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Letters To A Young Doctor
Highly candid, insightful, and unexpectedly humorous essays on both the brutality and the beauty of the profession in which saving and losing lives is all in a day’s work. A timeless collection by the “best of the writing surgeons” (Chicago Tribune). With a Preface written by the Author especially for this edition.
208 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 23, 2011
I thought this collection of letters was OK, but it fell short of the expextations I placed on it. It started out great and I enjoyed some of the letters to a young surgeon, but he started to lose me in the letter where he decided surgery was a dying art and that those of us going into surgery now will likely not have careers in a few years (I did take this with a grain of salt seeing as how the book was written 20 years ago and operating rooms are as full as ever). The downhill continued with the Grand Urinal of the Elks, which I saw absolutely no need for including in the book. Sure it's a collection of letters that should be complete, but without seeing the context of what he was responding to, that chapter was absolutely lost on me and felt like a waste of time. I also thought Impostor was over the top in length, and the whole book was over the top with flowery phrases and words that were too big to fit the situation.
Despite all the negatives of the book, it was overall a worthwhile quick read and I'm glad to have it on my shelf. There were some lovely insights into what it means to be a physician (and in particular, a surgeon) and I feel like some of them were written directly to me as an up-and-coming doctor myself.
Despite all the negatives of the book, it was overall a worthwhile quick read and I'm glad to have it on my shelf. There were some lovely insights into what it means to be a physician (and in particular, a surgeon) and I feel like some of them were written directly to me as an up-and-coming doctor myself.
August 10, 2011
If I ever need surgery, I want someone like Richard Seltzer to be my surgeon. His essays reflect a real concern for patients as human beings, and an impulse toward kindness over judgments about a person's looks or class. These are also wonderfully written, witty and allusive essays, reflections really.
November 23, 2007
The style gets cloying, but this collection of lyrical essays by a surgeon at Yale remains one of the undeniable influences in my decision to go into a surgical career.
October 2, 2007
This book takes shape as a series of letters to a young doctor from a surgeon who is acting as his mentor. The author is a strong writer, but at times the quality of the writing interferes with the storytelling.
In its best moments, Letters to a Young Doctor resonates with tradition and reverence. It reminds the reader that medicine is an elegant profession which is passed on in a linear fashion from teacher to student. Only doctors can make doctors.
In its lesser chapters, this book is just stuffy and self important.
All in all, reading the good is worth wading through the rest.
In its best moments, Letters to a Young Doctor resonates with tradition and reverence. It reminds the reader that medicine is an elegant profession which is passed on in a linear fashion from teacher to student. Only doctors can make doctors.
In its lesser chapters, this book is just stuffy and self important.
All in all, reading the good is worth wading through the rest.
July 29, 2021
DNF at page 154
At some points there are some really well written parts that inspired me to think a little more about the profession. However, the style of writing, while indeed eloquent, was filled with comparisons between people or events to items which made the text at times hard to comprehend. There were also a few parts in the book where I was just left confused. The chapter titled "The Slug" from pages 126 to 130 was a particularly memorable example.
At some points there are some really well written parts that inspired me to think a little more about the profession. However, the style of writing, while indeed eloquent, was filled with comparisons between people or events to items which made the text at times hard to comprehend. There were also a few parts in the book where I was just left confused. The chapter titled "The Slug" from pages 126 to 130 was a particularly memorable example.
November 2, 2022
This book was on the shelf for so many years that when I finally sat down to read it, the glue in the spine had disintegrated. But what a book! I'm not a medical person, but I've known doctors, and that was enough to interest me.
What struck me most was the genuine care and compassion that he had for people, paying patient or not. He also shares many amazing stories from the years that he practiced.
It's formatted as a series of letters written to a young doctor. Very effective.
What struck me most was the genuine care and compassion that he had for people, paying patient or not. He also shares many amazing stories from the years that he practiced.
It's formatted as a series of letters written to a young doctor. Very effective.
July 18, 2022
This is a hard one to review. It is a most unusual blend of medicine and creative writing, by an author who is both a surgeon and a writer. Everything about it is unexpected. Some passages are moving, some informative, some ultra creative..... and in that way, readers learn more about the author than about the making of a surgeon and his world. It's a work of art in many ways. There is much in the book that urges us to love each other, no matter what. This world today could certainly use more of that.
January 7, 2017
Should be required reading for all medical students. A number of wise pearls about approach to medical career that would prove useful if taken to heart by all physicians. Wonderfully vivid writing style. He gets a little mystical with some of the essays at the end, but fascinating nonetheless.
August 23, 2025
beautiful, beautiful book. i never once before considered that a career in medicine would be something that i could romanticize—as there are many reasons why not to—but this book offered me a holistic glimpse into why a career in this field is beautiful, through the good and the bad. it left no stone unturned and each idea was vivid and full of so much art and detail. i became excited to read this book because i knew that just by the smallest amount of time reading, i would leave having learned something new. and i feel as though reading this book has improved my vocabulary tremendously. also, the humor laced throughout the book was unexpected and sometimes even made me audibly giggle.
if i were to dislike anything about this book, it would not be anything that takes away from its significance. there were a couple of instances in which the author uses some language, descriptions, or observations that definitely characterize his age and his sometimes questionable perspective, but these were highly few and far between.
although this book is fit for the perspective of a future surgeon, i believe anyone in the medical field would not want to miss the insight within it. i am grateful to have been lent this book by a colleague, and i'm sure that i will be returning to rediscover its brilliance. i loved it!
if i were to dislike anything about this book, it would not be anything that takes away from its significance. there were a couple of instances in which the author uses some language, descriptions, or observations that definitely characterize his age and his sometimes questionable perspective, but these were highly few and far between.
although this book is fit for the perspective of a future surgeon, i believe anyone in the medical field would not want to miss the insight within it. i am grateful to have been lent this book by a colleague, and i'm sure that i will be returning to rediscover its brilliance. i loved it!
October 18, 2019
This is the second book of Selzer’s that I’ve read, and it cements him as one of my favorite authors I’ve discovered in recent memory. His writing is exquisite and his portrait of medicine, those who practice it, and the plights of their patients, is perceptive and at times touching. The only thing I can fault him for is for calling surgery a dying art; nearly forty years on from this book’s publication, it’s true that some things that were done with surgery are now treated with medicine or minimally-invasive procedures, but in their place have come more, and more complicated, things for surgeons to do —transplants of organs we couldn’t transplant before, heart and other organ repairs more delicate than in Selzer’s day, and technological marvels like fetal surgery or microsurgery, just to name a few. I think it’ll be a long time yet before we have no more need for surgeons. But rather than taking away from the book, this failure of prediction makes for an interesting —and actually somewhat amusing — historical curiosity, just another way the book highlights how medicine has changed over the years. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in medicine or great essays.
June 7, 2025
Wise, fallible, excessive, hyperbolic, passionate, florid, amusing, touching, overwrought, heart-breaking, metaphorical, affirming. This set of essays (that I believe is still required reading for many medical programs) feels a bit like James Herriot for the physician set.
The last third goes a bit off the rails for me—in particular, there was one called "Imposter" that reminded me acutely of two recent reads that rubbed me wrong for the same reason, His Name was Death and A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy, and Triumph, both full of flowery passages about an old and very period form of Christianity.
But in the first half in particular, there are essays I'll be thinking about for a very, very long time. Absolute stunners of emotional and authorial craft.
The last third goes a bit off the rails for me—in particular, there was one called "Imposter" that reminded me acutely of two recent reads that rubbed me wrong for the same reason, His Name was Death and A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy, and Triumph, both full of flowery passages about an old and very period form of Christianity.
But in the first half in particular, there are essays I'll be thinking about for a very, very long time. Absolute stunners of emotional and authorial craft.
June 10, 2018
Though I am not nor ever will be a doctor, Selzer has enthralled me in his thoughts from within the profession. Kind and good, cynical and hopeful, human yet master of the the god-like skills of a surgeon, he spins the beauty and challenge of the role he plays and the role he is passing down to his students. I look forward to visiting this book again from time to time.
April 29, 2025
Ok I’m going to be honest I couldn’t even finish this book. There is so much misogyny and the author is so unlikable. I’m saying I read it just to give it a bad review, AND I ALWAYS FINISH MY BOOKS but this was not doable unfortunately
March 1, 2018
Too much esoteric language combined with textbook like content is a recipe for disaster. The few medical narratives and the second to last chapter, "Imposter," saves this book from being a bore fest.
February 23, 2020
At times, this was a very slow and somewhat painful read. Some of the stories feel very sexist and inappropriate, while other (Imelda and imposter stand out) shine through.
June 8, 2021
Delectable writing and enjoyable imagery. A collection of short stories or “letters” that convey wisdom, wit, philosophy, art, history, and joy through lives lived.
June 9, 2021
Toenails had me in tears. This is one good man. And a doctor I want to emulate.
July 3, 2024
Dr. Selzer, thank whomever for the career of medicine.
2.7
2.7
October 12, 2024
This book is a combination of career advice, social commentary, and philosophy. A couple of the stories are unforgettable. Recommended for those interested in Medicine, and for pre-service doctors.
April 30, 2020
Beautifully written but with all the references and metaphors to outside novels/resources I got lost pretty fast. It has nice tidbits of information and advice to medical students but it’s a little on the boring side.
The one thing that saved it was his story of Imelda and the title chartered “imposter”. Very very powerful chapters in it of itself.
The one thing that saved it was his story of Imelda and the title chartered “imposter”. Very very powerful chapters in it of itself.
August 8, 2014
I really hate giving this 3 stars as it is quite eloquently written, but I just got lost in so much of the symbolism and metaphors. I started out loving it and then I got bogged down in the complicated descriptions and it seemed to veer off course from what I really wanted to read about. I found myself just pouring through the words and not really absorbing the content. The author really presents an interesting side of being a Dr. and I did enjoy some the the insight into the personalities of different doctors as well as insight into how patients perceive doctors. I wish I would have enjoyed it more.
March 26, 2007
i thought that this book would be great because it's modelled after rilke's letters to a young poet, and while it had some cute sound byteish paragraphs about practicing medicine in it, they were few and far between, puntuacting a bunch of mindless drivel that pretty much made me want to chew my own arm off
January 7, 2008
Selzer will be on my "to re-read" list forever, I think. A master of the understated metaphor and observer of life and its complexities, Selzer's advice to a young doctor could be advice to any of us in life. A wonderful book and one I will keep in my library of favorites.
October 13, 2008
Hey, I decided to buy (another) copy and read it again. Why? There was a first edition copy of Ernie Pyle's World War II columns in the shop (Half Price Books of the Ozarks), but it was $500.
March 22, 2010
Gave this book as a present to the doctor that did corrective surgery on my ears; it proves a testament to doctors everywhere who are willing to accept and even revel in the world that is surgery in all its art and expense.
Want to read
April 21, 2013Reading this as part of my research for a non-fiction book project I'm working on. Selzer's use of language is my favorite part so far. He relishes metaphor and strong verbs. The frank tone of the book works for me too.
February 6, 2016
Read this book many years ago and thought the author had some profound insights into the human experience. Someone in the health profession could probably relate to all the medical descriptions - not sure I would recommend for general reading.
June 13, 2008
Helped me realize the importance of my route and first year of medical school.
June 28, 2008
read this my first year of college and often think of the lessons still. very 'zen & the art...' in merging art of science ance and medicine with writing.
September 21, 2010
I read this book in college and still remember it. Loved it b/c I care about healthcare and the human spirit. Great read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews