Surgeon and writer Richard Selzer was born in Troy, New York, graduated from Union college in 1948 and received his M.D. from Albany Medical College in 1953. After completing a surgical internship and residency at Yale University in 1960, Dr. Selzer remained as Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery until 1985 in addition to maintaining a private practice.

Selzer's writing career began in the 1970's with the publication of Rituals of Surgery (1973), his first collection of short stories. Since then he published Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (1976), Confessions of a Knife (1979), a collection of 24 essays, roughly half of which are surgical memoirs, Letters to a Young Doctor (1982), and his most recent collection, Taking the World in for Repairs (1986), Imagine a Woman (five novellas) (1990) and A Mile and a Half of Ink (a diary) (1990).

Making use of a vast store of information and experiences from his medical career, Selzer's tales of the sick and diseased, while often startling and shocking, are filled with compassion and a certain awe for the mystery of the human body.

The Doctor Stories is Richard Selzer's selection of his own short stories, culled from three decades of writing, along with two new stories and an introduction detailing his literary beginnings. Drawing from his classic books, Selzer portrays the interactions of people at moments of crisis and drama. His signature style is apparent in every sentence: humane, observant, passionately descriptive, and particular, always connecting the intimate with the largest questions of life and death.