author
Thomas Edward Pickett
1841–1913
A Kentucky physician with a strong curiosity about history, language, and the Civil War, this writer moved easily between medicine and wide-ranging literary interests. His books include a defense of General George E. Pickett and an ambitious study of the roots of English-speaking peoples.
1 Audiobook
The Quest for a Lost Race
by Thomas Edward Pickett
About the author
Born in Mason County, Kentucky, in 1841, Thomas Edward Pickett became a physician in Maysville and was also known as a prolific writer. A memorial published by the Kentucky State Historical Society after his death in 1913 describes him as both an eminent author and physician, and notes his ties to historical and scientific organizations.
His writing ranged well beyond medicine. A Soldier of the Civil War was a private 1900 publication reviewing claims made about General George E. Pickett, while The Quest for a Lost Race appeared through the Filson Club in 1907 and explored theories about the ancestry of English-speaking peoples. Those works show a writer drawn to history, public debate, and big cultural questions.
Pickett's reputation in Kentucky seems to have rested on both his professional life and his intellectual energy. Sources connected with the National Library of Medicine and the Kentucky State Historical Society preserve his memory as a learned local figure whose interests reached from medical work to historical scholarship.