The Anatomist

I heard a talk from Bill Hayes, the author of The Anatomist. The book chronicles the life of Henry Gray and the original illustrator of Gray's Anatomy, Henry Vandyke Carter. Though I don't read a lot of historical narrative, I got really interested in this book after hearing some excerpts. Bill Hayes, a San Francisco freelance writer, got interested in this topic when he realized there were no biographies of Henry Gray. He called UCSF's general Q&A line with an odd request: whether he could meet with some anatomists to help him plan this book. After talking with some of the anatomy faculty (all of whom we know as students), he was invited to attend one or two anatomy labs. He ended up sticking around for a year and half, taking classes with dental, nursing, physical therapy, and medical students. The Anatomist weaves in the author's personal experiences at UCSF's anatomy labs with the biography of the author and illustrator of the original Gray's Anatomy.

I've worked with Bill Hayes in creative writing workshop for the last quarter, and he's awesome. I think it's fascinating that he doesn't have a medical or science background yet all his books focus on topics like the history of blood and insomnia. He has a lot of insight into writing and offers great perspective for us in workshop. Although I have not yet read The Anatomist, it is the next book on my list and I expect it to be completely worthwhile. Bill Hayes' other books include Sleep Demons and Five Quarts.

Image shown under fair use, from Amazon.