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Berton Roueché

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Berton Roueché
CDC portrait of Berton Roueché
Born
Clarence Berton Roueché

April 16, 1910[1][2]
Chicago, Illinois, United States
DiedApril 28, 1994(1994-04-28) (aged 84)[3]
Amagansett, New York, United States
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationBachelor of Journalism degree from the Missouri School of Journalism
Alma materUniversity of Missouri
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • novelist
  • writer
Writing career
Period1944–1991
Genresnon-fiction, detective, mystery, suspense
SubjectsMedical writing, epidemiology, public health, infectious diseases
Notable worksEleven Blue Men (1954)
The Incurable Wound (1958)
Feral (1974)
The Medical Detectives (1980)
Notable awardsRaven Award – Best Book in a Mystery Field – Mystery Writers of America
1954 Eleven Blue Men
Academy Award – Literature – The American Academy of Arts and Letters
1982

Clarence Berton Roueché Jr. (/ruːˈʃeɪ/ roo-SHAY;[3] April 16, 1910[1][2] – April 28, 1994[3]) was an American medical writer who wrote for The New Yorker magazine for almost fifty years.[3][4] He wrote twenty books, including Eleven Blue Men (1954), The Incurable Wound (1958), Feral (1974), and The Medical Detectives (1980).[3] An article he wrote for The New Yorker was made into the 1956 film Bigger Than Life,[3][5] and many of the medical mysteries on the television show House were inspired by Roueché's writings.[6][7]

Early life and education

[edit]

Berton Roueché was born in Chicago on April 16, 1910, to Clarence Berton Roueché Sr., a tailor, and Nana Maria Mossman.[8][9][10] His paternal great-grandparents emigrated from France.[11] He graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City in 1928 and is a member of the Southwest High School Hall of Fame.[12] He received an undergraduate journalism degree at the University of Missouri in 1933.[3]

Career

[edit]

He was a reporter for The Kansas City Star, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.[3]

In 1944, he was hired as a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.[3] In 1946, "The Annals of Medicine" department of the magazine was created for him.[3] "The Annals of Medicine" is a series about medical detection and the fight against different diseases. An article he wrote for The New Yorker, entitled "Ten Feet Tall", was made into a 1956 film called Bigger Than Life, which stars James Mason.[3][5] The article and film are about the negative side effects of the drug cortisone.[3][13] Roueché remained a staff writer for The New Yorker until his death, a span of about fifty years.[3][4]

In addition to writing for The New Yorker, he wrote twenty books,[3] mostly pieces of medical writing focused on epidemiology, with elements of mystery and detective work. He wrote several suspense novels, including Black Weather (1945), The Last Enemy (1956), Feral (1974), and Fago (1977).[3] 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.[6][7] Many of the medical cases in the show are directly inspired by real-life cases in The Medical Detectives.[6][7] 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.[3] In 1982, he received an Academy Award of The American Academy of Arts and Letters for literature.[14][15] He 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.[3]

Personal life

[edit]

On October 28, 1936, he married Katherine Eisenhower, the niece of future U.S. President General Dwight D. Eisenhower.[1][2][13] She remained his wife until his death in 1994. They had one child, Arthur Bradford Roueché, who was born November 16, 1942.[1][2]

Later in life, he developed emphysema (COPD).[3]

On April 28, 1994, Roueché died at his home in Amagansett, Long Island. He was 84 years old. The cause of death was suicide.[3]

Bibliography

[edit]

Books

[edit]

Fiction

[edit]
  • Black Weather (1945) (also known as Rooming House)
  • The Last Enemy (1956)
  • Feral (1974) (also released as The Cats)
  • Fago (1977)

Medical writing

[edit]
  • Eleven Blue Men, and Other Narratives of Medical Detection (1954) (alternative title: Annals of Medical Detection)
  • The Incurable Wound and Further Narratives of Medical Detection (1958)
  • Roueché, Berton, ed. (1963). Curiosities of Medicine: An Assembly of Medical Diversions, 1552–1962.
  • A Man Named Hoffman and Other Narratives of Medical Detection (1966) (published in the UK as Dossier of Medical Detection)
  • Roueché, Berton, ed. (1967). Handbook for World Travelers: Field Guide to Disease.
  • Annals of Epidemiology (1967)
  • The Orange Man and Other Narratives of Medical Detection (1971)
  • The Medical Detectives (1980, reissued in 1991)
  • The Medical Detectives II (1984)
  • The Man Who Grew Two Breasts: And Other True Tales of Medical Detection (1996) (published posthumously; the book contains seven instalments that had not been in any books previously)[16]

Travel writing

[edit]
  • Greener Grass (1948)
  • The Delectable Mountains (1953)
  • What's Left: Reports on a Diminishing America (1968)
  • Desert and plain, the mountains and the river: A celebration of rural America by Berton Roueché and David Plowden (1975)
  • The River World and Other Explorations (1978)
  • Special Places: In Search of Small Town America (1982)
  • Sea to Shining Sea: People, Travels, Places (1987)

Other nonfiction

[edit]
  • The Neutral Spirit: a Portrait of Alcohol (1960)

Essays and reporting

[edit]

Annals of Medicine

[edit]
ArticleNew Yorker publicationBook publicationLater collection
The Alerting of Mr. PomerantzAugust 23, 1947Eleven Blue MenThe Medical Detectives II
A Perverse, Ungrateful, Maleficent MaladyMarch 6, 1948
Eleven Blue MenMay 29, 1948The Medical Detectives
A Man from MexicoJune 4, 1949The Medical Detectives II
The FogSeptember 23, 1950The Medical Detectives II
A Pig from JerseyNovember 11, 1950The Medical Detectives
A Pinch of DustJune 16, 1951The Medical Detectives II
Something ExtraordinaryJuly 21, 1951
A Game of Wild IndiansMarch 29, 1952The Medical Detectives
Family ReunionDecember 27, 1952
Birds of a FeatherApril 11, 1953The Medical Detectives II
A Lonely RoadOctober 10, 1953The Medical Detectives II
LostJune 12, 1954The Incurable WoundThe Medical Detectives II
One of the Lucky OnesFebruary 19, 1955The Medical Detectives II
Ten Feet TallSeptember 3, 1955
CH3CO2C6H4CO2HMarch 24, 1956The Medical Detectives
The Incurable WoundMarch 30, 1957The Medical Detectives
The Most Delicate Thing in the WorldApril 27, 1957The Medical Detectives II
Impression: Essentially NormalMarch 29, 1958A Man Named HoffmanThe Medical Detectives
The Liberace RoomSeptember 10, 1960The Medical Detectives
PlaceboOctober 8, 1960The Medical Detectives II
A Certain ContributionJanuary 14, 1961The Medical Detectives II
A Great Green CloudJuly 8, 1961
S. MiamiNovember 25, 1961The Medical Detectives II
An Emotion of WeirdnessAugust 10, 1963
Back to VeniceOctober 5, 1963
Leaves of ThreeSeptember 5, 1964The Medical Detectives II
A Swim in the NileOctober 31, 1964The Medical Detectives
A Man Named HoffmanApril 17, 1965The Medical Detectives
Something a Little UnusualMay 8, 1965The Orange ManThe Medical Detectives
In the BughouseNovember 20, 1965The Medical Detectives II
Shiver and BurnNovember 5, 1966The Medical Detectives II
The Orange ManMay 20, 1967The Medical Detectives
Three Sick BabiesSeptember 28, 1968The Medical Detectives
The Case of Mrs. CarterNovember 30, 1968The Medical Detectives II
The HiccupsMarch 29, 1969The Medical Detectives II
The Dead MosquitosOctober 4, 1969The Medical Detectives
A Woman with a HeadacheJanuary 24, 1970The Medical Detectives II
The Huckleby Hogs
[Insufficient Evidence]		August 15, 1970The Medical Detectives
A Small, Apprehensive ChildApril 3, 1971The Medical Detectives II
The West Branch Study
[The Simpsons and the Hepatitides]		August 14, 1971The Medical Detectives
The Santa Clause SpecimenAugust 28, 1971The Medical Detectives II
As Empty as EveSeptember 2, 1974The Medical Detectives
Two Blue HandsDecember 15, 1975
All I Could Do Was Stand in the WoodsSeptember 5, 1977
AntipathiesMarch 6, 1978
SandyAugust 14, 1978
Live and Let LiveJuly 9, 1979
A Rainy Day on the VineyardJuly 28, 1980
The Prognosis for This Patient is HorribleJanuary 18, 1982The Medical Detectives
Volume II
The Hoofbeats of a ZebraMay 28, 1984
A Contemporary TouchAugust 6, 1984
The Dinosaur CollectionMay 5, 1986The Man Who Grew
Two Breasts
CinnabarDecember 1, 1986
The Fumigation ChamberDecember 28, 1987The Medical Detectives
(1991 reissue)
A Lean CuisineJune 20, 1988
The Foulest and Nastiest Creatures That BeSeptember 5, 1988
The Poker RoomAugust 28, 1989The Man Who Grew
Two Breasts
A Good Safe TanMarch 4, 1991
The Man Who Grew Two Breasts—
Overdoing It—
Hoping—

Other

[edit]
  • Roueché, Berton & A. Sadler (February 4, 1950). "Novice". The Talk of the Town. The New Yorker. 25 (50): 23.

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Berger-Knorr, Lawrence (2005). The Pennsylvania Relations of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Sunbury Press. p. 101. ISBN 0-9760925-4-9. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Eisenhower Family Tree". Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site. Archived from the original on March 20, 2008. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Collins, Glenn (April 29, 1994). "Berton Roueche, Medical Writer For The New Yorker, Dies at 83". The New York Times. Retrieved April 5, 2008. (Note that Roueché's date of death is derived from the date of publication for this article, which is April 29, 1994, and the fact that the article says he "died yesterday", which makes his date of death April 28, 1994. Also note that the article incorrectly says his age at death was 83; if he was born April 16, 1910, his age at death would have been 84.)
  4. 1 2 Balliett, Whitney (May 16, 1994). "Berton Roueche". The New Yorker. CondéNet. p. 11. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  5. 1 2 "Full cast and crew for Bigger Than Life (1956)". The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  6. 1 2 3 Gibson, Stacey (Winter 2008). "The House That Dave Built". University of Toronto Magazine. University of Toronto. Retrieved April 5, 2008. (last sentence of 8th paragraph)
  7. 1 2 3 Cowles, Matthew Dixon (May 11, 2007). "Book: The Medical Detectives by Berton Roueché". Mondo's Info. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  8. ↑ U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947
  9. ↑ 1910 United States Federal Census
  10. ↑ 1920 United States Federal Census
  11. ↑ 1880 United States Federal Census
  12. ↑ "Southwest High School Hall of Fame". Southwest High School Alumni Association. Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  13. 1 2 Lerner, Barron H. (December 8, 2005). "Remembering Berton Roueché — Master of Medical Mysteries". The New England Journal of Medicine. 353 (23). Massachusetts Medical Society: 2428–2431. doi:10.1056/NEJMp058147. PMID 16339093.
  14. ↑ "Berton Roueche on LibraryThing". LibraryThing. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  15. ↑ "The Literature, Arts & Medicine Database – Roueche, Berton". New York University. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
  16. ↑ Roueche, Berton (1996). Editorial Reviews for The Man Who Grew Two Breasts: And Other True Tales of Medical Detection. ISBN 0452274109.
[edit]
  • Burton Roueche at IMDb (note the alternate spelling of his first name and the incorrect birth and death dates) (note the incorrect spelling of his last name)
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