Robert S. (Robert Sproul) Carroll

Born in 1869, Robert S. Carroll was a physician and writer whose full name was Robert Sproul Carroll. Library and catalog records confirm him as the author of books including Our Nervous Friends, Old at Forty or Young at Sixty, The Soul in Suffering, and The Mastery of Nervousness Based Upon Self Reeducation.

Carroll specialized in the treatment of mental and nervous disorders. Contemporary archival and historical sources connect him closely with Asheville, North Carolina, where he established a sanitarium in 1904 that became Highland Hospital. Accounts of his work describe an approach that emphasized exercise, diet, outdoor activity, and healthy daily habits alongside the standard psychiatric treatments of his era.

He remained an important figure in the hospital's history for decades and later gave Highland Hospital to Duke University, staying on as medical director until retirement. For readers today, his books offer a window into early 20th-century ideas about mind, body, self-discipline, and recovery.