BECAUSE GEORGE CRILE'S life unfolded dramatically and he was dominated by purpose and vision and had unusual associations, I early formed the habit of keeping everything he wrote.

The past held no interest to the "Chief." It was the future that his mind penetrated. But I was interested both in his early beginnings and in all that came into his professional life. Since he knew this, and writing was his avocation, his satchel and pockets upon his return from out of town became for me a treasure store of autobiographical and wayside notes, amusing incidents and stories, dreams and plans for research and professional organization, and philosophic musing---all of which, for him, had served their purpose since through writing he had got them "out of his system" and, for me, they found their place in my files of his manuscripts and diaries.

These files arose from necessity, as soon after our marriage the Chief sent to the house a bundle some three feet high of manuscripts, reprints, diaries and clippings which, to be stored, had to be organized.

Thus began what I called Dr. Crile's autobiographical agenda which now numbers thirty-four volumes of manuscripts each containing five hundred or more pages, fifty diary files of personal memorabilia averaging three to four hundred pages each, thirty-eight volumes of war diaries and eleven volumes of reprints. During the years, keeping these files inviolable became my great obsession. Nothing was ever removed from them and as the papers were filed chronologically they carried a story.

The difficulty was the Chief's mode of writing. He never sat at a desk and wrote a paper, nor did he begin at the first chapter and write a book. He always carried a tablet and heavy black crayon and wrote wherever he was, whether on a train, a streetcar, the platform, in the bathtub or while hunting and fishing. Consequently a single paper often covered many subjects as he wrote on any topic that for the moment occupied his mind; and lest punctuation, crossing t's and completing words interfere with his train of thought, he omitted them. I have always felt that it was my love of adventure that urged me to edit these papers before they were copied.

With the assistance of Miss Helen A. Moloney, Dr. Crile's house-secretary, the manuscripts were copied and the files indexed. To our delight we were often called upon to make the first draft of material that the Chief wanted compiled.

When early in 1942 the question of an autobiography arose, the Chief was unwilling to consider it. He did not want to look back. Too many problems in research still dominated him, and although reading was difficult, owing to impaired vision, he was still able to write and was intent upon compiling material for a book on Man.

As a means of changing his "final common path" of interest, I began to read to him from my files of his diaries. To our amazement they outlined a story. He became as interested as I and in the late spring of 1942 was persuaded to make a tentative arrangement that autumn with J. B. Lippincott Company for editorial work under his supervision on this material. During the summer the Chief augmented articles already written, wrote a paper on his early days on his father's farm and the short note on our marriage.

Then illness came and the task of selecting and weaving the threads together from these voluminous notes was left to me. At first it seemed an almost impossible undertaking but when I actually began to piece together the story with connective tissue I realized more vividly than ever that here in his own words were records of much that was important that the Chief had experienced or surmised or dreamed. For instance, the minute I was admitted to his room after the operation for glaucoma on his eyes he dictated to me his sensations and his conclusions. As soon as he was able to hold a pencil after his plane accident, he wrote an analysis of what had happened in the heart of the tornado, projected an interpretation of the blackout in bomb diving, a means of overcoming it and a research to test it. In the bitter cold of a military barracks in Guatemala at an altitude of 8,100 feet he sat, a blanket wrapped tightly about him, writing notes on the effect of diet and climate on the energy system of man. Always his pencil was used as a means of clarifying what he was observing with his eyes and correlating in his mind.

So, with the exception of the sidelights and transitions, this is the Chief's own story as he himself wrote it in notes, diaries, letters, case histories, accounts of his experiments and expeditions. Much of it has, therefore, the freshness of contemporary writing for it mirrors events as they were taking place.

Here and there the Chief's autobiographical writings included notes on subjects that were also developed in similar language for certain of his books, which were published, of course, before the autobiographical material was assembled and edited. Also, in 1940, he began to write a recapitulation of the story of his research, occasionally incorporating passages similar to those used in introductions to or sections of books by him. Readers of his books may accordingly note an occasional brief passage, from a phrase to a paragraph, in which earlier published material by Dr. Crile is recapitulated. I wish to express appreciation to the publishers of Dr. Crile's books for permission to incorporate any such occasional passages without undertaking the virtually impossible task of tracking them down in detail.(1)

Had it not been for the encouragement and co-operation of Mr. George Stevens and Mr. Lynn Carrick of J. B. Lippincott Company, Miss Page Cooper who assisted me in the revision, and Miss Amy Rowland, Dr. Daniel Quiring and my son, Dr. George Crile, Jr., all of whom have stood staunchly behind me, I could not have undertaken so great a task.

To those who have had the unforgettable contact with George Crile as a magnetic and understanding physician; to those who have worked with him in the daily round and knew the inspiration of his teaching, his patience, his buoyancy, his tolerance and equanimity under stress and strain; to those who have collaborated with him in research and found themselves led into new fields of thought and experiment; to those who have served him in daily needs and knew his never-failing courtesy, appreciative smile and "thank you"; to those who have been carried along new trails blazed by him from the platform in his clear, convincing argument; to the members of the Staff of the Cleveland Clinic, of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons, and of the Board of the Interstate Post-Graduate Medical Association who have felt the unselfishness of his ideals for the betterment of medical education; to those who worked with him in the First World War and realized the force of his dynamic personality, his gift of organization and power to submerge himself; to the few who knew intimately of the fortitude with which he met the problems of the Clinic disaster and the depression; to the original group of the American Society of Clinical Surgery who knew the delight of his companionship during the playtime of tours together; to his many colleagues at home and abroad who will recall an evening with him in his own home---Sam, the police dog, at his feet, the big fire crackling, the Chief holding everyone spellbound by his gracious, scintillating conversation; to those who have participated in his enjoyment at the Knob, galloped with him over the fields gay in asters and goldenrod or through the gorgeously tinted woods; to those who have shared adventure with him under conditions that many would consider hardship and have witnessed his easy adaptation; to those who have attended the Christmas Eve parties at the House on the Hill and have seen him dance the Virginia reel; to Margaret, Elisabeth, Barney and Bob to whom he was always The Chief; to the grandchildren who also will remember the "weasel stories"; to those who have cared for him in illness and have observed his complete mastery of the situation as well as of himself; and to Ed Lower with whom he planned and worked and shared everything during a long and romantic surgical career---this book is dedicated. I know that nothing that could be written would satisfy their memories of him, but just as one tries to capture the beauty of the autumn fields by picking a flower here and there, I have selected from my fields of memories---the Chief's manuscripts and diaries---sections that I trust may be colorful sidelights on a great and vivid personality.

GRACE CRILE