A Doctor & Poet

Dr. Jon Edward Price

my great-great-great-grandfather

When I got accepted to medical school, my granddad gave me Dr. Price's sheepskin diploma from The University of Nashville Medical School - dated 1860.  As I am sure you know. he was a Confederate surgeon. - Dr. Curt Solomon

A poem written by Dr. Price in 1894

Thanks to Hank and Brenda Stroup for preserving it.

To learn more about Dr. Price's medical practice in Henry County (first Abbeville, then Headland) and to see his grave at the Headland Methodist Church, click here.  And to see how the Prices married into the Solomon family line, click here and scroll down to Emma Price, who was Dr. Jon Price's daughter.

On our trip to Russia in 2007, Kade and I sought out the residences (now museums) of literary giants.  And I mean giants!  In St. Petersburg, we toured the apartment where Alexander Pushkin, the "Father of Russian literature" lived, worked and died.  We also toured Fyodor Dostoyevsky's apartment, where he completed one of this greatest works, The Brothers Karamazov.  Being in Pushkin's and Dostoyevsky's "space" was both humbling and awe-inspiring.  Earlier in Moscow, we toured Leo Tolstoy's winter home.  If I'm fortunate enough, one day I hope to visit Tolstoy's more famous estate, Yasnaya Polyana.  He's buried on the property.  Finally, to draw a link back to my great-great-great-grandfather, Dr. Price, who dabbled in poetry, my first thought, when I got his poem from the Stroups, was, "There's only one doctor I know of who made a tremendous mark in the literary world:  Dr. Anton Chekhov.  Although Chekhov practiced medicine for income, his true passion was writing.  He became one of the greatest writers of short stories in history.  Yes, history.  And although Kade and I did not tour his home, we rode past it (intentionally) on a Moscow tram.  Dr. Price and Dr. Chekhov lived in the same time period.

To learn what Chekhov and these other Russian writers meant to American writer Ernest Hemingway, click here and scroll to # 3.   To read the Russians, he said, “was like having a great treasure given to you.” - Source

A movie about Tolstoy's last years that I highly recommend.  The writer Chekhov is depicted in this movie as well. 

ABOUT:  A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things. The Countess Sofya, wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy, uses every trick of seduction on her husband's loyal disciple, whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people.

Russia’s Literary Icons, Explored on a Budget