Elizabeth Seifert
Elizabeth Seifert (1897-1983) was an American author known for her extensive contribution to the genre of medical fiction. Born in Washington, Missouri, she grew up in a family with literary inclinations, as her two sisters also pursued writing. Initially aspiring to be a doctor, family obligations led her to focus on a career in literature instead. Seifert graduated with a degree in English from Washington University in St. Louis and later raised four children after marrying John J. Gasparotti.
Her writing career began after her children grew older, culminating in the publication of her first novel, *Young Doctor Galahad*, in 1938, which received significant acclaim, including a First Novel Award from Redbook magazine. Over the next four decades, she published eighty additional novels, often portraying the lives of medical professionals and addressing social issues such as socialized medicine and public health. Seifert's work enjoyed popularity in both the United States and England, and her insights into the medical field continue to resonate with readers, keeping her legacy alive into the twenty-first century.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Elizabeth Seifert
Writer
- Born: June 19, 1897
- Birthplace: Washington, Missouri
- Died: June 17, 1983
- Place of death: Moberly, Missouri
Biography
Elizabeth Seifert was born on June 19, 1897, in Washington, Missouri. Her father, Richard C. Seifert, was born in Hanover, Germany, but came to the United States at seventeen and became an engineer, as well as an American citizen. Her mother, Anna Sanford Seifert, dated her family back to colonial Massachusetts. Seifert’s two sisters, Shirley and Adele, also became writers.
Seifert grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and went to Soldan High School, where she worked on the school newspaper. Although she wanted to become a doctor, her family opposed her entering so demanding a profession. At Washington University in St. Louis, Seifert majored in English, participated in the poetry club, and wrote the May Day play, but she also took a number of courses related to medical studies. She received a B.A. in 1918. On February 3, 1920, she married John J. Gasparotti. They had four children: John Joseph, Richard Seifert, Paul Anthony, and Anna. The Gasparottis made their home in Moberly, Missouri, where Seifert died on June 17, 1983.
Before her marriage, Seifert worked briefly in a St. Louis hospital, and in later years she sometimes did volunteer work in hospitals. However, while she was raising her children, her family responsibilities kept her too busy to do more than try to keep up with medical developments through her reading. As the children grew older, however, she finally found the time to make use of her medical knowledge in a novel. After three years and two revisions, Young Doctor Galahad was finally ready to go to a publisher. The book was released in 1938.
Over the next forty-three years, Seifert published eighty additional novels, as well as a novel about women working in defense, for which the author used the pseudonym Ellen Ashley. Many of Seifert’s novels were set in the Midwest, and all of them dealt with doctors or people in allied professions, such as nursing and pharmacy. Sometimes Seifert became an advocate for unpopular causes, such as socialized medicine, free clinics, and public health efforts in isolated, backward areas. However, she recognized the many problems doctors and their families have to face in daily life. Whatever difficulties her characters encountered during the course of her story were resolved by the end, and the stories often concluded with a romantic commitment.
In 1938, Young Doctor Galahad won a $10,000 First Novel Award from Redbook magazine and Dodd, Mead, the publishing house that subsequently published all of Seifert’s books. Seifert’s novels were as popular in England as they were in the United States, and reprints have brought her works to two additional generations of readers. Though Seifert did not pretend to have technical knowledge of medicine, she had great insight into the lives of the people in the medical profession, and for that reason it is not surprising that her books were still read in the early twenty-first century.