I'd always liked the books he'd written but had known nothing of his life until he left it. He was very much an original person, but one who managed to be successful without losing who he is. He did this not as a rebel but as its opposite. Despite his ambition (or his family's ambition for him--I don't think he chose medical school voluntarily), he couldn't help be who he was. He also valued his patients as the individuals they were.

He wrote compulsively as part of the way he thought. He was closer to his journals than to most people, I imagine, but that initimacy allows him to connect with his readers. I hope his last love was the exception, allowing him to overcome that personal distance that seemed to surround him. I just read the prologue of [b:The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy|1884902|The Anatomist A True Story of Gray's Anatomy|Bill Hayes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320421081s/1884902.jpg|1886066], the book his lover wrote that brought them together and I'm hooked.