Private Practice

New York: Caxton House, Inc.. Very Good in Good dj. 1939 (c.1933). Reprint. Hardcover. [a decent copy of this cheaply-manufactured reprint, typical browning to pages, light bumping/split to lower rear corners, no other significant wear; the jacket is faded at the spine, with shallow chipping at both ends of spine, light edgewear, tiny bits of paper loss at lower corners]. Medical expose, in the best sensationalistic-pulp manner, a sequel to "The Interne" (which had been co-written by Furman with major Harlem Renaissance figure Wallace Thurman). "The Interne" had given its readers a purported look behind the scenes in a large public hospital through (truncated) an account of the residency of Dr. Carl Armstrong; this book follows Dr. Carl into private practice, as the staff physician in a large textile mill. Per the blurb, it's "a powerful, breath-taking book that lays bare fearlessly and frankly the perils and temptations that surround a young medico. Crooked politicians, shady lawyers, grafting lodge officials, sensual women patients, racketeering druggists, greedy mill executives," and so forth. (Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it, as we contemplate the current state of the glorious American health care racket, er, system?) The author's writing style, sniffed the New York Times, "approximates a tabloid's headlines [which I think was the point, really] and unfailingly ruins every chance his materials offered for the production of a novel worth the mature reader's attention." The novel was originally published by the Macaulay Company in 1933; this reprint edition uses the same jacket art. . (Inventory #: 29759)