Anthony Valerio

Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor -

coming soon!

About The Women's Doctor: Ignaz Semmelweis—

"In a global #metoo moment, Semmelweis should also have his place as someone who listened to women and, significantly, to their ailing bodies, even as the medical profession dismissed a common affliction killing women as a "woman's illness" and therefore not worthy of a place on the forefront of medicine. There is a photo circling the internet of the actor Patrick Stewart holding a sign with the Amnesty International seal. The caption for this image, presumably in Stewart's own words, is this: "People won't take you seriously unless you're an old white man, and since I'm an old white man I'm going to use that to help the people who need it." The sign Stewart is holding reads: Defend right for girls and women. Semmelweis, like Stewart, believed in embodied response, of putting one's body behind and into one's words. To be sure, Semmelweis was a pioneering physician and scientist whose accomplishments should be studied for their contributions to science. But he was also a feminist, and his work should be understood in that vein, also."--Ellen Nerenberg, Hollis Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures, Dean, Arts and Humanities. Wesleyan University

On a school outing with my 9 and 10-year-old classmates to the local cinema we saw a film about the life and work of Dr. Semmelweis. I knew about him, from school but even more from my parents; at home I read about famous Hungarian heroes, not just kings and warriors, but those ignored in their lifetime, whose work could have benefited all, children, women, and men. Our history, so full of tragedies like his, unrealized potential: failed reformers and inventors, scientists and artists embittered and ignored, driven to early death. –Akös Őstor, professor, author, filmmaker

coming soon Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor. Picture here is an original pencil drawing of a young Semmelweis by renowned artist, Aharon Gluska.

original pencil drawing of a youthful Semmelweis by Aharon Gluska, found in the forthcoming Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor by Anthony Valerio

Welcome!

Amazon.com -- Anthony Valerio

Thought that since I wrote them I might talk a little about my books. Ten in number, thus far, covering my writing life beginning in the late 1970's with the Short Story "The Skyjacker" in The Paris Review and continuing to the recently completed Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor. Feels like just the other day.-- A.V. - 03/2019.

Titles in ascending order:

The Mediterranean Runs Through Brooklyn

Valentino & the Great Italians

BART: a Life of A. Bartlett Giamatti

Anita Garibaldi, a Biography

Conversation with Johnny, a novel

Toni Cade Bambara's One Sicilian Night, a memoir

The Little Sailor, a Romantic Thriller

John Dante's Inferno, a Playboy's Life

IMMIGRANTS according to Anthony Valerio, Volumes 1 & 2

A Newborn's Cry: The Life and Work of Ignaz Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor (forthcoming)

Proud to say all books are in print. They - digital & print editions - can be found on Amazon.com -- search Anthony Valerio. And each title has its own Facebook page which will be listed in the Works section. - - Anthony

aftermath of book completion

"Anthony Valerio's fiction bears likeness to our best dreams when the fantastical elements of the subconscious play themselves out in a vivid replica of reality."
--The Baltimore Sun

"He knows his craft - He knows his characters - He gets in, tells his story and gets out - It's what good writing should be" --Shel Silverstein

Quick Links

find Anita's print edition

also in digital

Anita Garibaldi, print edition

also found in digital form

About ANITA GARIBALDI, a Biography

"In Valerio's hand, Anita Garibaldi emerges as the courageous but vulnerable woman from Sao Paulo, Brazil, whose singular and precious spirit was caught in the times. Anita Garibaldi is a romance discovered in history's embrace. Valerio creates the Brazilian ethos in its emerald presence as the brilliant nerve in Garibaldi's brave but short time. This biography has a texture like a Renior film, broad and expansive, swimming along in voluble seas."-Afaa M. Weaver, poet, professor, scholar

Converse with Johnny in print edition

also in digital

About Conversation with Johnny

“Subsequent artistic attempts at humanizing the don include Analyze This and The Sopranos. Both of these productions feature don characters in therapy. Valero's use of the therapy device, though, is unique and visionary. It not only predates these films, but also shows the don in control, as therapist, not patient. This configuration emphasizes the power of Italian culture to nurture individual identity. Johnny, the don, serves as cultural nursemaid to the reborn Italian-American, Nicholas. “ Melus