Frank G. Slaughter

Frank Gill Slaughter (February 25, 1908 - May 17, 2001), pseudonym C.V. Terry, was an American bestselling novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and reflected his interest in history and the Biblical world. He often introduced readers to exciting findings in medical research and new inventions in medical technology.

Slaughter was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Stephen Lucious Slaughter and Sallie Nicholson Gill. When he was about five years old, his family moved to a farm near Berea, North Carolina, which is west of Oxford, North Carolina.

Slaughter earned his bachelor's degree from Trinity College (now Duke University) at 17 and went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Slaughter began writing in 1935 while a physician at Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, paying off a $60 typewriter at $5 a month. He rewrote the manuscript of That None Should Die, a semi-autobiographical story of a young doctor, six times before Doubleday accepted it.

Several of Slaughter's novels became films, including The Warrior, made into the 1953 Rock Hudson film Seminole; Sangaree, made into the 1953 film of that name starring Fernando Lamas; and Doctors' Wives, made into the 1971 film starring Dyan Cannon and Gene Hackman.

Other books by Slaughter included Plague Ship, The Purple Quest, Surgeon, U.S.A., The Mapmaker, and The Scarlet Cord.

Slaughter's last novel, No Greater Love, was published in 1985.