Logan Clendening

Logan Clendening (25 May 1884 – 31 January 1945) was an American physician and medical writer.

Logan Clendening
Born	25 May 1884 Kansas City, Missouri
Died	31 January 1945 Kansas City, Missouri
Occupation	Physician, medical writer

Career

Clendening was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the son of Edwin McKaig Clendening and Lide Logan.[1] In 1907, he received a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Kansas.[2] He was Professor of Clinical Medicine and Professor of Medical History at the University of Kansas.[2]

In 1914, he married Dorothy Scott Hixon. In 1917 he served two years as a major in the major in the U.S. Army Medical.[2] Clendening was the author of the successful book The Human Body, in 1945 it was noted that one and a half million copies had been sold.[2] He became well known for his medical journalism and columns that appeared in many daily newspapers. He took interest in collecting old medical textbooks, researching the Shakespeare authorship question and studying the writings of Charles Dickens and Sherlock Holmes.[2]

The University of Kansas Medical Center has described Clendening as "the greatest popularizer of Medicine in America in the first half of the twentieth century"[3]

Death

In his later years, Clendening suffered from depression and failing health. On 31 January 1945 he committed suicide by cutting his throat and wrists with a knife.[4][5]

Publications

• The Human Body (1927)
• Modern Methods Of Treatment (1928)
• Behind the Doctor (1933)[6]
• The Care and Feeding of Adults (1933)
• Handbook To Pickwick Papers (1936)
• The Balanced Diet (1936)
• Workbook in Elementary Diagnosis for Teaching Clinical History Recording and Physical Diagnosis (1938)
• Source Book of Medical History (1942, 1960)[7][8]
• The Logan Clendening Collection of Books About the Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy (1943)
• Methods Of Diagnosis (1947) [with Edward H. Hashinger]

References

1. Wilson, Philip K. "Logan Clendening". American National Biography.
2. Major, Ralph H. (1945). Logan Clendening 1884-1945. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 33 (2): 257-259.
3. "Logan Clendening’s Unattainable War". University of Kansas Medical Center.
4. "Logan Clendening". The Pendergast Years.
5. "Logan Clendening Canonizing an Irregular Saint". Baker Street Journal, 1992.
6. "Behind the Doctor". Kirkus Reviews.
7. Leikind, Morris C. (1942). Reviewed Work: Source Book of Medical History. The American Historical Review 48 (1): 61-62.
8. Galdston, Iago. (1942). Source Book of Medical History. American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health 32 (9): 1054.