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While at the University of Michigan, de Kruif worked under Chicago native Dr. Frederick G. Novy as a research fellow. De Kruif went on to advise author Sinclair Lewis on his novel Arrowsmith, which has a character modeled partly on Novy.
De Kruif first came to Chicago in 1922 to research one of his earliest writing projects with an introduction to Dr. Morris Fishbein, who was then an associate editor at the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Ludvig Hektoen, graduate of and professor of pathology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, was a consultant on a case defending de Kruif (among others) against a lawsuit filed by a Detroit vaccine maker. Hektoen also provided positive remarks about de Kruif's book Microbe Hunters.
In the 1930s de Kruif served as a consultant to state and city public health programs in the Midwest. De Kruif's wife, Rhea, first made the suggestion to offer free blood tests for syphilis to all citizens, which resulted in a 1937 referendum offering this test to all of Chicago in an attempt to eradicate the disease.
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Paul de Kruif papers, MSDeKrNO, Box #, Folder #, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Illinois Chicago.
Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois Chicago
Released on 2019-01-17.