1791 FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706 – 1790)
Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin, écrits par lui-même, et adressés a son fils; suivis d'un précis historique de sa vie politique, et de plusieurs pièces, relatives à ce père de la liberté.
"The Autobiography remained unpublished during Franklin's lifetime. In 1791, the first edition appeared, in French rather than English, as Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin, published in Paris. This trans…
GMN 12721 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14967
1822 DE QUINCEY, Thomas Penson (1785 – 1859)
Confessions of an opium eater.
First published anonymously in September and October 1821 in the London Magazine, 4, No. xxi, 293-312, and No. xxii, 353-79, the Confessions was released in book form in 1822, and, after various reprints, again in 185…
GMN 8904 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11082
1844 MARTINEAU, Harriet (1802 – 1976)
Life in the sickroom: Essays by an invalid.
"Life in the Sickroom is one of many first-hand accounts of the experience of being ill written by an invalid. Martineau was ill for six years, but she found taking on the identity of an invalid a reprieve from the st…
GMN 12136 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14345
1847 HARVEY, William (1578 – 1657); WILLIS, Robert (1799 – 1878)
The works of William Harvey. Translated from the Latin, with a life of the author by Robert Willis.
See Sir Geoffrey Keynes’s Life of William Harvey, Oxford, 1966, (2nd printing, with corrections, 1978) and his Bibliography of the writings of William Harvey, 3rd ed., revised by Gweneth Whitteridge and Christine Engl…
GMN 61.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/981
1856 HUNT, Harriot Kezia (1805 – 1875)
Glances and glimpses; or fifty years social, including twenty years professional life.
The autobiography of the first woman to practice medicine professionally in the United States. Digital facsimile from U.S. National Library of Medicine at this link.
GMN 14125 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16436
1874 LIVINGSTONE, David (1813 – 1873); WALLER, Horace (1833 – 1896)
The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa. From eighteen hundred and sixty-five to his death. Continued by a narrative of his last Moments and sufferings, obtained from his faithful servants, Chuma and Susi, by Horace Waller, F.R.G.S.
"Livingstone’s most famous expedition was in 1866–73, when he traversed much of central Africa in an attempt to find the source of the Nile. This book contains the daily journals that Livingstone kept on this expediti…
GMN 12705 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14950
1877 STILL, James (1812 – 1882)
Early recollections and life of Dr. James Still.
Still's autobiography is probably the first biography or autobiography of an African American physician. "James Still, medical doctor and herbalist, was born on April 9, 1812 in Burlington County, New Jersey. Still wa…
GMN 8980 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11159
1895 BLACKWELL, Elizabeth (1821 – 1910)
Pioneer work in opening the medical profession to women; autobiographical sketches.
Blackwell led the movement in America to open the medical profession to women.
GMN 6649.92 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7781
1900 RICHARDSON, Sir Benjamin Ward (1828 – 1896)
Disciples of Aesculapius, with a life of the author by his daughter, Mrs. George Martin. 2 vols.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 6721 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7835
1905 WALLACE, Alfred Russel (1823 – 1913)
My life: A record of events and opinions. 2 vols.
GMN 7441 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9613
1908 BEERS, Clifford Whittingham (1876 – 1943)
A mind that found itself.
In 1900 Beers was confined to a private mental institution for depression and paranoia. He was later confined to another private hospital as well as a state institution. During those periods he experienced and witness…
GMN 9724 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11911
1912 MARK, Leonard Portal (1855 – 1930)
Acromegaly: a personal experience.
Mark, a medical practitioner, suffered from acromegaly from the age of 24. The condition was obvious to his friends, but Mark was 50 before he realized the cause of the symptoms of which he had kept a record for many …
GMN 3898 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4966
1919 CUMMINGS, Bruce Frederick [BARBELLION] (1889 – 1919); WELLS, Herbert George (1866 – 1946)
The journal of a disappointed man. With an introduction by H. G. Wells.
Published under the pseudonym, Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion. "Cummings' life changed forever when he was called to enlist in the British Army to fight in World War I in November 1915. He had consulted his doctor bef…
GMN 10741 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12936
1923 TREVES, Sir Frederick (1853 – 1923)
The elephant man and other reminiscences.
The story of Treves's patient, Joseph Carey Merrick (1862-1890), incorrected identified by Treves in these reminiscences as "John Merrick." The story was retold in The elephant man, Bernard Pomerance's 1977 play about…
GMN 7407 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9579
1931 ELVENES, Lili Ilse (Lili Elbe) (1882 – 1931)
Fra Mand til Kvinde: Lili Elbes Bekendelser.
Posthumously published autobiography of one of the first transgender women, known prior to the sex change as the Danish painter Einar Wegener. Translated into English as Man into woman: An authentic record of a change…
GMN 11447 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13646
1938 SANGER, Margaret (1879 – 1966)
Margaret Sanger: An autobiography.
GMN 7406 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9578
1938 HERTZLER, Arthur Emanuel (1870 – 1946)
The horse and buggy doctor.
The bestselling work by this Kansas physician documenting the practice of medicine in the rural midwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
GMN 10408 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12601
1942 BARKER, Lewellys Franklin (1867 – 1943)
Of time and the physician. The autobiography of Lewellys F. Barker.
Barker succeeded William Osler as physician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His autobiography provides insight into a keyt period in the history of Johns Hopkins. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this…
GMN 12392 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14619
1943 HAMILTON, Alice (1869 – 1970)
Exploring the dangerous trades: The autobiography of Alice Hamilton.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 8590 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10767
1962 NIGHTINGALE, Florence (1820 – 1910); BISHOP, William John (1903 – 1961); GOLDIE, Sue M.
A bio-bibliography of Florence Nightingale.
Completed and edited for publication by Sue M. Goldie after the death of William J. Bishop.
GMN 13164 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15423
1963 POYNTER, Frederick Noel Lawrence (1908 – 1979); YONGE, James (1646 – 1721)
The journal of James Yonge, Plymouth surgeon (1647-1721). Edited by F. N. L. Poynter.
A complete account of Yonge's life from the age of ten until the age of 61. "It is considered to be the most important diary of the 17th century after those of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn.[1] In it Yonge mentioned fa…
GMN 8835 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11013
1967 JORGENSEN, Christine (1926 – 1989)
Christine Jorgensen: A personal autobiography.
GMN 14166 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16481
1968 WATSON, James Dewey (1928 – )
The double helix. A personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Vivid first hand account of the discovery, renowned for its candor. See also the Norton Critical Edition of The double helix with supporting material, edited by Gunther Stent (1980), and The annotated and illustrated …
GMN 7139 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9306
1972 FORSSMANN, Werner Theodor Otto (1904 – 1979)
Selbstversuch. Erinnerungen eines Chirurgen.
Translated into English by Hilary Davies as Experiments on myself. Memoirs of a surgeon in Germany (London: St. Martin's Press, 1974).
GMN 12233 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14447
1974 MORRIS, Jan (1926 – )
Conundrum.
Morris underwent male to female sex change surgery by Georges Burou in Casablanca during the 1960s. As a much-published writer, her book was one of the first to draw wide attention to the phenomenon. New edition, with…
GMN 11356 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13554
1982 KEYNES, Sir Geoffrey Langdon (1887 – 1982)
The gates of memory.
The autobiography of the great surgeon, bibliographer, scholar and book collector.
GMN 11294 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13491
1983 HARDY, Harriet Louise (1906 – 1993)
Challenging man-made disease.
Hardy's "studies on beryllium began in 1945 when she started working for the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Medicine. She studied factories that produced fluorescent bulbs in Lynn, Salem, and Ipswich, Massachu…
GMN 10472 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12665
1984 BIGELOW, Wilfred Gordon (1913 – 2005)
Cold hearts: The story of hypothermia and the pacemaker in heart surgery.
GMN 12333 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14557
1986 THOMAS, Vivien Theodore (1910 – 1985)
Pioneering research in surgical shock and cardiovascular surgery: Vivien T. Thomas and his work with Alfred Blalock. An autobiography by Vivien T. Thomas
Later retitled, Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock.
GMN 12376 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14601
1990 KEAN, Benjamin Harrison (1912 – 1993)
One doctor's adventures among the famous and infamous from the jungles of Panama to a Park Avenue practice. With Tracy Dahlby.
GMN 12649 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14890
1994 PLOTKIN, Mark J. (1955 – )
Tales of a shaman's apprentice: An ethnobotanist searches for new medicines in the Amazon rain forest.
GMN 9937 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12125
1995 JAMISON, Kay Redfield (1946 – )
An unquiet mind: A memoir of moods and madness.
An autobiographical study of bipolar disorder by a distinguished American clinical psychologist who personally suffers from this disorder.
GMN 10979 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13175
1996 –2018 ALBRIGHT, Thomas D.; SQUIRE, Larry Ryan (1941 – )
The history of neuroscience in autobiography, edited by Tom Albright and Larry R. Squire. 10 vols.
"The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography is a collection of autobiographical chapters, edited by Tom Albright and Larry R. Squire, that details the lives and discoveries of eminent senior neuroscientists. "During…
GMN 12939 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15186
1997 MASSELL, Benedict Frank (1906 – 2008)
Rheumatic fever and streptococcal infection: Unraveling the mysteries of a dread disease.
GMN 12360 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14584
2006 WAGNER, Henry N. Jr. (1927 – 2012)
A personal history of nuclear medicine.
GMN 10975 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13171
2006 LAMB, Lawrence E. (1926 – 2015)
Inside the space race: A space surgeon's diary.
GMN 11768 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13969
2007 VENTER, John Craig (1946 – )
A life decoded. My genome: My life.
GMN 7434 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9606
2014 PRUSINER, Stanley Benjamin (1942 – )
Madness and memory: The discovery of prions- a new biological principle of disease.
Prusiner discovered prions, the agent causing scrapie in sheep and goats, mad cow disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
GMN 7624 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9796
2015 SACKS, Oliver Wolf (1933 – 2015)
On the move: A life.
GMN 12684 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14929
2018 FOEGE, William Herbert (1936 – )
The fears of the rich, the needs of the poor: My years at the CDC,
Director of the Centers for Disease Control from 1977-1983, and President and Co-Founder of The Task Force for Global Heath, 1984-1999, Foege was instrumental in the eradication of smallpox, the generalization of immu…
GMN 10626 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12819
