A Richard Selzer Reader: Blood and Ink

A Richard Selzer Reader: Blood and Ink is a career-spanning collection, including major short stories and essays by the renowned doctor-author.  In the 1960s, while practicing as a general surgeon and teaching surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, Richard Selzer began publishing unique creative work in magazines such as Harper’s  and Esquire.  By 1985, when he retired as a physician to devote himself completely to writing, Selzer was already recognized as a pioneer in the field of medical humanities.   When he died in 2016, as the author of 13 books, his influence was acknowledged by a younger generation of doctor-writers like Abraham Verghese and Atul Gawande. Selzer’s unusual style fuses scientific and poetic language.  Drawing on favorite readings, from the King James Bible to the tales of Edgar Allen Poe, he used this style to convey a sense of awe at the beauty and complexity of the human body, even in the midst of suffering.  While describing himself as an atheist, Selzer always searched for “sacramental” moments of courtesy, courage, and grace in medical encounters.  Because he often looked critically at the failure of doctors to regard the full humanity of their patients, Selzer’s work has become required reading in many medical training programs. A Richard Selzer Reader includes several of the author’s most famous essays and stories, as well as two dozen selections that have not been collected in his previous books.  Chronologically, the material ranges from apprenticeship stories (as far back as a high-school composition) to two odd self-portraits that remained unpublished at the time of Selzer’s death.  Topically, the material ranges from meditations on the body, and on human mortality, to reflections on both medicine and writing as serious vocations.  Along the way, Selzer celebrates the work of other doctor-writers, like Thomas Browne and Anton Chekhov, and in a series of previously unpublished diary entries he discusses the joys of nature, art, and family as bulwarks against the difficulties of growing old.    

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Editor’s Preface Introduction: “The Writer Richard Selzer: High, Low, and Mighty” by Marie Borroff Chronology Prologue The Pen and the Scalpel Part 1: Apprenticeship On the Wire Jonah and the Whale A Single Minute of Fear Fairview Part 2: Anatomy Lessons Liver Bone How Proudly It Heals: In Praise of the Body Republic A Mother’s Fury Leonardo’s Drawings Flesh Holds the Truth, Mortality The Corpse The Ivory Crucifixion Part 3: Being a Doctor A Hero in a Rowboat Emergency Medicine Mercy Taking the World in for Repairs Imelda Three Doctors: Conan Doyle, Watson, and Me Reflections on Doctoring Part 4: Illuminations At St. Mary’s Longfellow, Virgil, and Me Fetishes Four Appointments with the Discus Thrower Whither Thou Goest Risen Atrium: October 2001 Part 5: Being a Writer Meditations on Style Five Finger Exercises

About the Author :
Kevin Kerrane is professor of English at University of Delaware.

Review :
A Richard Selzer Reader is an anthology of short stories, essays, and memoirs that span 45 years of the writing career of author and surgeon Richard Selzer. Selzer, who died in 2016, worked with Kerrane (English, Univ. of Delaware) to create this collection, which also includes selections of Selzer’s diary, short editorial prefaces, and an author biography. The collection is organized around education, for example, medical apprenticeships and anatomy lessons, being a surgeon and being a writer. Starting in the 1960s, Selzer was a surgeon and educator at Yale School of Medicine; in the 1970s he began to publish magazine essays, intended for nonmedical readers, offering insights and reflections on practicing surgery. After he retired from medicine in the 1980s he dedicated himself to writing, publishing 13 books. Selzer is considered a pioneer in the field of medical humanities, which recognizes the humanity and first-person experience of both the patient and the provider in the face of illness, suffering, healing, and dying. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.