The dermatologist as an autobiographical author-part 1: Autobiographies

An autobiography allows the author to share his or her life's journey with the reader. We present a pair of papers that include dermatologists who are autobiographic authors. Biographic sketches that describe some of the features of ten dermatologists who have written autobiographies are presented in this contribution (Part 1). Several physicians have written autobiographies, and many prolific dermatologists have chosen to write about themselves. This paper summarizes the characteristics of 10 dermatologists and provides a brief introduction to these individuals. It includes succinct biographic sketches of these dermatologists: Alex Anstey, John Thorne Crissey, Karl Holubar, Eyal K. Levit, Douglas N. Naversen, Robert A. Norman, Perry Robins, Alan S. Rockoff, Walter B. Shelley, and Marion B. Sulzberger. The characteristics of dermatologists who conduct autobiographic interviews, write monthly columns in dermatologic magazines about their interactions with patients, document how they dealt with life-threatening non-dermatologic conditions, or describe their dermatologic or medical diseases in case reports are summarized in the second paper (Part 2).