Frank G. Slaughter

Frank G. Slaughter was a bestselling novelist and physician that sold more than 60 million copies of his works. Just before his fifth birthday, the family moved to Oxford in North Carolina where they lived on an expansive farm. They grew corn and tobacco on the farm even though his father worked a day job as a mail carrier. Once he graduated from high school, he proceeded to college at Duke University, where he was an active member of Phi Beta Kappa. Later on, he went to Baltimore and attended the John Hopkins Medical School for his medical studies. He then underwent surgical training at the Jefferson Hospital in Virginia, though he has asserted that his training in Baltimore probably had more impact than any other training or residency since. He got married to former operating room nurse Jane Mundy in 1933 and together they had two sons. In 1934, Slaughter moved the family to Florida where he had found a job at the Jacksonville Herman Kiefer Hospital as a staff surgeon. His stint in Florida would provide the inspiration and setting for many of his later novels. In 1938, Slaughter earned the American College of Surgeons Fellowship. By 1940, the American Board of Surgery certified him as Surgery Specialist. When World War II broke out, he served as a physician in the United States Medical Corps. By 1944, he had risen up the ranks and was a lieutenant colonel by the time he was sent to Manilla. He worked aboard the Emily HM Weder hospital ship and it is from his experiences that he wrote “Dark Garden,” a novel that harked back to the Civil War.