Physician Writer - 20th Century

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
• Iain Bamforth (born 1959) a doctor and scientific translator from Glasgow who lives and works in Strasbourg
• 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.
• 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
• Ethan Canin (born 1960) American short story writer and novelist; author of Emperor of the Air, Carry Me Across the Water, and other works
• Paul Carson (born 1949) from Dublin; editor of Irish Doctor magazine; has published several novels which have been best-sellers in Ireland and internationally
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, 1894–1961), French physician and author of Voyage au bout de la nuit
• 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)
• Deepak Chopra (born 1946) Indian writer on spirituality and mind-body medicine
• 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’
• 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
• Jack Coulehan (born 1943) Director, Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society, Stony Brook, New York
• 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.
• Colin Douglas (born 1945) pseudonym of a Scottish novelist, Colin Thomas Currie; frequent British Medical Journal contributor
• Alice Dwyer-Joyce (1913–86) Irish novelist who wrote over thirty novels; many in the gothic/romantic genre
• R. Sarif Easmon (born 1930) well-known Sierra Leone playwright who practices medicine in Freetown
• Marek Edelman (1922–2009) Polish sociopolitical activist, memoirist, last leader of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
• Valgarður Egilsson (born 1940) Icelandic author; member of the Icelandic Writers’ Union
• 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
• Franz 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
• 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 (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
• 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
• 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 (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
• Alice Jones, American poet, practiced internal medicine, psychiatry, now psychoanalysis. Co-editor of Apogee Press.
• Karl Jung (1875–1961), Austrian psychoanalyst and author.
• James Kahn (born 1947) American writer, best known for his novelization of Star Wars Episode VI: 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 May 3, 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
• Siegfried Kra (born 1930 in Poland) studied in Switzerland; hosted a National Public Radio series on heart disease and wrote several books on medicine for the lay public which are hard to classify as they are a blend of fiction and nonfiction, like some works of his Yale surgical colleague Richard Selzer
• Dimitris P. Kraniotis (born 1966) Greek poet
• 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
• 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
• Edward Lowbury (1913–2007) English bacteriologist and pathologist who was also a published poet and wrote criticism and biography
• John Edward Mack (1929–2004) Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, considered a leading authority on the spiritual or transformational effects of alleged alien-encounter experiences
• Anne Macleod (born 1951) from Aberdeen, a dermatologist, poet and novelist
• 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)
• Adeline Yen Mah (born 1937) Chinese-American author
• 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
• 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 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
• George Milkomane (1903–1996) Russian author; wrote under a variety of pseudonyms (e.g.George Sava) author of over one hundred and twenty books
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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)
• 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 (born 1930) American author who teaches bioethics and medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine
• Avodah Komito Offit (born 1931) practiced psychiatry in New York City; she has been described as "the Montaigne of human sexuality"
• 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 Muhammed 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
• Bill Pomidor: author of a series of thrillers featuring husband and wife medical detectives
• Stephen Potts (born 1957) British author of children’s books
• Joe Reich, (Born 1946) Australian Ophthalmologist, author of "I Know Precious Little".
• João Guimarães Rosa (1908–1967) the greatest Brazilian novelist born in the 20th century
• Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), Austrian-American psychiatrist, author of The Mass Psychology of Fascism and Character Analysis.
• 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
• Suhayl Saadi (born 1961) is an author and dramatist based in Glasgow
• 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 concentrating researches on reproductive epidemiology and diabetes in pregnancy. Also a prolific publisher on the Natural Sciences, particularly Geology, Herpetology; and many aspects of life and history of Malta, particularly medical history.
• 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 (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
• 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 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
• Benjamin Spock (1903–1988) - American pediatrician, wrote Baby and Child Care
• 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
• 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 ‘80’s.
• Abraham Verghese (born 1955) Indian-American professor at Stanford University Medical School, born and reared in Ethiopia, author of the novel, Cutting for Stone.
• 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
• James White (1928-1999) medical science fiction writer
• 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 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
• C. Dale Young (born 1969) American poet, editor and educator; edits poetry for New England Review.