cover image Alton Ochsner, Surgeon of the South

Alton Ochsner, Surgeon of the South

John Wilds. Louisiana State University Press, $29.95 (268pp) ISBN 978-0-8071-1564-0

As a surgeon, innovative researcher, teacher and founder of New Orleans's Ochsner Clinic and Medical Foundation, Ochsner (1896-1981) numbered among his acquaintances heads of state, celebrities and millionaires. Hundreds of his admirers have contributed anecdotes and quotes to enliven this sometimes monotonously adulatory biography. Retired journalist Wilds and Harkey ( The Smell of Burning Crosses ) depict a gifted scientist who was also a charismatic man. Fortunate in his private life despite several tragic family deaths and sibling rivalry problems, he survived the enmity of demagogue Louisiana governor Huey P. Long and resistant local medical circles. A conservative in medicine and politics, Ochsna spoke out against communism and smoking with equal fervor. Photos not seen by PW. (May)