Sword and Scalpel, by Frank G. Slaughter

ATLANTIC SOUTH. 
Classic Fiction. 

“Why would a Johns Hopkins alumnus, a surgeon with a brilliant record and clear-cut future before him, prefer capture by the North Korean forces …? Why did he begin to collaborate with those captors …? Frank G. Slaughter has created another masterly, exciting novel, lively on two levels: the physical action at the front in Korea, and the emotional tension of the courtroom.” This succinct inside-jacket summary tells a lot about a now all but forgotten, if once popular, author of the post-WWII era. Frank Gill Slaughter, Johns Hopkins trained himself, was already a well-respected and talented physician / surgeon in Jacksonville, Florida, when he began to pursue another of his talents: writing. After half a dozen failed attempts to hook a publisher, Doubleday finally gave Slaughter a chance in 1941. This proved a most fortuitous collaboration for all involved, as Slaughter would go on to be among the more read authors of his time. Pulling on his deep medical knowledge, Slaughter (who also wrote under the pen name C. V. Terry) would go on to author 50+ titles (some co-authored), selling some 60 million books. He was best known for those revolving around the medical field, often introducing new breakthroughs within his fiction; but also wrote works centered on biblical stories. Slaughter would eventually have two books made into movies: Sangaree and Doctors’ Wives, a key marker for success for writers of any era. But it was Slaughter’s 4-year service as a surgeon in the armed forces that went to directly subsidize Sword and Scalpel, its 1957 publication falling right in the middle of his prolific career. Set within the bloody if short Korean War, Slaughter created an interesting morality play with this book. The main character, Paul Scott a field surgeon, has his M*A*S*H (mobile army surgical hospital) unit overrun by North Korean forces. Along with his commanding officer and Story’s talented fiancée, Kay Storey, then on a front-line tour with the USO, they are shipped off to a POW camp where they are tortured, treated without mercy, Kay being subjected to sexual abuse. When a chaplain in the camp falls deathly ill, the surgeon takes it on himself to help save his fellow captives any further inhumanity. He signs a “confession of war crimes,” despite his role as a physician and having taken an oath to treat all humankind equally, his innocence of the charges clear. This, then, sets the stage for the surgeon’s court-martial by none other than his ex-commanding officer and fellow captive, once they are repatriated to the States after their release. Of course, there is plenty of passion to go along with the tension, the two adjectives most often attributed Sword and Scalpel. [Condition: Used Good. The dust jacket shows age-related wear, the illustration worn away in a few spots, along with small tears at the spine and board edges. The hard cover itself has a few spot stains, mostly due to what seems like decades of humidity. But the book itself is in solid condition, little if any damage to the interior pages aside from a half-dozen bent page ends we did our best to straighten out; the binding sound and ready for its next reader.] 

Condition: Used Good. 
Fiction. 
Frank G. Slaughter. 
Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1957. 
Hardcover (A First / Book Club Edition), 285 pgs, 5.75 x 8.5” / 12 oz