physician-writers

Earlier in the summer I went to a book tour presentation by Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner and several other books.

I was surprised and impressed to learn that he was a practicing doctor for years before publishing his first book and deciding to write full time.  In my last book-related post (11 authors of multiple books I have loved) I mentioned Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone, who writes while continuing to practice medicine.  I’m kind of in awe of both of them for commanding two such challenging fields.

There are a lot of commonalities between their first and best known books.  They are beautifully written, heavily autobiographical stories that are set in unfamiliar parts of the world (Afghanistan and Ethiopia).  The autobiographical inspiration could be considered a crutch, but I don’t mind it at all. 
Both authors are extraordinary because of their writing talent, but I also think that the fact that they are also doctors is remarkable. Verghese’s books include a lot of medical detail, and while I’m not applying for med school any time soon, I do really enjoy learning bits and pieces about medicine and the human body.  When these details are fed to me in the context of fiction, I remember them fairly well. 
I looked around and found two good sources for for other authors who are also doctors.

• Bryant Collection of physician writers
• Wikipedia's list of physician writers

Here’s a quote I’m borrowing from The Lancet via Wikipedia on the subject:

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."

M. Faith McLellan, "Literature and Medicine: Physician-Writers," The Lancet, volume 349, issue 9051, 22 February 1997, pp. 564-67.