How Illness Changed Robert Louis Stevenson’s Life

Robert Lewis Stevenson (1850-1894) was one of the best-known authors of his day. He was a paradox; he traveled widely, yet was weak and sickly all of his life. He spent much of his life in bed or in a sickroom, yet he wrote wonderful adventures like Kidnapped and...

How Did Edgar Allan Poe Really Die?

Famous writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was the first American writer to fully support himself by his writing. He single-handedly started the detective genre, as well as the science fiction genre. He is famous for his mysteries and Gothic horror stories. When we...

Mark Twain and How Illness Shaped His Life

The famous American author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) lived from 1835 to 1910. In spite of being a life-long serious cigar smoker, he was quite healthy until late in life, when he developed heart trouble. However, illness, particularly infectious diseases, changed...

Beatrix Potter and How Disease Shaped Her Life

I’ve always been curious about why famous writers became writers, and why they wrote what they wrote. Clearly, our life experiences shape what we write, and we as writers are always admonished to “write what you know”. As a doctor, I am fascinated by illness and...

Polio and an Unsung Hero

Now, here’s a must-read book! Lynn Cullen’s latest book, The Woman with the Cure, is historical fiction about the last great polio epidemic of the 1950s and race to find a vaccine. Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and virologist was the first...