Paul de Kruif

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Paul Henry De Kruif (born March 2, 1890 in Zeeland (Michigan) , † February 28, 1971 in Holland (Michigan) ) was an American microbiologist of Dutch descent and author . His most famous book, Microbe Hunters (German Microbe Hunters ), was published in February 1926. It was a bestseller not only for a long time, but also an inspiration to scientists, including the British biochemist Aaron Klug , the British zoologist Keith Vickerman and Swiss molecular biologist Charles Weissmann .

Studies and military service

Paul de Kruif studied science at the University of Michigan and received his bachelor's degree in 1912, became an associate professor at the age of 26 and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1916. PhD. He then served as a private in the Pancho Villa expedition in Mexico and fought as a lieutenant and captain in the US armed forces during the First World War in France. Because he was there in the medical corps, he had occasional contact with leading French biologists. As a medical captain in World War I, he is said to have found an antitoxin against the gangrene of those wounded by gas.

job

After returning to the University of Michigan, where he was an assistant professor , de Kruif worked briefly for the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research . After that he turned more to writing. De Kruif supported Sinclair Lewis in his novel " Arrowsmith ", for which Lewis received the Pulitzer Prize in 1925 . De Kruif helped him to medical and scientific information for the plot and for the sketching of individual characters. Nevertheless, only Lewis was named as the author. De Kruif's contribution, however, was substantial; he also received 25 percent of the author's fee. Many recognized in the characters in this novel people whom de Kruif had met once, in Martin Arrowsmith even himself.

Some of his lyrics caused difficulties for de Kruif. The content of some of the essays he wrote while at the Rockefeller Institute eventually led to his dismissal. Ronald Ross, one of the scientists featured in “Microbe Hunters”, took offense at his presentation. In order to avoid an action for libel, the relevant chapter has been deleted from the English version.

De Kruif was on the writing staff of "Ladies' Home Journal", "Country Gentleman" and "Readers Digest". He wrote articles on scientific, especially medical, topics. He also sat on commissions that sponsored research on polio . “The Sweeping Wind”, his last book, is his autobiography.

Criticism and praise

Kurt Tucholsky wrote under the pseudonym Peter Panter in the magazine " Die Weltbühne " of February 21, 1928, No. 8, p. 287, about de Kruif's "Microbe Hunters" among other things:

“So I read there how wonderfully beautiful the 'microbe hunters' by Paul de Kruif are. (Published by Orell Füßli, Zurich and Leipzig.) The subject is one of the most beautiful there is: the real victory of people over matter, and, moreover, over living. Nothing is as big as a biochemical puzzle. In addition, this science is very, very young, hardly a lifetime old. (...)

Paul de Kruif (...) belittled the subject (...). He calls the microbes 'the little devils', and he has managed to turn the people of will to cook and pasteur and honest heroes in cotton-knitted armor. (...) The way in which the French Pasteur and the German chef are played off against each other is extremely unfair - doubly unfair for someone who has worked at the Pasteur Institute in France for so long. Again and again the silly nationality question is brought into this area. (...)

The book is itself a microbe: that of the American world sickness. This belittled death, these caricatures that look like a senior girl's headmistress imagines a heroic doctor: this fatal whimpering at a semi-educated audience who likes to read books like this because the 'subject brought to them so nicely' is brought down, like that that afterwards you can have a say in it: it is the spread of 'education' that I hate in the greatest possible way.

Without us. If that's the way over there to bring a difficult and important issue to the masses, we shouldn't care. But surely it is not necessary in Europe to go back to the infantile standpoint of a young country and start all over again. After all, there was something like humanism here. Not even - on 346 pages not even a glance up to the stars: no feeling for the mysterious in nature. "

By contrast, CW Ceram meant in the foreword to his book (and quick bestseller) “ Gods, graves and scholars . Roman der Archäologie ", published in 1949 by Rowohlt in Hamburg and Stuttgart:

“As far as I know, it is Paul de Kruif, the American doctor, who first undertook to present the development of a very special science in such a way that it could be read with an excitement that, in our century, is only aroused by detective novels. De Kruif discovered in 1927 that the development of bacteriology, if you see it correctly and if you order it correctly, contains novel-like elements.

And he also discovered that even the most intricate scientific problems can be presented in the most simple and understandable way if they are described as work processes, that is, if you lead the reader exactly the same way that the scientist himself took. (...) This is how his book about the 'microbe hunters' came about - and only the title, which transformed the sober name 'bacteriologist' into a human category, contained the program for a new literary category, for the 'factual novel'. . "

bibliography

  • Our Medicine Men (1922)
  • Microbe Hunters (1926)
  • Hunger Fighters (1928)
    • German: Conqueror of Hunger. Translated by Curt Thesing . Grethlein, Leipzig 1929.
  • Men Against Death (1932)
    • German: Fighters for life: deeds of fame of great naturalists and doctors. Translated by Max Moszkowski . Ullstein, Berlin 1933.
  • with Rhea de Kruif: Why Keep Them Alive (1936)
    • German: Children are calling us! Translated by Paul Fohr. Ed. U. a. v. Curt Emmerich. Ullstein, Berlin 1936.
  • Seven Iron Men (1937)
  • The Fight for Life (1938)
    • German: men who conquer death. Translated by Karl Eugen Brunner. Orell Füssli, Zurich & Leipzig 1938.
  • Health is Wealth (1940)
    • German: Health is prosperity. Translated by H. Kunze. Rascher, Zurich & Leipzig 1941.
  • Kaiser Wakes the Doctors (1943)
  • The Male Hormone (1945)
    • German: The male hormone: youthful elasticity into old age. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1947.
  • Life Among Doctors (1949)
    • German: Miracles of medicine and the medical world: New scientific discoveries - great hopes for mankind. Translated by Ella von Ehrenwall. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1951.
  • A Man Against Insanity (1957)
    • German: light for the night. Translated by Emilie Wiessner and W. Rümmele. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1957.
  • The Sweeping Wind (1962)
    • German: Brausender Wind: The story of my life. Translated by Susanne Ullrich. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1963.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary: Keith Vickerman, zoologist. July 21, 2016, accessed December 25, 2018 .
  2. ^ Foreword to the sixth edition. (1937) In: Paul de Kruif: Microbe hunters. (Original edition: Microbe Hunters. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York 1926). Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich / Leipzig 1927; 8th edition ibid 1940, p. 7 f.
  3. ^ Foreword to the sixth edition. In: Paul de Kruif: Microbe hunters. (Original edition: Microbe Hunters. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York 1926). Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich / Leipzig 1927; 8th edition ibid 1940, p. 7 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kruif, Paul de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kruif, Paul Henry De
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American microbiologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Zeeland (Michigan)
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1971
Place of death Holland (Michigan)