Berton Roueché
Encyclopedia
Berton Roueché was a medical writer
who wrote for The New Yorker
magazine for almost fifty years. He also wrote twenty books including Eleven Blue Men
(1954), The Incurable Wound (1958), Feral (1974), and The Medical Detectives (1980). An article he wrote for The New Yorker was made into the 1956 film Bigger Than Life
, and many of the medical mysteries on the current television show House
were inspired by Roueché's writings.
in 1933. He was a reporter for The Kansas City Star
, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat
. On October 28, 1936, he married Katherine Eisenhower, the niece of future U.S. President General Dwight D. Eisenhower
. She remained his wife until his death in 1994. They had one child, Arthur Bradford Roueché, who was born November 16, 1942.
In 1944, he was hired as a staff writer for The New Yorker
magazine. In 1946, "The Annals of Medicine" department of the magazine was created for him. "The Annals of Medicine" is a series about medical detection and the fight against different diseases. An article he wrote for The New Yorker, titled "Ten Feet Tall", was made into a 1956 film called Bigger Than Life
, which stars James Mason
. The article and film are about the negative side effect
s of the drug cortisone
. Roueché remained a staff writer for The New Yorker until his death, a span of about fifty years.
In addition to writing for The New Yorker, he also wrote twenty books. The books are mostly pieces of medical writing, focused on epidemiology
, with elements of mystery and detective work. He also wrote several suspense novels, these include Black Weather (1945), The Last Enemy (1956), Feral (1974), and Fago (1977). Roueché's writings, especially his book The Medical Detectives (1980), inspired in part the television show House
, which premiered in 2004 on the Fox
network. Many of the medical cases in the show are directly inspired by real-life cases in The Medical Detectives. His 1954 book Eleven Blue Men, which was a collection of pieces he had written for The New Yorker, was awarded a Raven by the Mystery Writers of America
. In 1982, he received an Academy Award of The American Academy of Arts and Letters
for literature. He also received awards from the American Medical Association
, the New England Journal of Medicine
, the Kansas City Academy of Medicine, the American Medical Writers Association
, and the Lasker Foundation
.
On April 28, 1994, Roueché died at his home in Amagansett
, Long Island
. He was 84 years old. He committed suicide by a shotgun wound to his head. He had been diagnosed with emphysema
five years earlier, and his wife said he had been depressed.
Editor
Medical writing
Medical writing is the activity of producing scientific documentation by a specialized writer. The medical writer typically is not one of the scientists or doctors who performed the research....
who wrote for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine for almost fifty years. He also wrote twenty books including Eleven Blue Men
Eleven Blue Men
Eleven Blue Men, and Other Narratives of Medical Detection is an award winning collection of twelve true short stories written by Berton Roueché and published in 1953...
(1954), The Incurable Wound (1958), Feral (1974), and The Medical Detectives (1980). An article he wrote for The New Yorker was made into the 1956 film Bigger Than Life
Bigger Than Life
Bigger Than Life is an American film made in 1956 directed by Nicholas Ray and starring James Mason, who also co-wrote and produced the film, about a school teacher and family man whose life spins out of control upon becoming addicted to cortisone. The film co-stars Barbara Rush as his wife and...
, and many of the medical mysteries on the current television show House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
were inspired by Roueché's writings.
Biography
Berton Roueché was born in , on April 16, 1910. He graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City in 1928 and is a member of the Southwest High School Hall of Fame. He received an undergraduate journalism degree at the University of MissouriUniversity of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
in 1933. He was a reporter for The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes...
, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...
, and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri from 1852 until 1986...
. On October 28, 1936, he married Katherine Eisenhower, the niece of future U.S. President General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
. She remained his wife until his death in 1994. They had one child, Arthur Bradford Roueché, who was born November 16, 1942.
In 1944, he was hired as a staff writer for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine. In 1946, "The Annals of Medicine" department of the magazine was created for him. "The Annals of Medicine" is a series about medical detection and the fight against different diseases. An article he wrote for The New Yorker, titled "Ten Feet Tall", was made into a 1956 film called Bigger Than Life
Bigger Than Life
Bigger Than Life is an American film made in 1956 directed by Nicholas Ray and starring James Mason, who also co-wrote and produced the film, about a school teacher and family man whose life spins out of control upon becoming addicted to cortisone. The film co-stars Barbara Rush as his wife and...
, which stars James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
. The article and film are about the negative side effect
Side effect
In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequences of the use of a drug.Occasionally, drugs are...
s of the drug cortisone
Cortisone
Cortisone is a steroid hormone. It is one of the main hormones released by the adrenal gland in response to stress. In chemical structure, it is a corticosteroid closely related to corticosterone. It is used to treat a variety of ailments and can be administered intravenously, orally,...
. Roueché remained a staff writer for The New Yorker until his death, a span of about fifty years.
In addition to writing for The New Yorker, he also wrote twenty books. The books are mostly pieces of medical writing, focused on epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
, with elements of mystery and detective work. He also wrote several suspense novels, these include Black Weather (1945), The Last Enemy (1956), Feral (1974), and Fago (1977). Roueché's writings, especially his book The Medical Detectives (1980), inspired in part the television show House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
, which premiered in 2004 on the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
network. Many of the medical cases in the show are directly inspired by real-life cases in The Medical Detectives. His 1954 book Eleven Blue Men, which was a collection of pieces he had written for The New Yorker, was awarded a Raven by the Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
. In 1982, he received an Academy Award of The American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member honor society; its goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Located in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan in New York, it shares Audubon Terrace, its Beaux Arts campus on...
for literature. He also received awards from the American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
, the New England Journal of Medicine
New England Journal of Medicine
The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...
, the Kansas City Academy of Medicine, the American Medical Writers Association
American Medical Writers Association
The American Medical Writers Association is the world's leading professional association for medical communicators. AMWA has more than 5,600 members in the United States, Canada, and 26 other countries. AMWA is governed by a board of directors composed of a 14-member executive committee and...
, and the Lasker Foundation
Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary...
.
On April 28, 1994, Roueché died at his home in Amagansett
Amagansett, New York
Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 1,067. Amagansett hamlet was founded in 1680.The...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. He was 84 years old. He committed suicide by a shotgun wound to his head. He had been diagnosed with emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
five years earlier, and his wife said he had been depressed.
Works
Author- Black Weather (1945) (also known as Rooming House)
- Greener Grass (1948)
- Eleven Blue Men, and Other Narratives of Medical Detection (1954)
- Annals of Medical Detection (1954)
- The Last Enemy (1956)
- The Incurable Wound and Further Narratives of Medical Detection (1958)
- The Neutral Spirit: a Portrait of Alcohol (1960)
- A Man Named Hoffman and Other Narratives of Medical Detection (1966)
- Annals of Epidemiology (1967)
- What's Left (1968)
- The Orange Man and Other Narratives of Medical Detection (1971)
- Feral (1974) (also released as The Cats)
- Desert and plain, the mountains and the river: A celebration of rural America (1975)
- Fago (1977)
- The River World and Other Explorations (1978)
- The Medical Detectives (1980)
- Special Places: In Search of Small Town America (1982)
- The Medical Detectives II (1984)
- Sea to Shining Sea: People, Travels, Places (1987)
- The Man Who Grew Two Breasts: And Other True Tales of Medical Detection (1996) (published posthumously; the book contains seven installments from The New Yorker feature, "The Annals of Medicine", that had not been in any books previously)
Editor
- Curiosities of Medicine: An assembly of medical diversions, 1552–1962 (1963)
- Handbook for World Travelers: Field Guide to Disease (1967)