author
Louis Dechmann
1863–1924
Best remembered for early 20th-century books on natural healing, diet, and health reform, this German-born writer built his career around bold, highly personal ideas about how people should live and recover from illness. He also created a health retreat in Washington State, giving his work an unusual mix of publishing, promotion, and experiment.
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About the author
Louis Dechmann (1863–1924) was a German-born author and self-described biologist and physiological chemist whose books focused on hygiene, diet, physical regeneration, and disease treatment. Records of his published work show titles including Valere Aude: Dare to Be Healthy and Infantile Paralysis and Its Rational Treatment, along with shorter health pamphlets from the 1910s.
Sources about his life suggest that he was born in the Moselle River valley of Germany and came to Seattle from Brooklyn, New York, in 1909. Between about 1910 and 1919, he published a steady run of health-related works and promoted a natural-healing approach that reflected the reform movements of his era.
Dechmann is also linked to Qui Si Sana, a sanatorium and biological institution on Lake Crescent in Washington, where he combined his writing with a health-resort setting. Although not much is firmly documented about his life, the surviving books and photographs leave the picture of a driven, unconventional figure who wanted both to persuade readers and to put his theories into practice.