Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist.[2] His best-known novel is The Citadel (1937), about a Scottish physician who serves in a Welsh mining village before achieving success in London, where he becomes disillusioned about the venality and incompetence of some doctors. Cronin knew both areas, as a medical inspector of mines and as a physician in Harley Street. The book exposed unfairness and malpractice in British medicine and helped to inspire the National Health Service.[3]
Cronin was born in Cardross, Dunbartonshire,[1]Scotland, the only child of a Presbyterian mother, Jessie Cronin (née Montgomerie), and a Catholic father, Patrick Cronin. Cronin often wrote of young men from similarly mixed backgrounds. His paternal grandparents had emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland, and become glass and china merchants in Alexandria. Owen Cronin, his grandfather, had had his surname changed from Cronogue in 1870. His maternal grandfather, Archibald Montgomerie, was a hatter who owned a shop in Dumbarton. After their marriage Cronin's parents moved to Helensburgh, where he attended Grant Street School. When he was seven years old, his father, an insurance agent and commercial traveller, died of tuberculosis. He and his mother moved to her parents' home in Dumbarton, and she soon became a public health inspector in Glasgow.
Cronin was not only a precocious student at Dumbarton Academy,[5] who won prizes in writing competitions, but an excellent athlete and association footballer. From an early age he was an avid golfer, and he enjoyed the sport throughout his life.[6] He also loved salmon fishing.
The family later moved to Yorkhill, Glasgow, where Cronin attended St Aloysius' College[5] in the Garnethill area of the city. He played football for the First XI there, an experience he included in one of his last novels, The Minstrel Boy. A family decision that he should study either to join the church or to practise medicine was settled by Cronin himself when he chose "the lesser of two evils".[7] He won a Carnegie scholarship to study medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1914. Having been absent in 1916–1917 for naval service, he graduated in 1919 with highest honours in the degree of MBChB. Later that year he visited India as ship's surgeon on a liner. Cronin went on to earn additional qualifications, including a Diploma in Public Health (1923) and Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (1924). In 1925 he gained an MD at the University of Glasgow with a dissertation entitled "The History of Aneurysm".
Medical career
During the First World War, Cronin served as a surgeonsub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before graduating from medical school. After the war he trained at hospitals that included Bellahouston Hospital and Lightburn Hospital in Glasgow and the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. He undertook general practice at Garelochhead, a village on the River Clyde, and in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. In 1924 he was appointed Medical Inspector of Mines for Great Britain. His survey of medical regulations in collieries and his reports on the correlation between coal-dust inhalation and pulmonary disease were published over the next few years.[8] Cronin drew on his medical experience and research into the occupational hazards of the mining industry for his later novels – The Citadel, set in Wales, and The Stars Look Down, set in Northumberland. He subsequently moved to London, where he practised in Harley Street before opening a busy medical practice of his own in Notting Hill. Cronin was also the medical officer for the Whiteleys department store at the time and had an increasing interest in ophthalmology.
Writing career
In 1930 Cronin was diagnosed with a chronic duodenalulcer and told to take six months' complete rest in the country on a milk diet. At Dalchenna Farm by Loch Fyne he was finally able to indulge a lifelong desire to write a novel, having previously "written nothing but prescriptions and scientific papers."[9] From Dalchenna Farm he travelled to Dumbarton to research the background of his first novel, using files from Dumbarton Library, which still has a letter from him requesting advice. He composed Hatter's Castle in the span of three months and quickly had it accepted by Gollancz, the only publisher to which he submitted it, apparently after his wife had randomly stuck a pin in a list of publishers.[7] It was an immediate success and launched Cronin's career as a prolific author. He never returned to medicine.
Many of Cronin's books were bestsellers in their day and translated into many languages. Some of his stories draw on his medical career, dramatically mixing realism, romance and social criticism. Cronin's works examine moral conflicts between the individual and society, as his idealistic heroes pursue justice for the common man. One of his early novels, The Stars Look Down (1935), chronicles transgressions in a mining community in north-east England and an ambitious miner's rise to be a Member of Parliament (MP).
A prodigiously fast writer, Cronin liked to average 5,000 words a day, meticulously planning the details of his plots in advance.[7] He was known to be tough in business dealings, although in private life he was a person whose "pawky humour... peppered his conversations," according to one of his editors, Peter Haining.[7]
Cronin also contributed stories and essays to various international publications. During the Second World War he worked for the British Ministry of Information, writing articles as well as participating in radio broadcasts to foreign countries.
Influence of The Citadel
The Citadel (1937), a tale of a doctor's struggle to balance scientific integrity with social obligations, helped to promote the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom by exposing the inequity and incompetence of medical practice at the time. In the novel, Cronin advocated a free public health service to defeat the wiles of doctors who "raised guinea-snatching and the bamboozling of patients to an art form."[7] Cronin and Aneurin Bevan had both worked at the Tredegar Cottage Hospital in Wales, which served as one of the bases for the NHS. The author quickly made enemies in the medical profession, and there was a concerted effort by one group of specialists to get The Citadel banned. Cronin's novel, which became the highest-selling book ever published by Gollancz, informed the public about corruption in the medical system, which eventually led to reform. Not only were the author's pioneering ideas instrumental in creating the NHS, but according to the historian Raphael Samuel, the popularity of Cronin's novels played a major role in the Labour Party's landslide victory in 1945.[10]
By contrast, one of Cronin's biographers, Alan Davies, called the book's reception mixed. A few of the more vociferous medical practitioners of the day took exception to one of its many messages: that a few well-heeled doctors in fashionable practices were unethically extracting large amounts of money from their equally well-off patients. Some pointed to a lack of balance between criticism and praise for hard-working doctors. The majority accepted it for what it was, a topical novel. The press tried to incite passions within the profession in an attempt to sell copy, while Victor Gollancz followed suit in an attempt to promote the book – both overlooking that it was a work of fiction, not a scientific piece of research, and not autobiographical.
In the United States The Citadel won the National Book Award, Favorite Fiction of 1937, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association.[11] According to a Gallup poll taken in 1939, The Citadel was voted the most interesting book readers had ever read.[12]
Religion
Some of Cronin's novels also deal with religion, which he had grown away from during his medical training and career, but with which he became reacquainted in the 1930s. At medical school, as he recounts in his autobiography, he had become an agnostic: "When I thought of God it was with a superior smile, indicative of biological scorn for such an outworn myth." During his practice in Wales, however, the deep religious faith of the people he worked among made him start to wonder whether "the compass of existence held more than my text-books had revealed, more than I had ever dreamed of. In short I lost my superiority, and this, though I was not then aware of it, is the first step towards finding God."
Cronin also came to feel, "If we consider the physical universe... we cannot escape the notion of a primary Creator.... Accept evolution with its fossils and elementary species, its scientificdoctrine of natural causes. And still you are confronted with the same mystery, primary and profound. Ex nihilo nihil, as the Latin tag of our schooldays has it: nothing can come of nothing." This was brought home to him in London, where in his spare time he had organised a working boys' club. One day he invited a distinguished zoologist to deliver a lecture to the members. The speaker, adopting "a frankly atheistic approach", described the sequence of events leading to the emergence, "though he did not say how," of the first primitive life-form from lifeless matter. When he concluded, there was polite applause. Then, "a mild and very average youngster rose nervously to his feet," and with a slight stammer asked how there came to be anything in the first place. The naïve question took everyone by surprise. The lecturer "looked annoyed, hesitated, slowly turned red. Then, before he could answer, the whole club burst into a howl of laughter. The elaborate structure of logic offered by the test-tube realist had been crumpled by one word of challenge from a simple-minded boy."[13]
Family
It was at university that Cronin met his future wife, Agnes Mary Gibson (May, 1898–1981), who was also a medical student.[14] She was the daughter of Robert Gibson, a masterbaker, and Agnes Thomson Gibson (née Gilchrist) of Hamilton, Lanarkshire. The couple married on 31 August 1921. As a physician, Mary worked with her husband briefly in the dispensary while he was employed by the Tredegar Medical Aid Society. She also assisted him with his practice in London. When he became an author, she would proofread his manuscripts. Their first son, Vincent, was born in Tredegar in 1924. Their second, Patrick, was born in London in 1926, and Andrew, their youngest, in London in 1937.
With his stories being adapted for Hollywood films, Cronin and his family moved to the United States in 1939, living in Bel Air, California, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Greenwich, Connecticut, and Blue Hill, Maine.[15] In 1945, the Cronins sailed back to England aboard the RMS Queen Mary, staying briefly in Hove and then in Raheny, Ireland, before returning to the US the following year. They took up residence at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City and then in Deerfield, Massachusetts, before settling in New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1947. Cronin also travelled frequently to summer homes in Bermuda and Cap-d'Ail, France.
Although the latter part of his life was spent entirely abroad, Cronin retained great affection for the district of his childhood, writing in 1972 to a local teacher: "Although I have travelled the world over I must say in all sincerity that my heart belongs to Dumbarton.... In my study there is a beautiful 17th-century coloured print of the Rock.... I even follow with great fervour the fortunes of the Dumbarton football team."[16] Further evidence of Cronin's lifelong support of Dumbarton F.C. comes from a framed typewritten letter hanging in the foyer of the club's stadium. The letter, written in 1972 and addressed to the club's then secretary, congratulates the team on its return to the top division after a gap of 50 years. He recalls his childhood support for it, and on occasion being "lifted over" the turnstiles (a common practice in times past so that children did not have to pay).[17]
^ abLiukkonen, Petri. "A. J. Cronin". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 25 April 2011.
^ ab"Booksellers Give Prize to 'Citadel': Cronin's Work About Doctors Their Favorite–'Mme. Curie' Gets Non-Fiction Award TWO OTHERS WIN HONORS Fadiman Is 'Not Interested' in What Pulitzer Committee Thinks of Selections", The New York Times, 2 March 1938, page 14. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851–2007).
^Gallup Jr., Alec M. (2009). The Gallup Poll Cumulative Index: Public Opinion, 1935–1997, p. 135, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN0842025871.
^A. J. Cronin, Adventures in Two Worlds, Chapter 40 ("Why I Believe in God," in The Road to Damascus. Volume IV: Roads to Rome, edited by John O'Brien. London: Pinnacle Books, 1955, pp. 11–18).
^Cronin, A. J. (9 October 1937). "The Citadel". Australian Women's Weekly: 8–11, 47–49. Retrieved 15 January 2023. The Australian Women's Weekly is proud to present the novel to its readers as a serial. You must not miss a line of it.
London Overground station Shoreditch High Street Shoreditch High StreetLocation of Shoreditch High Street in Central LondonLocationShoreditchLocal authorityLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets & HackneyManaged byLondon OvergroundOwnerTransport for LondonStation codeSDCNumber of platforms2AccessibleYesFare zone1National Rail annual entry and exit2018–19 9.374 million[1]– interchange 0.505 million[1]2019–20 9.054 million[1]– interchange 0.428 million[…
Jill IrelandIreland pada 1967LahirJill Dorothy Ireland(1936-04-24)24 April 1936London, InggrisMeninggal18 Mei 1990(1990-05-18) (umur 54)Malibu, California, Amerika SerikatPekerjaanPemeranTahun aktif1955–1990Suami/istriDavid McCallum (m. 1957; bercerai 1967) Charles Bronson (m. 1968)Anak5, yang meliputi Val McCallum dan Katrina Holden Bronson Jill Dorothy Ireland (24 April 1936 – …
Artikel ini sebatang kara, artinya tidak ada artikel lain yang memiliki pranala balik ke halaman ini.Bantulah menambah pranala ke artikel ini dari artikel yang berhubungan atau coba peralatan pencari pranala.Tag ini diberikan pada Januari 2023. Kupu-Kupu Bersayap Gelap adalah buku kumpulan cerita pendek yang ditulis oleh Puthut EA. Buku ini terbit pertama kali tahun 2006 dan diterbitkan ulang tahun 2016. Buku tersebut terdiri atas 13 cerpen yang mengisahkan tentang kesedihan, keputusasaan, dan k…
Dalam nama Korean ini, nama keluarganya adalah Cha. Cha Ji-yeonLahir22 Februari 1982 (umur 42)Daejeon, Korea SelatanNama lainCha Ji-yunPendidikanSeoul Institute of the Arts (Jurusan teater)PekerjaanPemeranTahun aktif2006 – sekarangAgenCLN CompanyDikenal atasTaxi Driver Scent of a Woman Remarriage & DesiresSuami/istriYoon Eun-chaeAnak1 Cha Ji-yeon (lahir 22 Februari 1982) adalah pemeran dan penyanyi asal Korea Selatan.[1] Ia paling dikenal untuk perannya dalam sejumla…
Sebuah lukisan yang menggambarkan hukum rajam. Rajam adalah siksaan dan hukuman mati bagi pelanggar hukum dengan cara dilempari batu.[1][2][3][4] Prosesi rajam dilakukan dengan cara tubuh pelanggar hukum ditanam berdiri di dalam tanah setinggi dada, lalu dilempari batu hingga mati. Hukuman rajam adalah hukuman yang sangat kejam dan melanggar hak asasi manusia. berbeda dengan hukuman mati lainnya karena eksekusi rajam lebih lambat, di mana pelaku akan disiksa denga…
Arkansas memilih calon dari Partai Demokrat dalam 23 pemilihan presiden dari tahun 1876 hingga 1964; negara bagian lain tidak sekonsisten itu tetapi biasanya mendukung calon Demokrat sebagai presiden. Solid South atau Blok Selatan adalah istilah yang pernah mengacu kepada blok negara-negara bagian di Amerika Serikat Selatan yang diyakini akan selalu memilih untuk calon dari Partai Demokrat dalam pemilihan umum. Blok Selatan pernah ada dari zaman Rekonstruksi pada tahun 1877 hingga disahkannya Un…
Pour le pays actuel, voir Slovaquie. République slovaque(sk) Slovenská republika 1939–1945(6 ans et 22 jours)Drapeau de la République slovaque Armoiries de la République slovaque Devise en slovaque : Verní sebe, svorne napred! (« Foi en soi-même, en avant dans l'unité ! ») Hymne en slovaque : Hej Sloveni (« Hé, les Slaves ») Carte représentant la république slovaque en 1942. La zone de protection allemande est …
Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd.Kantor pusat Asahi Group Holdings di Sumida-ku, Tokyo, JepangNama asliアサヒビール株式会社JenisPublik (K.K)IndustriMinumanPendahuluOsaka Breweries, LtdDidirikan1889PendiriKomakichi ToriiKantorpusatSumida, Tokyo, JapanTokohkunciAkiyoshi Koji (Presiden dan Direktur Perwakilan, CEO)ProdukBir, minumanPendapatan ¥2.120 trilliun (2018)[1]Karyawanwww.asahigroup-holdings.com/en/Situs webhttps://www.asahibeer.co.jp/ www.asahibeer.com/, https://www.asahibeer.co…
Final Piala Generalísimo 1973TurnamenPiala Generalísimo 1972–1973 Athletic Bilbao Castellón 2 0 Tanggal29 Juni 1973StadionStadion Vicente Calderón, MadridWasitMariano Medina IglesiasPenonton64.200← 1972 1974 → Final Piala Generalísimo 1973 adalah pertandingan final ke-69 dari turnamen sepak bola Piala Generalísimo untuk menentukan juara musim 1972–1973. Pertandingan ini diikuti oleh Athletic Bilbao dan Castellón dan diselenggarakan pada 29 Juni 1973 di Stadion Vicente Cald…
1971 studio album by ChainToward the BluesStudio album by ChainReleased1971StudioT.C.S. Studios (Melbourne)GenreBluesLength42:38LabelInfinity RecordsProducerChain and John SayersChain chronology Chain Live(1970) Toward the Blues(1971) Live Again(1972) Toward the Blues is a studio album by the Australian blues band Chain which reached No. 6 on the Kent Music Report albums chart.[1] In October 2010, it was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.[2] The 30th annivers…
Inspektur Jenderal Polisi (Purn.), Drs.Yakobus Jacki UlyM.Hum Anggota Dewan Perwakilan RakyatRepublik IndonesiaPetahanaMulai menjabat 7 Desember 2020Pengganti Antar Waktu PendahuluKristiana MukiPenggantiPetahanaDaerah pemilihanNusa Tenggara Timur IIMasa jabatan20 Maret 2018 – 30 September 2019Pengganti Antar Waktu PendahuluViktor LaiskodatPenggantiPetahanaDaerah pemilihanNusa Tenggara Timur IIKepala Kepolisian Daerah Sulawesi UtaraMasa jabatan2006–2008 PendahuluIrjen. Pol, Drs. …
American judge For the science educator, see Arthur H. Livermore. Arthur LivermoreMember of the U.S. House of Representativesfrom New Hampshire's At-Large districtIn officeMarch 4, 1817 – March 3, 1821Preceded byDaniel WebsterSucceeded byThomas Whipple, Jr.In officeMarch 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825Preceded byNathaniel UphamSucceeded byTitus BrownMember of the New Hampshire SenateIn office1821–1822Member of the New Hampshire House of RepresentativesIn office1794–…
Mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements For other uses, see Alloy (disambiguation). From left to right: three alloys (beryllium copper, Inconel, steel) and three pure metals (titanium, aluminum, magnesium) An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, opacity, and luster,…
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article has an unclear citation style. The reason given is: many of the cites have several so…
Merchant ship crewman Steward's assistantA steward's assistant works closely with the chief cook and chief steward.GeneralOther namesWaiter, messman, galley utilityman, GS.DepartmentSteward's departmentReports toChief steward, Chief cookDutiesFood handler, cleaning, stocking.RequirementsMerchant Mariner's Document or equivalent.WatchstandingWatchstanderNo. A steward's assistant (SA) is an unlicensed, entry-level crewmember in the Steward's department of a merchant ship. This position can also be…
Voce principale: Spedizione dei Mille. Partenza da Quarto (nella realtà la partenza avvenne la sera e le navi non erano ancora presenti) «Cheti venivano a cinque a dieci, poi dileguavano, drappelli oscuri, ne l’ombra, i mille vindici del destino, come pirati che a preda gissero» (Giosuè Carducci: Odi barbare, Scoglio di Quarto) Nella notte fra il 5 e 6 maggio 1860, sotto il comando di Nino Bixio, un gruppo di garibaldini si impadronì del Piemonte e del Lombardo e – simulando, come …
Stub sorting This template is maintained by WikiProject Stub sorting, an attempt to bring some sort of order to Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can choose to improve/expand the articles containing this stub notice, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Stub sortingWikipedia:WikiProject Stub sortingTemplate:WikiProject Stub sortingStub sorting articles Military history: World War II Template‑classThis template is within the scope…
Malaysia Artikel ini adalah bagian dari seri Politik dan KetatanegaraanMalaysia Pemerintahan federal Konstitusi Malaysia Hak asasi manusia Hukum Kontrak sosial Rukun Negara Monarki Yang di-Pertuan Agong Ibrahim Iskandar dari Johor Majelis Raja-Raja Legislatif Parlemen Malaysia Parlemen ke-15 Dewan Rakyat Ketua Johari Abdul Kepala Pemerintahan Anwar Ibrahim Pemimpin Oposisi Hamzah Zainudin Dewan Negara Presiden Mutang Tagal Kabinet Bayangan Eksekutif Kabinet Perdana Menteri Anwar Ibrahim Pengabdi…
Franck MontagnyFranck Montagny (kiri) bersama Stéphane SarrazinLahir5 Januari 1978 (umur 46)Karier Kejuaraan Dunia Formula SatuKebangsaan FrenchTahun aktif2003, 2005–2006TimRenault, Jordan, Super AguriJumlah lomba7Juara Dunia0Menang0Podium0Total poin0Posisi pole0Lap tercepat0Lomba pertamaGrand Prix Eropa 2006Lomba terakhirGrand Prix Prancis 2006 Franck Montagny (lahir 5 Januari 1978) adalah seorang pembalap mobil berkebangsaan Prancis. Ia berkompetisi dalam Formula 1 dan membalap untuk t…