Paging Dr. Keats

Though John Keats will always be remembered first and foremost as a poet, a new biography examines his extensive background in medicine and the influence of the healing arts upon his work. In John Keats: A Literary Life, Bob White explores why Keats abruptly traded his understanding of the body for an exploration of the soul. Keats apprenticed as an apothecary from ages 14-21 and would’ve been eligible to become a full-fledged doctor, but then decided to pursued his passion for what was to be a brief few years – he died of tuberculosis at age 25.

Read more at the Australian:

In White's just published John Keats: A Literary Life, he quotes one of the poet's letters to a friend, written in 1818. "Were I to study physic or rather Medicine again, I feel it would not make the least difference in my Poetry. I am so convinced of this, that I am glad at not having given away my medical Books, which I shall again look over to keep alive the little I know thitherwards."

White says: "If you become a famous poet, [critics] think of your previous occupation as a false start, what you did before your true vocation, but I don't think it was like that" . . .

(Science and poetry explorers may also enjoy Molly Young's "Keats in Space.")