Books

Praise for Pale Faces

"Denis Diderot wrote that the organs of the body have their particular history, their infancy, youth, and senility.  Each one has a biography.  In "Pale Faces," Dr. Charles Bardes has shown himself a wonderful biographer of the blood-forming system.  His depiction of the origin, vicissitudes, and, in a word, the silent majesty of the structures that make and destroy the blood, is no less than masterful." — F. Gonzalez-Crussi, MD, author of On Seeing and On Being Born

"Charles Bardes's meditations on medicine …are beautifully—transparently—written, deeply informed, consistently probing the implications of their subject matter, and they carry surprise." — Sven Birkerts, from Charles Bardes, An appreciation, Agni Magazine

"Charles Bardes writes with a wonderfully creative and richly literate style….It is an illusion unmasked in this interesting and rewarding book that diseases are technical things separate from the world of language and meanings in which we are all immersed." — Eric Cassell, author of The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine

Pale Faces

Pale Faces: The Masks of Anemia
A BLP Pathography

By Charles L. Bardes

Amazon

Price: $20.00

Hardcover
13-digit ISBN: 978-1-934137-10-9


Whether mild or deadly, Anemia affects an essential body fluid: blood. Probing deeply into this illness as metaphor, Bardes explores the impact of both science and culture on its treatment across the ages. His innovative "life" of this condition ranges widely through history, art, literature and clinical practice to examine how doctors think influences the practice of medicine.

Charles Bardes, MD, is a physician and Professor of Clinical Medicine and Associate Dean at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

The BLP Pathographies Series

Pathography, in the primary definition offered by the American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, is "The retrospective study, often by a physician, of the possible influence and effects of disease on the life and work of a historical personage or group."

With Pale Faces: The Masks of Anemia by Charles L. Bardes, Bellevue Literary Press launches its Pathographies series, each volume of which will chart the impact of disease on human individuals and populations from the biological, historical, and cultural perspective. We are accepting proposals for future volumes in this series. Please see our guidelines for submissions [link to guidelines page].

This series is dedicated to the memory of Lewis Thomas, author of several critically acclaimed books of popular science including The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher and The Fragile Species. His longtime association with the New York University School of Medicine, beginning in the 1950s, influenced and inspired generations of young physicians, some of whom went on to become writers.


Publication Date: June 2008 / Pages: 192 / Trim Size: 5 x 7-1/2