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Lindsey Fitzharris

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.drlindseyfitzharris.com

Twitter

drlindseyfitz

Genre

History, Biography, Science

Member Since

January 2020

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I’m Lindsey Fitzharris, a New York Times bestselling author, television host, and medical historian with a PhD from the University of Oxford. I write about the strange, grisly, and deeply human history of medicine, and I’m a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, The Guardian, The Lancet, and New Scientist.

My first book, The Butchering Art (2017), dives into the brutal world of Victorian surgery. It won multiple literary awards, received international acclaim, and has been translated into 20 languages. In 2021, I also hosted the Smithsonian Channel series The Curious Life and Death of..., exploring some of history’s most mysterious deaths.

My second book, The Facemaker (2022), tells the extraordinary story of Ha ...more

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Lindsey Fitzharris’s books

Average rating: 4.3 · 31,945 ratings · 3,800 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine 4.30 avg rating — 23,214 ratings — published 2017 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Facemaker 4.28 avg rating — 8,286 ratings — published 2022 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Plague-Busters!: Medicine's Battles with History's Deadliest Diseases by Lindsey Fitzharris (Goodreads Author), Adrian Teal (Illustrator) 4.21 avg rating — 361 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels by Lindsey Fitzharris (Goodreads Author), Adrian Teal (illustrator) 4.06 avg rating — 82 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Butchering Art really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Lindsey Fitzharris answered L's question: The Facemaker was outstanding, and then I loved the books about Lister and the kids book Plaguebusters. What is next? An adult book I hope! My goodness - I've been terrible at keeping up with questions on Goodreads! But that's for good reason. I just finished my next adult nonfiction book, which will be out in October! It's called SLEUTH-HOUND, and it's about the Scottish surgeon, Joseph See Full Answer
Apr 01, 2026 02:04PM · 5 likes · like
Lindsey Fitzharris finished reading Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels by Lindsey Fitzharris (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 01, 2026 02:00PM · 1 like · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Lindsey Fitzharris wants to read Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes by Lindsey Fitzharris (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 08, 2026 10:17AM · 3 likes · like
Lindsey Fitzharris and 1 other person liked Amy Marker's review of Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels: "Loved all the illustrations and medical history for an interesting and entertaining read! "
Jan 30, 2026 12:48AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Lindsey Fitzharris rated a book it was amazing Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels by Lindsey Fitzharris (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 22, 2025 03:46AM · 7 likes · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dead Ends! by Lindsey Fitzharris <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Lindsey Fitzharris voted for Sisters in Science as Readers' Favorite History & Biography in the Opening Round of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards. Cast Your Vote
Nov 13, 2025 09:14AM · like
Lindsey Fitzharris rated a book it was amazing Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Abbott Kahler (who used to publish under the name Karen Abbott) delivers a first-rate narrative with her new book EDEN UNDONE. She is a brilliant storyteller whose books rival (dare I say, surpass!) those of other master nonfiction writers like Erik ...more
Oct 18, 2024 02:22AM · 9 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Eden Undone by Abbott Kahler. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Eden Undone by Abbott Kahler <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Lindsey Fitzharris rated a book it was amazing Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Abbott Kahler (who used to publish under the name Karen Abbott) delivers a first-rate narrative with her new book EDEN UNDONE. She is a brilliant storyteller whose books rival (dare I say, surpass!) those of other master nonfiction writers like Erik ...more
Oct 01, 2024 11:11AM · 9 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Eden Undone by Abbott Kahler. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Eden Undone by Abbott Kahler <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Lindsey Fitzharris (?)

“The best that can be said about Victorian hospitals is that they were a slight improvement over their Georgian predecessors. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement when one considers that a hospital’s “Chief Bug-Catcher”—whose job it was to rid the mattresses of lice—was paid more than its surgeons.”
― Lindsey Fitzharris, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

15 likes

“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong. —ARTHUR C. CLARKE”
― Lindsey Fitzharris, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

11 likes

“Remarkably, Bichat was able to describe and name twenty-one membranes in the human body, including connective, muscle, and nerve tissue, before he died accidentally in 1802 after falling down the steps of his own hospital.”
― Lindsey Fitzharris, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

7 likes

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Polls

Time to vote on our next Nonfiction book. It will be open for reading in July and August. Our nominations are...

This poll will remain open until June 18th. Vote for your favorite and cross your fingers that it wins. Enjoy...

Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

13 votes, 29.5%

The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story

by Kate Summerscale

8 votes, 18.2%

An Elephant in My Kitchen

by Francoise Malby Anthony

7 votes, 15.9%

City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris

by Holly Tucker

5 votes, 11.4%

Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital

by David M. Oshinsky

4 votes, 9.1%

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West

by Wallace Stegner

3 votes, 6.8%

Coming of Age In Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of Growing Up Poor and Black In the Rural South

by Anne Moody

2 votes, 4.5%

Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry

by Leah Garcés

1 vote, 2.3%

Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs

by Sally Mann

1 vote, 2.3%

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

by Lindsey Fitzharris

0 votes, 0.0%

44 total votes

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