William E. Adams: Thomas Mann and The Magic Mountain

The lobectomy for carcinoma of the lung performed by William E. Adams in 1946 on Thomas Mann, author of the tuberculosis saga The Magic Mountain, deserves to be added to Harold Ellis's series of "historically famous operations." This lobectomy, by which the surgeon cured his far more famous patient, was only one episode in his 40 eventful years as Chicago's leading pioneer in early thoracic surgery. The historic case is well documented by preoperative, operative, and pathology reports obtained through the courtesy of still-living witnesses and associates, friends of the author. Thomas Mann died 9 years later of an aortoiliac rupture at the University Hospital in Zurich. At autopsy no local recurrence or distal metastasis was found.