The Story of My Life 1885 James Marion Sims ~ Memoir of Gynecologist, Plantation Physician & Surgical Pioneer ~ Alabama

Title: The Story of My Life

Author: J. [James] Marion Sims / Edited by His Son, H. [Harry] Marion-Sims

Description: Early printing. Brown cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. Spine ends lightly worn. Inner hinges good. Clean and unmarked. Editor's addenda tipped in at page 291. pp. 471, plus [8] ads. A nice copy.

The autobiography of James Marion Sims (1813-1883), the pioneering American gynecologist who was, in his time, one of the most famous and venerated physicians in the country. The volume covers the period of his life up through the year 1863, with subsequent biographical details provided by his son in the introduction. The appendices include about 50 pages of letters written by Dr. Sims and a five page bibliography of articles written by him and published in various periodicals between 1846 and 1883.

Sims is also a controversial figure having developed his surgical techniques while working as a "plantation physician," operating on enslaved black women and girls at Mount Meigs, Cross Keys, Cubahatchee, and Montgomery, Alabama between 1837 and 1853. In Montgomery he built the first hospital specifically for Blacks in the United States. In 1855, he founded the Woman's Hospital in New York. Between 1861 and 1868, he lived in Europe, where he demonstrated his surgical advancements in Dublin, Edinburgh, Paris and London. In 1876, was elected President of the American Medical Association.


Binding: Hardcover
Condition: VG+

Publisher: D. Appleton and Company
Place: New York
Year: 1885

Keywords: biography, autobiography, memoir, gynecology, gynecologist, medical, plantation physician, women's medicine, Montgomery, Alabama, New York, Woman's Hospital, history,