Independent scholar of early British literature and the History of Science
"A lively medical, scientific, and economic history."
--Kirkus Starred Review and
Editor's Pick of the Week
THE APOTHECARY'S WIFE:
The Hidden History of Medicine
and How it Became a Commodity
One of Kirkus Review's Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
Available in the UK
from Bloomsbury/Apollo
Available in North America
from the University of California Press
ABOUT ME
My happy place, intellectually speaking, is at the intersection of the humanities, particularly literature, and science. My PhD is in 17th- and 18th-century British Literature, and I investigate the connections between the Scientific Revolution and the writing of that time. How did the Scientific Revolution’s new ideas and new definition of knowledge affect what was written, how it was written, and who wrote it?
I share this refusal to choose between text and science with my late grandfather, who taught me to suspect categories, be boldly curious, and read everything. He was a physician who read widely, a city doctor with a farm in the Catskills. In high school, I wrote for the literary magazine and loved physics. In college, I earned a BA in English and worked in a neurochemistry lab. I study texts such as letters, recipe books, and diaries, not just literature. I would rather use the term "philosophical revolution" instead of “scientific revolution,” because like other scholars I know that science did not exist until the nineteenth century. And if "philosophical revolution" had the same name recognition, I would. (Comprehensibility – a big plus for a writer).
After a few decades as a professor of English, I stepped away from academia. Now I research and write for a general audience, not a handful of specialists. What is the good of discovering things and reaching new insights without sharing it? When I am not working, I spend time with my family and nurture my pollinator garden. Whenever possible, I watch the stars.
A groundbreaking genealogy of for-profit healthcare and an urgent reminder that centering women's history offers vital opportunities for shaping the future.
The running joke in Europe for centuries was that anyone in a hurry to die should call the doctor. As far back as ancient Greece, physicians were notorious for administering painful and often fatal treatments—and charging for the privilege. For the most effective treatment, the ill and injured went to the women in their lives. This system lasted hundreds of years. It was gone in less than a century.
Contrary to the familiar story, medication did not improve during the Scientific Revolution. Yet somehow, between 1650 and 1740, the domestic female and the physician switched places in the cultural consciousness: she became the ineffective, potentially dangerous quack, he the knowledgeable, trustworthy expert. The professionals normalized the idea of paying them for what people already got at home without charge, laying the foundation for Big Pharma and today’s global for-profit medication system. A revelatory history of medicine, The Apothecary’s Wife challenges the myths of the triumph of science and instead uncovers the fascinating truth.
Praise for The Apothecary's Wife
Scholar of literature, gender studies, and medical humanities, Gevirtz brings a breadth of knowledge to her witty, deeply researched history of the commodification of health care and medicine.... A lively medical, scientific, and economic history.
KIRKUS REVIEWS,
Starred Review
MEDIA
Podcasts
History Rage
Livestream Oct. 25, 2024
Podcast Nov. 8, 2024
"BOOK LAUNCH SPECIAL: Women, Witchcraft, and the War on Healers with Karen Bloom Gevirtz." Interview with host Paul Bavill about women in medicine and the transition from domestic to commercial medicine.
The Standard Issue
Oct. 22, 2024
Chawton House Library Podcast
September 12, 2017
"Temperatures soar in the garden" (archived episode). Interview about my research into women's recipe books at Chawton House Library and the start of my new book about women, medicine, and the Scientific Revolution.
Television and Radio
"TRE in the Afternoon," Talk Radio Europe
November 27, 2024
Interview with host Hannah Murray about my book, The Apothecary's Wife: The Hidden History of Medicine and How It Became a Commodity (2024). The interview begins at 30:00.
NJ Spotlight News
March 16, 2018
"Focus of women and gender conference is past informing future," by Leah Mishkin. Interviewed on camera as part of a story about the #MeToo movement.
"Talk/Art/Radio" on WSOU
June 28, 2014
Interview with Dr. Mark Svenvold about my most recent book, Women, the Novel, and Natural Philosophy, 1660-1727 and the impact of the Scientific Revolution and the emerging novel on each other.
Print Media
Huffpost
July 17, 2017
Wall Street Journal
April 6, 2016
"Becoming Jane: How Austen Transformed Into A Chick Lit Icon," by Claire Fallon. Interviewed for and quoted extensively in an article about Jane Austen in popular culture.
"'Oroonoko,' the Beach Read of 1688: Aphra Behn's novel thrilled readers and playgoers," by Eben Shapiro. Interviewed for and quoted in an article about the first professional woman writer in English and her novella about a kidnapped, enslaved African prince.
upcoming EventS
Reading and Book Signing
February 8, 2025
Montclair Book Center
221 Glenridge Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042
Register here
Women's History Month Celebration and Book Talk
March 1, 2025
Floyd Memorial Library
539 1st Street
Greenport, NY 11944