author
Geoffrey Keynes
1887–1982
A pioneering British surgeon and literary scholar, he brought the same careful eye to medicine and to books. Best known for advances in blood transfusion and breast cancer treatment, he also became a leading bibliographer of writers such as William Blake and John Donne.
1 Audiobook
Blood Transfusion
by Geoffrey Keynes
About the author
Born in Cambridge in 1887, Sir Geoffrey Keynes built an unusually wide-ranging career that joined science, public service, and literature. He trained in medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and served in the First World War, where his work with blood transfusion helped save lives and shaped later medical practice.
As a surgeon, he became known for challenging more radical breast cancer operations and for important work in several areas of surgery. His medical career was matched by a deep lifelong love of books: he was a collector, editor, and bibliographer whose studies of William Blake, John Donne, and other English writers earned lasting respect.
He was also part of the remarkable Keynes family, the younger brother of economist John Maynard Keynes. By the time of his death in 1982, he was remembered not only as an innovative doctor but also as a graceful scholar who helped preserve and interpret English literary history.