The Secret of Dr. Kildare

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1940.

Price: $650.00

Hardcover. First edition. Ink owner's name with a small bookstore stamp, and one corner bumped, else near fine in a lightly edgeworn, near fine dustwrapper. Hospital romance and mystery tale featuring the handsome young intern Dr. Kildare. Basis for the 1939 Harold S. Bacquet film starring Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare, and also featuring Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill, and Laraine Day. Scarce.

Item #322314

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Item #322314 The Secret of Dr. Kildare. Max BRAND, Frederick Faust.

Max Brand
birth name: Frederick Schiller Faust
born: 5/29/1892
died: 5/12/1944

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Biography

Seattle-born author who worked as a cowhand in California, attended Berkeley, joined then deserted the Canadian Army, and finally settled down to writing full-time. He was incredibly prolific and wrote numerous books under his birth name (Frederick Faust) and a variety of pseudonyms. Today he is best known for his work published as Max Brand, including the classic Western Destry Rides Again and his popular series Dr. Kildare. Although middle-aged when WWII broke out and suffering from chronic heart disease (he had had a heart attack in 1921), he became a front line war correspondent and was fatally wounded by shrapnel in Italy in 1944.more

Collecting tips:

Brand wrote so many works that a complete collection will take you quite a while to assemble. His most desirable, and hence most expensive, include his first, The Untamed, Destry Rides Again, and Calling Dr. Kildare, featuring his stalwart physician hero.more