Richard Selzer (1928–2016) was an American surgeon and writer. He was celebrated for his great essays and fiction, which put him in the vanguard of medical chroniclers.
Born in Troy, New York, Selzer graduated from Albany Medical College in 1953 and served two years in Korea. He completed a surgery residency at Yale in 1960 and later joined the Yale faculty.
Selzer’s books are generally collections of short stories, essays, and memoirs, including selections from his extensive diary. He published Rituals of Surgery in 1974 and published a book every three to four years until 2010. He retired from surgery at age 57 but continued to create short stories and essays, mentor young writers, teach, edit and lead medical student writing workshops at Yale into his 80s.
Selzer’s notable other works are Confessions of a Knife (1979,) Taking the World in for Repairs (1986,) Raising the Dead: A Doctor’s Encounter with His Own Mortality (1993,) and What One Man Said to Another: Talks with Richard Selzer (1994.) Knife Song Korea (2009) is a novel based on his experiences as a young surgeon in the U.S. Army in a remote Korean village after the close of the Korean War.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Richard Selzer
A minor operation is one that is done on someone else.
—Richard Selzer
Topics: Doctors
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Raymond Chandler American Novelist
Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
Thomas Wolfe American Novelist
Norman Mailer American Novelist, Journalist
Ellery Queen American Crime Fiction Authors
Lloyd Alexander American Writer
Lionel Trilling American Critic
Dashiell Hammett American Crime Writer
James Ellroy American Crime Fiction Writer
Christopher Isherwood Anglo-American Novelist, Playwright