author
Hugo Erichsen
1860–1944
A Detroit physician with a literary streak, he is best remembered for writing about how authors work and for championing cremation in the United States. His books move easily between practical inquiry, medical humor, and social reform.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in 1860 and later based in Detroit, Hugo Erichsen was a German-American physician, writer, and an early advocate of cremation. Archival records describe him in all three roles, and they also show how widely his interests ranged.
He wrote Methods of Authors in 1894, a book built around writers' working habits and creative routines. Other surviving titles linked to him include Medical Rhymes and The Cremation of the Dead, which suggest the unusual mix that makes him memorable today: part doctor, part curious interviewer, and part public reformer.
Erichsen is also noted as a founder of the Cremation Association of North America. He died in 1944, leaving behind not just books but papers and correspondence that reflect an energetic life in medicine, publishing, and civic debate.