The Disability Book Archive

[ID: Cover for the book “The Undaunted” by Alan Hart. The title of the book is written at the top in thin, red, italicised capitals. The author’s name is written in smaller red capitals. Text reading “foreword by Carter Sickels” is written below this in smaller red capitals. Cover art shows four photographs. The top photograph, covering the upper half of the cover, shows a slightly hazy image of a sandy shoreline under a blue sky. The image in the lower right quarter shows a black and white photograph of Alan Hart. The photograph in the lower left corner shows a black and white photograph of a developing town, with a sticker reader “1936”. The photograph above this is a black and white image if someone walking across a large street with many parked cars. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Period typical language
• Medical content
• References to homophobia
• TBD

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Summary:

In 1936, Alan Hart published The Undaunted, his second bestseller. The novel, which follows young doctor Richard Cameron’s attempts to find an effective treatment for anemia, begins in the west coast city of Seaforth, a stand-in for 1920s Seattle. Within the medical-research plot, Hart also weaves the story of men—Cameron and radiologist Sandy Farquhar—whose personalities and bodies do not fit neatly within the norms of the social and medical establish-ment. Dedicated to medicine and the understanding that scientific knowledge can decrease human pain and suffering, Cameron and Farquhar must nevertheless pursue their careers at personal cost. Lauded in its time for its insights into the inner workings of the medical field, The Undaunted is also an important document of the struggle of the human heart.

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Notes:

Dr Alan Hart is widely considered to be one of, if not the first transmasculine person in the US to undergo gender-affirming care, receiving a hysterectomy circa 1917. Hart’s research and spearheading of programmes that screened for tuberculosis, something not regularly carried out prior to Hart’s innovation, as well as his work in changing the language and stigma surrounding the condition, changed the medical landscape for the better when it came to treating the disease, and is believed to have been responsible for saving countless lives.

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Archivist Comments:

I like adding books that make me learn new things.

A note from the person who submitted this book:

“The book was published in 1936, so medical info and practices (among other things) are understandably outdated.”

Also apparently, because it’s medical fiction and Hart was a doctor himself, sometimes it’s a bit heavy on the medical aspect.

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