of the English Romantic movement who
influenced poets such as Alfred Tennyson immensely
Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner (1786–1862)
German poet who, along with Ludwig Uhland,
established the Swabian group of Romantic
poets; some of his poems were set to music
by Robert Schumann
Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93) Swiss-born French
philosopher, political theorist and scientist
best known as a radical journalist and politician
from the French Revolution; stabbed to death
in his bathtub by the Girondin sympathizer
Charlotte Corday and memorialized in Jacques-Louis
David's 1793 painting, The Death of Marat
John Kearsley Mitchell (1798–1858) American
writer, father of S. Weir Mitchell
David Macbeth Moir (1798–1851) Scottish
writer; a contributor of both prose and verse
to the magazines, and particularly, with the
signature of Delta, to Blackwood's Magazine
Mungo Park (1771–1806) Scottish explorer
of the African continent
Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869) creator of
the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
(Roget's Thesaurus)
Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) German
writer, poet, essayist and dramatist; friend
of Goethe. He was an army surgeon before achieving
fame as a writer.
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 Humphry Clinker
== 19th century ==
Carl Ludwig Emil Aarestrup (1800–1856) Danish
erotic poet
Mariano Azuela (1873–1952) Mexican physician
in Pancho Villa's army; in 1949 he received
a National Prize for Literature
Doris Bell Ball (1897–1987) wrote under
the pseudonym "Josephine Bell"; a British
detective novelist who wrote more than forty
books; a founding member of the Crime Writers
Association
Pío Baroja y Nessi (1872–1956) Spanish
writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation
of '98; admired by Hemingway
Nérée Beauchemin (1850–1931) Québécois
poet who attempted to produce a national literature
Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849) English
poet and dramatist whose central theme was
death
Gottfried Benn (1886–1956) German essayist,
novelist and expressionist poet
Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, (1844–1930)
English poet, the only physician to hold the
honour of poet laureate (1913)
Georg Büchner (1813–1837) German dramatist
and writer of prose
Ludwig Büchner (1824–1899) German philosopher
and physiologist who became one of the exponents
of 19th century scientific materialism
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) Russian novelist
and playwright; author of The Master and Margarita
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
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British
author of Sherlock Holmes fame
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)
Júlio Dinis, pseudonym of Joaquim Guilherme
Gomes Coelho (1839–1871) was a Portuguese
doctor and writer.
Alfred Döblin (1878–1957) was a German
novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known
for his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929).
William Henry Drummond (1854–1907) Irish-Canadian
poet of the habitant
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
William Gilbert (author) (1804–1890) English
author and father of W. S. Gilbert
Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878–1957) Irish
ear surgeon, one of the most prominent Dublin
wits and best known as the inspiration for
Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses
Enrique González Martínez (1871–1952)
Mexican poet and diplomat, considered to be
primarily Modernist in nature, with elements
of French symbolism
Thomas Gordon Hake (1809–1895) English poet,
intimate member of the circle of friends and
followers of Rossetti
William Alexander Hammond (1828–1900) pioneering
American neurologist and the Surgeon General
of the United States Army during the American
Civil War
Henry Head (1861–1940) English neurologist
who conducted pioneering studies on the somatosensory
system and sensory nerves. Much of this work
was conducted on himself, in collaboration
with the psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers
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
Richard Huelsenbeck (1892–1974) poet and
a founder and historian of Dada.
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-20th century who wrote
science fiction, fantasy and horror.
Arabella Kenealy (1859-1938), English graduate
of the London School of Medicine for Women,
she practiced medicine in London and Watford
(1888–1894)and authored many works of fiction,
including the novel Dr. Janet of Harley Street
(1893).
Geoffrey Keynes (1887–1982) English biographer,
surgeon, scholar and bibliophile; younger
brother of the economist John Maynard Keynes
Janusz Korczak (1879–1942) Polish-Jewish
pediatrician, hero of the Warsaw Ghetto, and
author of books for and about children
F. Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882) Estonian
folklorist and poet who compiled the national
epic poem Kalevipoeg
Vincas Kudirka (1858–1899) Lithuanian poet
and the author of both the music and lyrics
of the Lithuanian National Anthem, Tautiška
giesmė
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
Jorge de Lima (1895–1953) Brazilian politician,
poet, and writer of Alagoas
David Livingstone (1813–1873) Scottish medical
missionary, explorer of Africa, travel writer
Paolo Mantegazza (1831–1910) Italian writer,
wrote the science fiction book, L'Anno 3000
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) celebrated
British novelist, short-story writer, and
playwright; wrote Of Human Bondage
John McCrae (1872–1918) Canadian poet, artist
and soldier during World War I and a surgeon
during the battle of Ypres; best known for
writing the famous war memorial poem "In Flanders
Fields"
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
Max Simon Nordau (1849–1923) born Simon
Maximilian Südfeld was a Hungarian Zionist
leader, author, and social critic; co-founder
of the World Zionist Organization
Sir William Osler(1849–1919) Canadian-born;
one of the greatest icons of medicine and
described as the Father of Modern Medicine
Philippe Panneton (pseudonym Ringuet) (1895–1960)
Canadian academic, diplomat and writer
Wilder Graves Penfield (1891–1976) a neurosurgeon
who worked at McGill University and pioneered
neurosurgical procedures for epilepsy; also
wrote fiction
Bozo Pericić (1865–1947) Croatian author
of travel books, reviews on famous writers
and a translation of Hamlet
John William Polidori (1795–1821) Personal
physician of Lord Byron and author of The
Vampyre, the first vampire story in English
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
Mokichi Saitō (1882–1953) Japanese poet
of the Taishō period, a member of Araragi
school; by the time of his death, he had written
17 collections of poems and 17,907 poems;
family doctor of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
and assisted in his suicide; novelist Kita
Morio is his second son
Arthur Schnitzler (1862–1931) Jewish-Austrian
writer and dramatist. Stanley Kubrick's 1999
film Eyes Wide Shut is based on Schnitzler's
Rhapsod; Schnitzler's La Ronde also spawned
film versions.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) German theologian,
philosopher, organist, musicologist and medical
missionary to Africa
Victor Segalen (1878–1919) French ethnographer,
archeologist, writer, poet, explorer, art-theorist,
linguist, literary critic
Henry Thompson, (1820–1904) indefatigable
British polymath, scholar and novelist
Margaret Todd (c. 1859-1918) Scottish writer
and doctor who wrote under the pen name Graham
Travers and published several novels including
Mona Maclean, Medical Student.
John Todhunter (1839–1916) Irish poet and
playwright
Shaul Tchernichovsky (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
Vladislav Vančura (1891–1942) Czech author,
scriptwriter and film director
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
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American
poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright
and essayist; in 1963 he won a posthumous
Pulitzer Prize for poetry
Charlotte Wolff (1897–1986) Jewish-German
psychoanalyst and sexologist, author of poetry
and novels, and one of few scientifically
trained investigators of the diagnostic significance
of the hand (Studies in Handreading, 1936)
Francis Brett Young (1884–1954) English
novelist and poet
Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971) a Dutch doctor,
writer, poet and translator.
== 20th century ==
Kōbō Abe (1924–1993) Japanese author known
for his surrealistic, Kafkaesque style
Keith Ablow, New York Times best-selling author
Dannie Abse (born 1923) Welsh chest specialist
who is also one of Europe's most prolific
doctor-poets
Vassily Aksyonov (1932–2009) Russian novelist
who was forced to emigrate from the Soviet
Union in 1980
António Lobo Antunes (born 1942) psychiatrist
and leading Portuguese writer
Jacob M. Appel (born 1973), American short
story writer
Daniel Amen, psychiatrist, New York Times
author
Janet Asimov (born 1926, Janet Opal Jeppson)
American science fiction author and psychoanalyst,
wife of Isaac Asimov
Brian Andrews (born 1955), neurosurgeon, Novelist
Alaa Al Aswany (born 1957), Egyptian writer
and practicing dentist
Ba'al Machshavot: see Israel Isidor Elyashev
Arnie Baker (born 1953 in Montreal, Canada)
is a bicycle coach, racer and writer
Christiaan Neethling Barnard (1922–2001)
South African cardiac surgeon, famous for
performing the world's first successful human-to-human
heart transplant
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.
Eric Berne (1910–70), psychiatrist who created
transactional analysis; author of Games People
Play.
Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński (1874–1941) Polish
gynecologist, journalist, poet, most famous
as the translator of over 100 French literary
classics into Polish.
Rafael Campo (born 1964) director of the Harvard
Program in the Medical Humanities; his practice
serves mostly Latinos, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender
people, and people with HIV
Ethan Canin (born 1960) American short story
writer and novelist; author of Emperor of
the Air, Carry Me Across the Water, and other
works
Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Louis-Ferdinand Destouches,
1894–1961), French physician and author
of Voyage au bout de la nuit
Deepak Chopra (born 1946) Indian writer on
spirituality and mind-body medicine
Don Coldsmith (born 1926) American author
of primarily Western fiction; past president
of Western Writers of America
Robert Coles (born 1929) American author,
child psychiatrist, and professor at Harvard
University
Alex Comfort (1920–2000) British writer
and poet, author of The Joy of Sex and a science
fiction novel, Tetrarch
Robin Cook (born 1940), American author of
best-selling novels, including Coma; nearly
all his books deal with hot medical issues
of the day, from bioterrorism to organ donation
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author
of Jurassic Park
A.J. Cronin (1896–1981), Scottish novelist
and essayist; creator of Dr. Finlay. Other
works include The Stars Look Down, The Citadel,
and The Keys of the Kingdom. The Citadel (1937)
brought much-needed attention to inequities
in the British medical system and is credited
with having prompted the creation of Britain's
National Health Service.
Theodore Dalrymple, pen name of Anthony Daniels
(born 1949). Conservative writer, author of
Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality,
among others. Retired British prison doctor
and psychiatrist.
Colin Douglas (born 1945) pseudonym of a Scottish
novelist, Colin Thomas Currie; frequent British
Medical Journal contributor
Halbert L. Dunn (1896–1975) authored High
Level Wellness (1961).
Marek Edelman (1922–2009) Polish sociopolitical
activist, memoirist, last leader of the 1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Nawal El Saadawi (born 1931) Egyptian feminist
who has written many books on the subject
of women in Islam
Israel Isidor Elyashev (1873–1924; pen-name:
Ba'al Machshavot, Hebrew for "The Thinker"
(בעל מחשבות): Lithuanian neurologist;
pioneer of Hebrew and Yiddish literature;
known as the first Yiddish literary critic,
publisher, translator (translated Theodor
Herzl's Altneuland from German into Yiddish)
and forerunner of the Zionist Movement
Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) born in Martinique,
who wrote books on the psychology of colonial
oppression, notably The Wretched of the Earth.
Jacques Ferron (1921–85) Canadian author
who founded the Parti Rhinocéros, which he
described as "an intellectual guerrilla party"
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
Alice Weaver Flaherty (born ) American neurologist,
author of The Midnight Disease: The Drive
to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative
Brain
Viktor Frankl (1905–1997) Austrian neurologist
and psychiatrist, author of Man's Search for
Meaning
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Austrian psychoanalyst,
author of many books prized as much for their
literary qualities.
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
Tess Gerritsen (born 1953) American writer
of gothic thrillers with a medical theme
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
John Grant (born 1933) English author who
writes under the pen name Jonathan Gash. He
is the author of the Lovejoy series of novels
Lars Johan Wictor Gyllensten (1921–2006)
Swedish author and physician, and a member
of the Swedish Academy
Miroslav Holub (1923–1998) Czech poet, heavily
influenced by his experiences as an immunologist,
wrote many poems using his scientific knowledge
to poetic effect
Richard Hooker (1924–1997) American writer
and surgeon who wrote under the pseudonym
Richard Hooker. His most famous work was MASH
(1968)
Khaled Hosseini (born 1965) Afghanistan-born
American novelist; author of the bestsellers
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns
Wil Huygen (1923-2009) 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
Alice Jones, American poet, practiced internal
medicine, psychiatry, now psychoanalysis.
Co-editor of Apogee Press.
Carl Jung (1875–1961), Austrian psychoanalyst
and author.
James Kahn (born 1947) American writer, best
known for his novelization of Return of the
Jedi, Poltergeist and Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom. He has also written for well-known
television series such as Melrose Place, Star
Trek: The Next Generation, St. Elsewhere and
E/R
Christopher Kasparek (born 1945), Scottish-born
writer of Polish descent who has edited and
translated works by Ignacy Krasicki, Bolesław
Prus, Florian Znaniecki, Władysław Tatarkiewicz,
Marian Rejewski and Władysław Kozaczuk,
as well as the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
Harold L. Klawans (1937–98) wrote Chekhov's
Lie, about the challenges of combining writing
with the medical life
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
Ronald David Laing (1927–89) Scottish psychiatrist
who wrote extensively on mental illness and
particularly the experience of psychosis
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
Edward Lowbury (1913–2007) English bacteriologist
and pathologist who was also a published poet
and wrote criticism and biography
John E. Mack (1929–2004) Pulitzer Prize-winning
biographer, also considered an authority on
the spiritual or transformational effects
of alleged alien-encounter experiences
Adeline Yen Mah (born 1937) Chinese-American
author
J. Nozipo Maraire (born 1966) Zimbabwean writer;
author of Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter
Félix Martí Ibáñez (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
Alexander McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, (born 1948)
Rhodesian-born Scottish writer and Emeritus
Professor of Medical Law at the University
of Edinburgh, Scotland; writer of fiction,
most widely known as the creator of The No.
1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series
Keith McCarthy (born 1960) British author
of crime novels
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
Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, CBE (born 1934)
British theatre and opera director, author,
television presenter, humorist and sculptor
Amitabh Mitra (born 1955) South African poet
of Indian origin, working at Cecilia Makiwane
Hospital in Mdantsane township
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
Fernando Goncalves Namora (1919–1989) was
a Portuguese writer and medical doctor.
Taslima Nasrin (also spelled Taslima Nasreen
and popularly referred to as 'Taslima', born
1962) Bengali Bangladeshi author and feminist
who writes about the treatment of women in
Islam; lives in exile in India and has received
death threats from fundamentalists
Josef Nesvadba (1926–2005) Czech science
fiction writer, the best known from the 1960s
generation; pioneer of group psychotherapy
in Czechoslovakia
António Agostinho Neto (1922–79), first
President of Angola (1975–1979), leader
of the Popular Movement for the Liberation
of Angola (MPLA) and celebrated poet
Abioseh Nicol (Davidson Nicol) (1924–94)
Sierra Leonean academic, diplomat, writer
and poet
Alan E. Nourse (1928–1992) American science
fiction author
Sherwin Nuland (1930–2014) American author
who teaches bioethics and medicine at the
Yale University School of Medicine
Danielle Ofri (born 1965). Author of Singular
Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue,
Incidental Findings and Medicine in Translation:
Journeys with My Patients. Internist at Bellevue
Hospital and NYU School of Medicine.
Ferdie Pacheco (born 1927) prolific author
and painter, nicknamed "The Fight Doctor";
personal physician of Muhammad Ali
Michael Stephen Palmer (born 1942) author
of 13 novels, often called the Medical thrillers
series
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
Walker Percy (1916–1990) American Southern
author whose interests included philosophy
and semiotics
Lenrie Leopold Wilfred Peters (born 1932)
Gambian novelist and poet
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
Stephen Potts (born 1957) British author of
children's books
Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), Austrian-American
psychiatrist, author of The Mass Psychology
of Fascism and Character Analysis.
Mickey Zucker Reichert (born 1962) Pediatrician
and fantasy author
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
Suhayl Saadi (born 1961) is an author and
dramatist based in Glasgow
Oliver Wolf Sacks (1933–2015) wrote 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
Ferrol Sams (1922-2013) American novelist;
author of Run with the Horsemen, who draws
heavily on southern storytelling tradition
Moacyr Scliar (1937–2011) 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 (1928-2016) 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
Samuel Shem, pen-name Stephen Joseph Bergman
(born 1944) wrote The House of God and Mount
Misery, both fictional but close-to-real first-hand
descriptions of the training of doctors
David Shrayer-Petrov (born 1936) Russian-American
fiction writer, poet, and essayist, best known
for his Russian trilogy of novels about Jewish
refuseniks and for his collections of short
stories Jonah and Sarah, Autumn in Yalta and
Dinner with Stalin, all of which feature medical
themes and characters who are doctors and
nurses. He served as a military physician
in the Soviet Union, practiced as an endocrinologist,
worked as a research microbiologist and oncologist.
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
Benjamin Spock (1903–1988) – American
pediatrician, wrote Baby and Child Care
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
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
Gael Turnbull (1928–2004) Scottish poet
who was an important precursor of the British
Poetry Revival
Vaino Vahing (born 1940) former psychiatrist,
one of the most famous and gifted of Estonian
writers; most of his publications date from
the 1970s and '80s.
Abraham Verghese (born 1955) Indian-American
professor at Stanford University Medical School,
born and reared in Ethiopia, author of the
novel, Cutting for Stone.
Karl Edward Wagner (1945–1994) American
writer, editor and publisher of horror, science
fiction, and heroic fantasy
Junichi Watanabe (1933-2014) Japanese novelist
who was an orthopaedic surgeon, published
romantic story A Lost Paradise.
Phil Whitaker (born 1966) book reviewer for
the New Statesman and a novelist
James White (1928–1999) wrote the Sector
General Series about a hospital in space,
but was not a physician. He wanted to be one,
but "he had to go out and work" (see article
in Wikipedia and author's web site.)
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was
an American poet closely associated with modernism
and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and
GP.
Tim Willocks (born 1957) British novelist
whose work usually features a central character
with extensive medical knowledge (especially
of drugs) and martial arts ability (Willocks
is a black belt in Shotokan karate)
F. Paul Wilson (born 1946) writes novels and
short stories primarily in the science fiction
and horror genres
Irvin Yalom (born 1931) existentialist and
psychotherapist; produced a number of 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
C. Dale Young (born 1969) American poet, editor
and educator; edits poetry for New England
Review.
== 21st century ==
Chris Adrian, author, paediatrician, Harvard
Divinity School graduate
Monther Alkabbani (born 1970), celebrated
Saudi Arabian writer, novelist and surgeon
Janet Asimov, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst,
and science fiction writer
Gyan Chaturvedi (born 1952), Indian cardiologist,
author, and columnist. He is a prolific writer
of much-acclaimed satire in Hindi.
Brandon Colby, writer on predictive medicine
and genetic testing
Joel Fuhrman, family physician, author, print
and TV advocate of a micronutrient-rich diet
Rivka Galchen, novelist
Atul Gawande (b. 1965) general and endocrine
surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in
Boston, Massachusetts and is The New Yorker
medical writer
Tess Gerritsen, novelist
Perri Klass, journalist, pediatrician, New
York University professor
Vincent Lam, Canadian writer (Bloodletting
& Miraculous Cures)
C. J. Lyons, former pediatrician and thriller
writer
Amit Majmudar, poet, novelist, practicing
radiologist, 1st Ohio poet laureate
William James Maloney, American dentist, author
Howard Markel, physician, medical historian,
journalist, editor, national best selling
author, and professor at The University of
Michigan
Richard Mounce, endodontist and magazine writer
Siddhartha Mukherjee, oncologist, Pulitzer
Prize winner, author of The Emperor of All
Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Taslima Nasrin, Bengali author and former
physician
Danielle Ofri, essayist, editor, practicing
internist, and professor at New York University
School of Medicine
Kevin Patterson, Canadian writer
Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian feminist writer,
activist, physician and psychiatrist
Abraham Verghese, Indian-American New York
Times Bestselling author, Professor at Stanford
University Medical School, Department of Internal
Medicine
Martin Winckler, physician, writer, TV critic
== 
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 was the Celtic patroness 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:
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.
The challenges of combining medical practice
with writing are addressed by neurologist
and pharmacologist Harold L. Klawans in his
study, Chekhov's Lie.
== 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 (The Doctors). 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 Schriftstellerärzte
[BDSA]
Greece, Hellenic Society of Physician Writers
Italy, A.M.S.I.
Netherlands, Penaescula
Poland, Unia Polskich Pisarzy Medyków [UPPL]
Portugal, Sociedade Portuguesa dos Escritores
Médicos [SOPEAM]
Romania, Societaea Medicilor Scriitori şi
Publicişti din România
South America, Liga Sud-Americana de Médicos-Escritores
LISAME
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
and 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."
Daniel Bryant, an American internist, has
compiled an extensive list of fellow physician
writers.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."Dartmouth Medical School
publishes Lifelines, an art and literature
journal dedicated to featuring the works of
physicians and their experiences in medicine.
The British Medical Association keeps an updated,
though selective, list of physician-writers
on its web site.
== See also ==
Lists of writers
Writers by non-fiction subject area (category)
== Notes
