From Chekhov to Guevera, sports heroes to serial killers, this fascinating collection of historical curiosities presents 60 doctors who achieved fame or notoriety for reasons other than their medical prowess
These stories of medical truants who found fame in fields other than medicine are in turns heroic and absurd, dazzling and ghoulish, inspired and tragic, and never, ever dull. Meet Dr. Joseph Bell-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's eccentric lecturer and his inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Cringe as a demented Joseph Stalin imprisons and viciously tortures each of his eight doctors because he thought they were poisoning him. Follow John Keats, who never practiced medicine because his literary career took off, to Italy, where he tragically battles terminal illness. There are the doctors who attended royalty and other rulers such as Elizabeth I, Napoleon, George III, and Alexander the Great-a brave and special breed of physician indeed; those who were artists, musicians, and writers such as Maugham, Conan Doyle, Borodin, and Chekhov; others still who were sports heroes, adventurers, and inventors like Grace, Livingston, Guillotin, Guevera, and Gattling. And then there are the deranged mass murderers like Banda, Webster, Ruxton, and too many Nazis to name. This titillating collection is filled with historical curiosities, whimsy, and fascinating, fresh speculation.
