Guide to American Medical Biography

General Bibliographies and Indexes of Physcians' Writings -- Personal Writings -- Literary and Other Non-Medical Writings

Autobiographies, memoirs, published diaries can provide valuable details and insight. They can be found in library catalogs, the general digital libraries, and via bibliographies.

The main sources for articles: PubMed, Index Medicus and the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office. For information about searching these resources by author, see the Medical Periodical Articles and Obituaries page. 

In the Index Catalogue, when your person appears as the author of an obituary embedded in a biographical note, the author will not be retrieved via an author search: use the keyword search.

The main sources for books: The National Library of Medicine's LocatorPlus catalog and WorldCat.

WorldCat Subject terms: Physicians writings

These large bibliographies are useful sources for physicians writings:

American Medical Bibliography 1639-1783. A Chronological Catalogue, and Critical and Bibliographical Study of Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, and Articles in Periodical Publications Relating to the Medical Sciences-Medicine, Surgery, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Veterinary Medicine-Printed in the Present Territory of the United States of America during British Dominion and the Revolutionary War (print only), by Francisco Guerra. NY: L. C. Harper (Yale University. Dept. of the History of Science and Medicine. Publication no. 40), 1962.
--Subject index.

American Medical Imprints, 1820-1910: A Checklist of Publications Illustrating the History and Progress of Medical Science, Medical Education, and the Healing Arts in the United States: a Preliminary Contribution (print only), 2 v, by Francesco Cordasco. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield; Fairview, NJ: Junius-Vaughn Press, 1985.

An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform (print only), by Christopher Hoolihan. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2001-2008, 3 v..
--Contents: v. 1. A-L; v. 2. M-Z: v. 3. Supplement, A-Z. 
-- Cumulated subject index in vol. 3.

Early American Medical Imprints: A Guide to Works Printed in the United States, 1668-1820 (print only), by Robert B. Austin. Washington, DC: National Library of Medicine,1961.
--No way to search by subject.

Homoeopathy in the United States: A Bibliography of Homoeopathic Medical Imprints, 1825-1925 (print only), by Francisco Cordasco. Fairview, NJ: Junius-Vaughn Press, 1981.

Personal writings include diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, correspondence, etc.  They are common components of archival collections, but are also often published.

The term Personal narratives is used for memoirs of wars and diseases.

Autobiographies and third-person biographies both bear the subject term Biography. Searching for the subject Autobiographies will retrieve many but not all autobiographies.

To find personal writings, search in WorldCat: (Narratives OR Diaries OR Correspondence) AND Physicians.

American diaries: an annotated bibliography of published American diaries and journals (print only), by Laura Arksey. 2 v. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1 983, 1987.
--This is a valuable source because it includes a detailed subject index and includes diaries published as periodical articles.

"Daughters of AEsculapius: A Selected Bibliography of Autobiographies of Women Medical School Graduates, 1849-1920"  (print only), by Marjorie Sirridge and Brenda Pfannenstiel. Literature and Medicine, 15 (Fall 1996): 200-216.

Women's diaries, journals, and letters: an annotated bibliography (print only), by Cheryl Cline. New York: Garland Pub., 1989.
--Arranged by author with lists by broad professional, subject, and geographical categories.

Personal writings by women to 1900: a bibliography of American and British writers (print only), by Gwenn Davis. London; New York: Mansell/ Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.
--Arranged by author, with chronological list under broad year spans (25 years for 19th century) and index by broad subjects.

And so to bed: a bibliography of diaries published in English (print only), by Patricia Pate Havlice. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1987.
--Annotated entries, arranged chronologically. Name and topic indexes. Includes author index to Matthew's American, British and Canadian bibliographies.

American autobiography, 1945-1980: a bibliography  (print only). Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982.
--Arranged by author, with name and detailed subject index. Subject index includes terms and names(!) not in the entry annotations.

First person female American: a selected and annotated bibliography of the autobiographies of American women living after 1950  (print only). Troy, NY: Whitston Pub. Co., 1980.
--List of Topics of Interest to Women’s Studies keyed to entries.

Through a woman's I: an annotated bibliography of American women's autobiographical writings, 1946-1976  (print only), by Patricia K Addis. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1983.

The published diaries and letters of American women: an annotated bibliography (print only), by Joyce D. Goodfriend. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1987.
--Arranged chronologically with name and (broad) subject indexes. Geographic entries under “Locality” in the Subject index.

A bibliography of American autobiographies (print only), by Louis Kaplan. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961.
--Arranged by author, with name/subject index. Subject index contains largely occupations (includes “Immigrants”). Subject entries are repeated under broad geographic categories (e.g., South Atlantic).

Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center offers oral histories, interviews, correspondence personal narratives, photographs and other records (WWI- present). Search Surgeon in keyword search.

Subject terms like: Essays (or the medical subject term “medicine--essays”) will get you physician’s public writings. To separate reminiscences: physicians writing in medical lit and physicians writing in popular lit. Several bibliographies of physician-poets, physician-travel writers (here in Widener). Physician-novelist, physician miscellaneous works*

Fiction writers with medical qualifications

For literary and other non-medical works by physicians

• Medicine -- Literary collections.
• Medicine -- Poetry.
• Patients -- Poetry.
• Physician and patient -- Poetry.
• Physicians  authorship
• Physicians -- Poetry.
• Physicians as authors
• Physicians’ writings, American.

Literature, Arts & Medicine Database is an annotated bibliography of prose, poetry, film, video and art." Searchable by author, title, genre, era, added keyword, free text. Links are given for full text and author information where available

Poetry and the Doctors: A Catalogue of Poetical Works Written by Physicians (print only), by C. L. Dana. Woodstock: Elm Tree Press, 1916, xxiii, 83 p.

Physicians practicing other occupations, especially literature (print only), by J. P. Green. The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine. 1993. v. 60:132-55.

Medicine and Literature (print only), by E. R. Peschel. New York: Neale Watson Academic Publications, Inc., 1980, xix, 204 p.

Literature and Medicine: An Annotated Bibliography (print only), by Joanne Trautmann and C. Pollard. 2nd ed. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982, xxi, 228 p.

A Biographical Encyclopedia of Medical Travel Authors (print only), by Edward A. Martin. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010, 6 v.
-- v. 1. Americas and Canada -- v. 2. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Pacific, and the Antarctic -- v. 3. Continental Europe -- v. 4. England and Wales -- v. 5. Ireland -- v. 6. Scotland.