author
Reuben (Reuben Robert) Merliss
1915–1987
A physician-novelist who brought a doctor’s eye to fiction, writing both medical novels and a memorable science-fiction tale. His work moves easily between the pressures of everyday practice and big imaginative questions about the mind and what makes us human.
1 Audiobook
The Stutterer
by Reuben (Reuben Robert) Merliss
About the author
Born in Brooklyn in 1915, he wrote under several forms of his name, including Reuben Merliss and R. R. Merliss. Library and catalog records identify him as Reuben Robert Merliss, with birth and death dates of March 20, 1915, and June 20, 1987.
His best-known books include Consider the Season and The Year of the Death, both published by Doubleday in the 1960s. Consider the Season was presented as a novel about the making of a doctor, which fits well with references describing him as a physician as well as a writer.
He is also remembered by science-fiction readers for The Stutterer, first published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1955 and later preserved by Project Gutenberg. Across his work, medicine, psychology, and human identity seem to meet in stories that are thoughtful, curious, and easy to imagine in audiobook form.