Book on Quaker surgeon wins literary prize
A book about Joseph Lister has received widespread literary acclaim
A book telling the story of the life of Quaker surgeon Joseph Lister has received widespread literary acclaim.
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris has won the 2018 PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing and is shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018.
Lindsey Fitzharris’s debut book tells the story of the ‘quiet Quaker man’ who pioneered antisepsis.
The medical historian said on a YouTube video that Joseph Lister is ‘such an important figure’ who was ‘on a mission to change surgery’. She said he ushered surgery into the modern age. ‘Before Lister… they don’t understand germs. People are dying from extremely high rates of infection. And after you have these clean operating theatres.’
The book was also voted one of the Books of the Year 2017 by the Guardian, Observer and the Daily Mail and shortlisted for the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize.
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