Francisco González Crussí
Francisco Gonzalez-Crussi, Professor Emeritus, is a Mexican physician and writer whose career extended along two disciplines, medicine and literature. (Né Francisco, his Anglicized name, Frank, has been used in his English-language productions). Biography. Born in a modest neighborhood of Mexico City in 1936, F. Gonzalez-Crussi was raised by his widowed mother, who owned a small drugstore. He studied medicine in the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and graduated in 1961. He migrated to the United States, where he obtained post-graduate training in the specialty of pathology, later sub-specializing in pediatric pathology. He  began his career in 1967 in academic medicine in Canada, at Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario), and moved back to the United States in 1973, where he was a Professor of Pathology at Indiana University until 1978, when he relocated to Chicago, there to become Professor of Pathology at Northwestern University School of Medicine and Head of Laboratories of Children's Memorial Hospital until his retirement in 2001. His literary work first became known in 1985, with the appearance of his book "Notes of an Anatomist", to considerable critical acclaim. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1987. Among the  awards he has won is a Fellowship of the Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (September 2000 to February 2001), a Certificate of Achievement by the Office of the Secretary of State of Illinois (2009), a career achievement prize by the ABC Hospital of Mexico City (2009) and a Medal of Merit from the University of Veracruz, Mexico. Between 2005 and 2007 he was appointed as consultant in the discipline of literary essay, in the Mexican government's office in charge of promoting culture and the arts, F.O.N.C.A. ("Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes"). In 2014 he was awarded the  Merck Literary Prize in Rome, for his book "Carrying the Heart" (translated as "Organi Vitali", Adelphi, Milan, 2014). On November 19, 2019 he was awarded the "Pedro Henriquez Ureña International Prize for the Essay" given by the Mexican Academy of Language ("Academia Mexicana de la Lengua") Works. In the medical field, in addition to about 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals of his medical speciality, he wrote two books: In the literary field, his work has been chiefly in the essay genre, in both English and Spanish. Books written in English: Books written and published in Spanish: Foreign translations of  Dr. Gonzalez-Crussi's books include: Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Slovakian, Czech, Polish, and Japanese. In the English language, Dr. Gonzalez-Crussi has contributed book reviews to "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "Nature" and "Commonweal". Excerpts of his work have appeared in "The New Yorker", "Harper's Magazine" and "The Sciences". In the Spanish language, his work has appeared in various periodical publications of Mexico ("Letras Libres", "Cambio", "Tierra Adentro", "Luvina") and Peru ("Etiqueta Negra") Theater play: The work of Dr. Gonzalez Crussi was adapted for the stage in 1995 by a theatrical company of Chicago  ("Live Bait Company", director Sharon Evans), under the name "Memento Mori". Reviewed in "Chicago Tribune", and "Chicago Sun-Times" in 1995. This play was also presented in Seattle (November-December 1996) by the "Aha!" Theater Company. Reviewed in "The Seattle Times" in 1996. Television Documentary: The literary work of Dr. Gonzalez Crussi was featured by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC production (director Kevin Hull) was entitled "Day of the Dead", which was filed in the "British Film Institute" archive. It was part of the TV series "Bookmark", and was first aired in the UK on April 27, 1992 on  BBC2. The film was reviewed in "The Daily Telegraph"; in "The Times"; and the "BMJ" in 1992.