Making a Difference: Mixing Medicine and Literature-Robert Coles

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Poet William Carlos Williams had a profound effect on the career of Robert Coles. "His vision about the role of the writer as someone who seeks to understand the world and to become involved in the world in his or her thinking or living, informed my notion of what the humanities are," says Coles. The two met and became lifelong friends when Coles was studying literature at Harvard. Williams, who was a doctor as well as a poet, was the subject of Coles's thesis. Williams inspired Coles to pursue a medical degree and to practice medicine among poor and vulnerable populations.

Coles has worked as a medical doctor, a child psychiatrist, a Harvard professor, and a magazine editor. …