Among famous writers, there are probably more doctors than representatives of other professions. What do medicine and literature have in common? At first glance, nothing. But if you think about it: the doctor treats the body, the writer - the soul. If he writes good books, of course. Doctors-writers who have become classics of world literature - Rabelais. Chekhov, Selin, Bulgakov. About them and their famous colleagues are described in this article.
Francois Rabelais
No date or place of birth of the greatest French satirist is known for certain. Francois Rabelais was born in the 80s of the XV century, somewhere in the vicinity of Chinon. The future prose writer spent his childhood within the walls of the monastery, where he studied Latin, ancient Greek, history and law. After leaving the monastery - medicine.
Nobody today can name the works of the French doctor-writer, in addition to the novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel". However, the French classic, even in his youth, combined medical practice with writing humorous pamphlets, which, unfortunately, have not survived.
Francois Rabelais was a writer, doctor, theologian, philosopher, archaeologist. This is one of the brightest figures of the Renaissance. His satirical novel aboutglutton giants ridicules human vices, the shortcomings of the state and the Catholic clergy. The book outlines humanistic methods of education. No wonder the novel by a French doctor and writer is included in the curriculum of all pedagogical universities.
Anton Chekhov
The doctor, writer, prose writer and playwright was born in 1860 in the family of a Taganrog shopkeeper. As a child, Chekhov studied at a Greek school, and in his adolescence, at a gymnasium. After the ruin of his father, in 1876, the aspiring writer earned his living by private lessons for some time. In 1879 he left for Moscow, where he studied medicine.
Chekhov studied with Sklifosovsky, Zakharyin. As a student, he worked in a hospital. From 1880 he worked as a county doctor. Writer Anton Chekhov was in charge of a hospital in Zvenigorod for some time.
He has been writing since his school days. Later, even while working in the county, where there were always many patients, he did not stop writing. In his freshman year, he published several short stories in Dragonfly magazine. For a long time, Chekhov was perceived as a satirical writer. However, he entered world literature as a great playwright. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov died in Germany in 1904.
The works of the Russian classic, the heroes of which are medical workers, are “Dead Case”, “The Fugitive”, “Trouble”, “Surgery”, “Woe”, “For Service”.
Stanislav Lem
The Polish philosopher, futurist and writer was a doctor by profession, but probably not by vocation. Stanislav Lem was born in Lvov in 1921. Came from an intelligent Jewishfamilies. After graduating from the gymnasium named after Karol Shainokha, Lem entered Lviv University, the Faculty of Medicine.
During the war, the future writer and his family miraculously managed to avoid deportation to the ghetto. During the occupation, Lem worked as a welder, auto mechanic, and participated in a resistance group. In 1945 he left for Krakow, where he continued to study medicine.
The famous Polish writer never became a doctor. He refused to take the final exams, received only a certificate indicating the completion of the course. Stanislav Lem began writing stories not out of idle pleasure - it brought income, small, but tangible in the hungry post-war years. The first works were published in 1946. Later, writing became his main occupation.
Stanislav Lem died in 2006. Buried in Krakow. More than twenty works of the Polish prose writer have been filmed. The most famous film based on his book is Tarkovsky's Solaris.
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
French writer, physician by training, born in 1894. Little is known about Celine's early years. The debut novel was published in 1932. Four years later, the work "Death on Credit" was published, which brought the author wide success. This book has been translated into many languages around the world.
At the turn of the thirties and forties, Selin published the pamphlets "Trinkets for the pogrom", "Caught in trouble", "School of corpses". These works cemented his reputation as a racist, anti-Semite, and misanthrope for many years. After World War II, the writer was accused of collaborating with the invaders. He wasforced to leave for Germany, then Denmark, where he was arrested.
The writer spent several years in exile. In 1951 he returned to France where he worked until the end of his life as a doctor for the poor. Louis-Ferdinand Celine died in 1961.
Vasily Aksenov
There were many sad events in the life of the writer and doctor. At least in the early years. Vasily Aksenov was born in 1932 in Kazan. My father was the chairman of the local city council. Mother taught at the Pedagogical Institute. In 1937, the parents were arrested. The future writer, who by that time was not even five years old, was assigned to a boarding school for children of “enemies of the people.”
In 1956, Vasily Aksenov graduated from the Medical Institute in Leningrad. For several years he worked as a doctor in the Far North, later - in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow. Since 1960, he has been exclusively engaged in literary work.
Vasily Aksenov died in 2006. The most famous works of the Soviet doctor and writer have nothing to do with medicine ("Star Ticket", "Colleagues", "Moscow Saga", "Crimea Island").
Mikhail Bulgakov
The great writer became a doctor by family tradition. The Bulgakov brothers were doctors. One worked in Moscow, the other in Warsaw.
Mikhail Bulgakov was born in 1891 in Kyiv, in the family of an associate professor of the Theological Academy. In 1909 he graduated from the gymnasium and entered the medical faculty.
During the First World War, Mikhail Bulgakov worked as a doctor in the frontline zone. Then itsent to the village of Nikolskoye, and even later to Vyazma. Once, during an operation, Bulgakov almost contracted diphtheria. I had to use for prophylactic purposes a strong drug that caused an allergy. To soften the reaction to this remedy, the young doctor took morphine. Very soon, the narcotic drug turned Bulgakov's life into hell. He managed to recover from addiction, but with great difficulty.
In 1918, Mikhail Bulgakov returned to Kyiv and worked here as a venereologist. During the Civil War, he was mobilized as a military doctor.
Bulgakov first visited Moscow in 1917. Then he was visiting his uncle, who became the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky from the famous story. Four years later, Bulgakov moved to the capital forever. At the same time, he left the practice of medicine and took up writing.
The prose writer reflected his medical experience in the stories from the collection "Notes of a Young Doctor". In recent years, the Russian writer has been seriously ill in order to relieve unbearable pain, he began to use morphine again. In the last months of his life, completely blind, he dictated to his wife the final chapters of the novel The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov died in 1940. Buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Kobo Abe
Giving an answer to the question of which writers were doctors, not everyone will name this prose writer. Not because there are white spots in the biography of the Japanese prose writer. Much has been said about the life of the author of The Woman in the Sands. Abe became a doctor, but preferred literature to medicine.
Futurethe writer was born in 1924 in Tokyo. He spent his childhood in Manchuria. In 1943, Abe entered the University of Tokyo, the Faculty of Medicine. Five years later, he was supposed to receive a diploma, but he passed the state exam unsatisfactorily. This put an end to his professional career.
In 1947, the collection "Anonymous Poems" was published, which brought fame to the author. The poet and writer Kobo Abe never worked as a doctor. Japanese writer dies at 68
Vikenty Veresaev
The above are the famous doctors-writers. In Russian literature, Vikenty Veresaev does not occupy such an honorable place as, for example, Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Bulgakov. His works are less known, but he deserves a few words.
Veresaev was born in 1867 in the Tula province. He graduated from the classical gymnasium, then entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. In 1894 he received a medical education in Dorpat.
For five years Veresaev worked as an intern and was in charge of the hospital library. In 1904 he served as a military doctor in Manchuria. Veresaev was fond of literature even in his gymnasium years. But becoming a famous writer, he did not leave medical practice. During the war he served as a military doctor.
Famous works by Vikenty Veresaev - "At a dead end", "Fad", "Sisters". The writer passed away in 1945 in Moscow.
Archibald Cronin
Scottish writer and doctor best known for his novels The Stars Look Down, Brody's Castle, Youngyears"
Archibald Cronin was born in 1896 in Dunbarshire. He was the only child in the family. When the future writer was seven years old, his father died. The family had to move to another city. In 1923, Cronin received his medical degree. A year later, he defended his dissertation on aneurysms. During World War I he served in the Navy. The first published work of a doctor-turned-writer is Brody's Castle. Cronin worked on this book for only three months. The manuscript was immediately accepted by the publishing house and brought success to the newly minted prose writer. Archibald Cronin died in Montreux, at the age of 85.
Arthur Conan Doyle
The author of a series of works about the detective Sherlock Holmes was born in 1859 in Edinburgh. His childhood cannot be called happy. The family constantly experienced financial difficulties due to his father's alcoholism. When the future rescuer was nine years old, he was sent to a closed college. We althy relatives paid for the teachings.
In 1876, the father of the future writer was placed in a psychiatric hospital. Arthur, after graduating from college, returned home. Among his relatives there were many people of art. But Arthur Conan Doyle, oddly enough, preferred medicine. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh, and then got a job as a ship's doctor on a whaling ship. This voyage lasted two years. The doctor returned from his trip as an adult man with a huge baggage of impressions that formed the basis of his early works.
In 1881, Arthur Conan Doyle took up medicalpractice. And only ten years later he made literature his main profession. Until the last days of his life, the writer led an active lifestyle, traveled a lot. He died one of the July days of 1930. The death of the master of the detective genre was sudden - Arthur Conan Doyle died as a result of a heart attack.
Somerset Maugham
British writer was born in Paris in 1874. Orphaned at the age of ten. A relative took up the upbringing of the boy. In 1896, Somerset Maugham graduated from the medical school at St Thomas' Hospital in London. However, he did not work as a doctor afterwards.
During the First World War, Maugham was an agent of British intelligence, visited Russia, repeatedly met with Kerensky, Savinkov. In 1919 he went to China, then to Malaysia. All these travels are reflected in his adventure stories. The writer died in Nice, in 1965.
Irvin Yalom
American psychotherapist is known as the author of fiction and popular science literature. Irving Yalom was born in 1931 into a family of Russian emigrants who left their homeland during the First World War.
After graduating from high school, the future doctor and writer entered the Borgia University of Washington. Then he received his medical education in Boston. Irvin Yalom completed his internship in New York.
This writer is one of the brightest representatives of existential psychology. His bibliography contains many works devoted to the harsh everyday life of psychotherapists. For example, a series of stories "Cure for Love".
Louis Boussinard
French writer born in 1847. His father was a tax collector. Mother is a maid. Louis Boussinard graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Paris. During the Franco-Prussian War he served as a regimental physician. In the seventies he took up literature, after which he never returned to medical practice.
Louis Boussenard is known for adventure stories from the series "Joseph Perrot", "Mr. Synthesis", "Unmercenary". The works of the French author were very popular in Russia. In 1911, a collection of his works in Russian was published in forty volumes. Louis Boussinard died in 1910 as a result of a long illness.
Other physician-turned-writers include Oliver Sachs, Tess Gerritsen, Arnhild Lauweng, James Bugenthal, Arthur Schnitzler.
