author
James McFadden Gaston
1824–1903
A physician, surgeon, and travel writer, he brought a doctor's eye and a settler's curiosity to his best-known book on Brazil. His work moves between practical observation, medical writing, and firsthand reporting from the 19th century.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1824 and dying in 1903, he was an American physician and surgeon whose published work ranged from medicine to travel and settlement writing. Library and catalog records connect him with a substantial body of medical publications, and public-domain editions identify him as the author of Hunting a Home in Brazil.
That mix of interests gives his writing its appeal today. In Hunting a Home in Brazil, he wrote as an observer of land, agriculture, customs, and everyday life, aiming to give readers a grounded picture of the country rather than a purely romantic travel sketch.
Surviving records also describe him as a Civil War-era Confederate Army surgeon and physician. For modern listeners, he is most interesting as a 19th-century author whose work sits at the meeting point of medicine, migration, and travel.