The Making of Mr Gray’s Anatomy: Bodies, Books, Fortune, Fame

When Gray’s Anatomy appeared in 1858, the book rapidly became not just a bestseller, but the standard work. Indeed, Gray’s Anatomy is the only textbook of human anatomy continuously in print for the last 150 years. The Making of Gray’s Anatomy tells the fascinating story of this remarkable book. Providing a wealth of historical context, Ruth Richardson examines both the mid-Victorian medical world in which Henry Gray and the brilliant illustrator Henry Vandyke Carter operated and the vigorous publishing industry in London at that time. Along the way, Richardson explores the scientific and cultural life of the medical school dissecting room and dead house, as well as the lives of those whose corpses ended up on the slab. The very different personalities and life-stories of Gray and Carter emerge in the telling, as do those of their publishers, and the many other individuals who were involved in the making of the book itself. Indeed, The Making of Gray’s Anatomy investigates the entire production process--from the book’s conception in 1855 to its reception by the medical press in 1858--via typesetters, wood-engravers, steam printers, paper and printing-ink suppliers, paper-folders, stitchers and bookbinders.

Ruth Richardson works for the Institute of Historical Research, London, and is the author of Death, Dissection, and the Destitute.