Berton Roueche

Berton Roueche, author of the series of articles included in his book, The Medical Detectives, grew up in the Midwest and received a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. He then held a series of positions with major newspapers in a variety of capacities, until, in 1944, he joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine, as chief of the "Annals of Medicine" department. In this position, he began to research and document unusual medical cases, which required physicians and health department officials to use both the tools of their science and standard investigatory techniques to determine diagnoses and treatments.

As a medical journalist, Roueche received a number of awards, and he later used his understanding of investigative techniques in the writing of several mystery novels, published throughout his adult life. He continued to write for The New Yorker, living in Long Island, New York, until...