Joseph Garland

Joseph Garland was the son and grandson of medical practitioners in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1919 and then concentrated his efforts in paediatrics. He was a member of the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1923 to 1954. Always interested in writing, he was a member of the editorial board of The New England Journal of Medicine from 1938. In 1947 he joined the editorial staff with the intention of devoting half of his time to the magazine. At that time, however, the then editor Robert Nason Nye, became ill, and Garland took over completely. During his twenty years as editor, from 1947 to 1967, he played a major part in establishing The New England Journal of Medicine as one of the world's leading medical journals.