Doctor Mallory

An invaluable entry in the history of Pacific Northwest literature, Doctor Mallory explores the realities of life in a small logging town on the Oregon coast in the early twentieth century, where Robert Mallory, an optimistic young doctor, attempts to maintain his ideals and integrity in the face of personal, social, and professional challenges. In this debut novel that became a bestseller for W.W. Norton in 1935, Hart reveals the beauty and cruelty of characters forging lives at the northwestern edge of the country. Out of print for decades, Doctor Mallory fascinates now not only for its depiction of coastal Oregon during World War I and the Great Depression, but also for Hart's compassion for men and women whose struggles were often endured amid social condemnation and shattering solitude.