Leo Eloesser, M. D.: Eulogy for a Free Spirit

New York , NY, U.S.A.: Philosophical Library, 1982. This is a biography of a San Francisco surgeon who led a remarkable life involving music, travel, medicine, and social causes; a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine and surgeon at San Francisco Hospital, he was a pioneer in thoracic surgery; during World War I he was in charge of the surgical division of a large German Hospital until the American entrance into the war; in the 1920s he became a friend of the painter Diego Rivera and a lifelong confidant and medical adviser to Frida Kahlo, who later painted his portrait; in 1934 he went to the Soviet Union where he set up a ward for thoracic surgery at a clinic in Moscow; in 1937 he went to Spain with a medical unit attached to the Republican Army and performed surgery at a mobile hospital behind the front lines; in 1945 he went with the U.N. to China to train doctors in thoracic surgery and worked for four years with the Communists teaching hygiene and sanitation and training midwives; in the 1950s he settled in Mexico, where he set up a clinic and worked on rural health problems; includes photographs (black cloth with gold lettering on spine; a bright, clean, tight copy in near fine condition; in stock & available for immediate shipment from a reliable independent bookstore). Hard Cover. Near Fine/No Jacket.