Richard Selzer (1928–2016)
Author of Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery
About the Author
Allen Richard Selzer was born in Troy, New York on June 24, 1928. He graduated from Union College in 1948 and Albany Medical College in 1953. After an internship at Yale, he was drafted into the Army and served as a lieutenant in Korea from 1955 to 1957. He finished his surgical residency at Yale show more in 1957 and practiced until 1985, when he left his surgical career to write full time. He wrote horror stories that were published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. His short stories included A Question of Mercy, Imelda, and Whither Thou Goest. His books included The Doctor Stories, Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery, Confessions of a Knife, Rituals of Surgery, and Letters to a Young Doctor. He died on June 15, 2016 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Richard Selzer
Works by Richard Selzer
Associated Works
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present (2007) — Contributor — 195 copies, 2 reviews
Antaeus No. 29, Spring 1978 — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1928-06-24
- Date of death
- 2016-06-15
- Burial location
- body donated (Yale)
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Troy, New York, USA
- Place of death
- North Branford, Connecticut, USA
- Places of residence
- North Branford, Connecticut, USA
- Education
- Union College (1948)
Albany Medical College (1953) - Occupations
- surgeon
- Organizations
- Yale University
Yaddo Writers' Colony
US Army - Awards and honors
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1985)
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1988)
Members
Discussions
Cleft-palate-operation, patient died, but surgeon finished job in Name that Book (December 2018)
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 17
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 792
- Popularity
- #32,170
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 65
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 2
It's also an old book, and of course outdated in lots of things. Much of it admitting no understanding, no hope for cure, or putting forth mistaken ideas. I was surprised and kind of annoyed that he goes on and on in one chapter about how horrible alcohol is for the liver- and yet spends another chapter extolling his own smoking habit. It's illustrated here and there with woodcuts, engravings and lithographs from the Yale Medical Library- they're not dated but give the work a feeling of more antiquity... The last part of it digresses from the main subject matter. Some short writings describing his childhood, his father's practice. There's an essay on being carsick- something he suffered a lot from as a child- and another rather weird one about birdwatching (which he apparently was not very good at).
And yet for all its flaws, the book was a thing I wondered at. It made me see the inner workings of the body in such a different way. Its words are so vivid, so alive.
from the Dogear Diary… (more)