Harvey Cushing: A Biography

By John F. Fulton

Read by Edison McDaniels, MD

The 1946 biography of Harvey Cushing by John Fulton on audiobook for the first time ever!

“The Power of One, the Impact of Many.” For neurosurgery, no individual encapsulates the power of one better than Harvey Cushing. Cushing (1869-1939) is the founding father of modern neurosurgery and was remarkably productive even by today’s standards. It is estimated that in addition to everything else he accomplished, he wrote the equivalent of 1,000 words a day for the entirety of his 70 years on this earth. He also operated on over 2,000 brain tumors (less than 5 attempts had been made to operate on any brain tumor before him, only one successfully). This was at a time without antibiotics, specialized imaging, blood transfusions, intensive care units, or anything more than primitive early anesthetic techniques. He quite literally invented modern brain surgery.

HARVEY CUSHING, A BIOGRAPHY, by John Fulton.

o This is the definitive biography of Harvey Cushing, published to great acclaim in 1946.

o First time ever on audio!

o This is not an AI production. The voice is mine, and all technical aspects of the production are my own work. This is a highly polished presentation with fully human voice.

o The audiobook is 45 hours in length.

o Listeners can go directly to individual chapters or any of the excerpts or bonus materials.

o Includes as a bonus the first chapter of Harvey Cushing’s 1926 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the founder of modern medicine, THE LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM OSLER. This work is also available on Audible.

HARVEY CUSHING: A BIOGRAPHY is The Story of a Great Medical Pioneer:

Written in 1946 by the eminent scholar and physiologist John F. Fulton, a man who knew and worked alongside Cushing, this is the definitive biography of one of the most significant figures in the history of medicine and surgery. Cushing’s legacy is present in every operating room in the world every day, for he was much more than the father of modern neurosurgery: among other innovations, he was the first to follow blood pressure during surgery and the first to develop a practical means of doing so. He was a pioneer in electrocautery, otherwise known as the electric knife, which is used in most operations today to control bleeding. He worked out the relationship between gigantism and pituitary tumors. These are just a few of the numerous innovations and discoveries he is credited with.

He counted among his friends and patients many of the foremost physicians, statesmen, scientists, and scholars of his time. One of his daughters married FDR’s son. Included among the correspondence here are notes and letters with Sir William Osler (the father of modern internal medicine), Walter Reed (the man who conquered Yellow Fever), William H. Taft, The Mayo Brothers (founders of The Mayo Clinic), William Halsted (the father of modern surgery), and many, many more.

This work will be of great interest not just to neurosurgeons, but to anyone with any interest in the history of medicine, including physicians of all specialties, nurses, medical students, and many, many others. Cushing knew everybody who was anybody in medicine during the first third of the 20th century and it’s all described here in remarkable prose. He was a phenomenal writer and wrote his experiences down in exquisite detail seemingly daily. One wonders where he found the time! There is much material here on the founding of the Johns Hopkins Medical School as well as the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Includes the founding of the Cushing Brain Tumor Archive at Yale and The Harvey Cushing Society, now known as the AANS. He advanced the care of the sick and wounded during WWI and was active in many of the social movements of the 1920s. It’s all easily accessible and can be listened to in piecemeal fashion, such as to and from work for 10 minutes at a time, on a long car ride, or when traveling by plane for hours. A surprising amount of Cushing’s advice remains relevant to today’s physicians in general and neurosurgeons in particular.

Narrated by Edison McDaniels, a board-certified neurosurgeon himself, as well as an accomplished audiobook narrator. Over the years he has narrated more than 50,000 minutes of spoken word audio.

This is a book for the masses with something for everyone!

Audible/Amazon

THE LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM OSLER, Vol II

Written in 1924 by Harvey Cushing, MD

An epic telling of the birth of modern clinical medicine, by those who lived it.

Winner of the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for biography!

William Osler was one of the big four founding fathers of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and later became the Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford. But this acclaimed physician was so much more. This is a remarkable story.

An amazingly detailed look at the life of a gentleman and illustrious physician of the 19th century. An intimate tell of medical history during a time it moved from its rudiments of 3,000 years to the foundations of modern practice. And Williams Osler, the preeminent physician of his day and the father of modern clinical medicine seems to have been at the heart of it all.

Vol II picks up the story at the beginning of Osler’s term as the Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford. Over the next 14 years, he will use all he has learned about humanity and medicine in his previous 55 years of life to move medicine into a new century and a new age, to bring public health to the forefront, and to move medical education from the pages of books to the hospital wards and clinics. He will reach the highest pinnacles of the medical profession, indeed among men of any rank, and then, amidst the greatest war ever fought to that moment in all human history, he will experience the greatest loss a parent can endure.

This biography is written by another esteemed physician, Harvey Cushing, the father of modern neurosurgery. The two volumes together are 60 hours long.

This is a fascinating, intimate look at the greatest period of discovery in medical history, with remembrances of the likes of Walt Whitman, Virchow, Pasteur, Sydenham, Lister, Koch, and many, many others.

This makes a great gift for that medical man or woman in your life. Listen now!

This book is read by Edison McDaniels, MD

The entire two-volume narration is 60 hours long and a treasure trove of information.

Edison McDaniels is himself a physician and surgeon, as well as an accomplished audiobook narrator.

Audible/Amazon

THE LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM OSLER, Vol I

Written in 1924 by Harvey Cushing, MD

An epic telling of the birth of modern clinical medicine, by those who lived it.

Winner of the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for biography!

William Osler was one of the big four founding fathers of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and later became the Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford. But this acclaimed physician was so much more. This is a remarkable story.

An amazingly detailed look at the life of a gentleman and illustrious physician of the 19th century. An intimate tell of medical history during a time it moved from its rudiments of 3,000 years to the foundations of modern practice. And Williams Osler, the preeminent physician of his day and the father of modern clinical medicine seems to have been at the heart of it all.

This biography is written by another esteemed physician, Harvey Cushing, the father of modern neurosurgery. The two volumes together are 60 hours long.

This is a fascinating, intimate look at the greatest period of discovery in medical history, with remembrances of the likes of Walt Whitman, Virchow, Pasteur, Sydenham, Lister, Koch, and many, many others.

This makes a great gift for that medical man or woman in your life. Listen now!

This book is read by Edison McDaniels, MD

The entire two-volume narration is 60 hours long and a treasure trove of information.

Edison McDaniels is himself a physician and surgeon, as well as an accomplished audiobook narrator.

Audible/Amazon

Haematomyelia from Gunshot Wounds of the Spine. A Report of Two Cases, with Recovery following Symptoms of Hemilesion of the Cord.

by Harvey Cushing, MD.

Read by Edison McDaniels

Listen to history’s first-ever account of a gunshot wound to the spine.

On January 1st, 1896, Wilhelm Roentgen presented the first ever x-ray, an image of his wife Anna’s left hand. Later that year, a young doctor by the name of Harvey Cushing—who would go on to become one of the most prolific surgeons in history and the father of modern neurosurgery, produced the image on the cover of this audiobook, the first ever clinical x-ray (they called them roentgenograms back then) of a gunshot wound to the neck and spine.

Harvey Cushing would go on to become the most noted neurosurgeon in the world and the father of modern brain surgery. He was relentless in his quest for perfection in everything he did. Along the way, his compassion, incredible powers of observation, profound stamina and fortitude, and unrelenting tenacity in the face of even the most vexing clinical problems, all combined with a skill for writing that would have made him a world-class author in whatever field he took up, led him to keep copious notes and diaries. He published many professional articles and several monographs in his lifetime. The one herein voiced was the first.

Audible/Amazon