Frederick Creighton Wellman

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Frederick Creighton Wellman (January 3, 1873, near Kansas City, Missouri – September 3, 1960, Chapel Hill, North Carolina) was an American physician specialising in tropical medicine, scientist, author, playwright, teacher, artist and engineer. As an author, he wrote under the pseudonyms Cyril Kay-Scott and Richard Irving Carson. His colorful life led to the epithet "the Casanova of Tropical Medicine".

Early life and education

Frederick Creighton Wellman was born on January 3, 1873, in

London School of Tropical Medicine where he achieved a diploma in 1904.[4] He also appears to have studied at the Chicago Theological Seminary for a Bachelor of Divinity degree with a thesis entitled Physical obstacles to evangelization which was completed in 1895.[5]

Portuguese West Africa and Tulane

In 1896 he took up a post in

Samuel Zemurray.[1] However, Wellman unexpectedly departed this post on December 26, 1913, when he suddenly eloped with the then 20 year old Elsie Dunn, the daughter of his friend from Honduras, Seely Dunn. The couple moved to New York City where the adopted the aliases of Cyril Kay-Scott and Evelyn Scott. Wellman was editor of the American Journal of Tropical Diseases and Preventive Medicine from 1913 to 1915.[8]

Brazil

As Elsie was a minor, and Wellman had travelled state lines over with her, the Dunns reported him to the police so soon after they got to New York, they fled to London living for a time in

Singer Sewing Machines. While in Brazil they lived in poverty, staying for six years and while there where Elsie gave birth to their son Creighton Scott. This period is recounted in Escapade a memoir Elsie wrote under her pseudonym of Evelyn Scott[9] While in Brazil Wellman completed the manuscript of his novel Blind Mice, which was not published until 1921. At the shop, helped by his ability to speak Portuguese and his reporting of the manager's embezzlement,[4] he gained promotion to auditor and then to superintendent which meant that the couple to move to Natal, where Creighton “Jigg” Scott was born on October 26, 1914. Maud Dunn, Elsie's mother, had by this time arrived in Brazil on a one-way ticket paid for by Seely Dunn who then divorced Maud for desertion.[10] The family, now including Elsie's mother, relocated to a sheep ranch located in an isolated rural area where the couple both began to compose poems and prose, for publication at home in the United States. They abandoned the ranch in 1917 to move to Villa Nova where Wellman had gained a position in a manganese prospecting with the International Ore Corporation and in 1919 they went back to New York to get medical treatment for Elsie.[7]

Career as an artist

As the Scotts, they lived in Greenwich Village for two years where they were able to interact with other writers. "Cyril" and "Evelyn" maintained their writing but the relationship was in difficulties and the couple separated. Wellman's novels were critically acclaimed but they were not commercially successful and he found himself in some debt and, to try and improve his situation, he tried to reconcile with Evelyn. In 1922, the couple were living in

New Yorker Magazine. They were divorced in 1931.[14]

Later life

Wellman worked for a while on a project for the New Deal era Works Progress Administration with Creighton[11] before he finally retired. In 1943 he published his first autobiography Life is Too Short which was dedicated to his children and grandchildren.[4] He died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on September 3, 1960. His colorful private life, involving no less than four marriages and one elopement has led to him being dubbed the "Casanova of tropical medicine".[4]

Family

He married at least four times, if the apparently common law relationship with Evelyn Scott is included. With his first wife, Lydia, he had four children. Two of his sons with Lydia,

phytopathologist[15] and their daughter Alice Wellman Harris was also an author of children's books[16] and theater director and producer.[17] He had one child with Evelyn Scott, Creighton "Jigg" Scott (1914-1965).[12] Wellman was one of the few people to gain the distinction of being listed in the American Who's Who under two names, Frederick Creighton Wellman and Cyril Kay-Scott.[7] At some point he did legally change his name to Cyril Kay-Scott.[18]

Bibliography

As Cyril Kay Scott Wellman published the following books:[19]

  • Blind Mice George H. Doran Company, New York, c. 1921 (321pp)
  • Sinbad a romance Thomas Seltzer, New York, 1923 (282pp)
  • Siren Faber & Gwyer, London, 1925 (287pp)
  • Life is too short J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & New York, 1943

Taxon named in his honor

  • ray-finned fish in the genus Enteromius which is only found in the upper reaches of the Cuvo River system in Angola.[20] Wellman collected the holotype specimen.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c "SPHTM Turns 100! The Emerging Years (Pre-1912)". Global Health Magazine. Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  2. ^ "Dr. F.C. Wellman Obituary". The Kansas City Times. Newspapers.com. 5 September 1960. p. 3. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  3. ^ Biographical Encyclopaedia of Pathologists: Southern United States of America. Persons Trained in Pathology Before 1937 and Resident in the South Before the Golden Anniversary Meeting of the Southern Medical Association, Washington, D.C., November 12–15, 1956; and Including Observations on the Training for Research, Teaching, and Practice in Pathology, Albert Eugene Casey, Memorial Institute of Pathology, 1963, p. 11
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0521530606
    .
  5. OCLC 31929178
    .
  6. ^
    PMID 23035133
    .
  7. ^ a b c James B. Lloyd. "The Odyssey of Elsie Dunn". University of Tennessee Knoxville. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  8. ^ "The American journal of tropical diseases and preventive medicine". The Hathi Trust. pp. 3 v. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  9. ISBN 978-1469616643
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1611172676
    .
  11. ^ a b "Henry E. Turlington: An Inventory of His Collection of Cyril Kay-Scott and Evelyn Scott Materials at the Harry Ransom Center". Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  12. ^
    ISBN 9781572331167
    .
  13. ^ Marco Jefferson (1986). "She Might have Had It All". New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  14. ^ Jim Pfiefer (2012). "Phyllis Crawford (1899–1980)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The Central Arkansas Library System. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  15. ^ Eddie Echandi (194). "Frederick Lovejoy Wellman 1897-1994" (PDF). Phytopathology. 84 (12): 1385.
  16. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1973: January-June. Library of Congress Copyright Office. 1975.
  17. ^ "Addenda". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  18. ^ "Frederick Creighton Wellman papers, 1911-1957". ARCHIVEGRID. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  19. ISBN 978-0521434690
    . Cyril Kay-Scott bibliography.
  20. ^ Lévêque, C. and J. Daget, 1984. Cyprinidae. p. 217-342. In J. Daget, J.-P. Gosse and D.F.E. Thys van den Audenaerde (eds.) Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa (CLOFFA). ORSTOM, Paris and MRAC, Tervuren. Vol. 1.
  21. ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (22 September 2018). "Family CYPRINIDAE: Subfamily SMILIOGASTRINAE (Small Barbs)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
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