Summer Doctor Author:Charles H. Knickerbocker This is a novel about a very unusual kind of a doctor. Daniel van Dine, M.D. is inclined to wear coveralls, a flannel shirt, and hip-length fisherman's boots, and he has a sense of humor. He is a nonconformist and a humanist with a keen sense of history. His relgious inclinations are rather strong. He is constantly seeking the reason for hum... more »an suffering and pain. He feels that a deeply personal doctor-patient relationship is more important than the glamor of medical progress. Dr. Dan decides to locate on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Here, he will be very busy ten weeks out of every year, for Juniper Island is a summer resort. Here, also he will be lonely, for the conditions in the winter are primitive and the island is inhabited then only by stubborn and cantankerous fishermen. This is Dr. Dan's own story of hist first three years on Juniper Island. He treats his patients with compassion and individual understanding. He discovers that a doctor can learn more from his patients than he is ever taught in medical school. Among his patients and neighbors are a much-married millionaire, a fisherman with a curious sense of ethics, aa gloomy anthropolgist, a violent artist, and a displaced cleric. Among the women who influence him are a city fashion editor, an ex-chorus girl, a spinster librarian, a gin-loving Indian midwife, and an unusual adolescent. One of these manages to marry him. Also, he owns a dog, a mangy hound answering to the unlikely name of Slob. Dr. Dan tells his story with wit and wisdom. His career is one of growth, and he reaches certain conclusions of interest to doctors and patients alike.« less