Slaughter, Frank G. (Frank Gill), 1908-2001

Frank G. Slaughter was born Frank Gill Slaughter in the Washington, D.C. area in 1908. As a young child Slaughter moved with his family to a rural area near Oxford, North Carolina where his father worked as a farmer and mail carrier. After graduation, attended Duke University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. After graduating, Slaughter went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University and graduated in 1930. He then did his surgical training at Jefferson Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia. In 1934 Slaughter moved with his wife Jane to Jacksonville, Florida, where he worked at Herman Kiefer Hospital. A year later, in 1935, Slaughter would begin work as a prolific writer drawing from his deep commitment to medicine and the concept of healing.

In 1938 Slaughter became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and in 1940 was certified by the American Board of Surgery as a Specialist in Surgery. In 1941 Slaughter published his first work, That None Should Die, which served as a semi-autobiographical examination of the nature of the medical care system. Slaughter also served in the United Stated Medical Corps where he eventually was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1944.

Although much of Slaughter's work background centered around medicine, he was extremely interested in history and religion. Both topics reveal themselves in such works as The Road to Bithynia, published in 1951 and The Thorn of Arimathea, published in 1959 - the former intersecting with the subject of medicine as well.

Slaughter died in 2001 leaving behind many works that are often considered masterpieces. For example, That None Should Die has never been out of print since its publication.

From the guide to the Frank G. Slaughter Papers, 1948-1959, (Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida)