Kittle, C. Frederick.

Chicago physician and collector.

A native of Athens, Ohio, Dr. C. Frederick Kittle graduated from Ohio University in 1942, went on to earn a medical degree at the University of Chicago, and completed his training in thoracic surgery at the University of Kansas. He has practiced at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Veterans Administration hospitals in Missouri and Kansas, the University of Chicago Hospitals, Cook County Hospitals, Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Chicago and Rush Medical College. Dr. Kittle, active in many professional organizations, was also the author of more than 200 journal articles in cardiology and thoracic surgery. In his private life, Dr. Kittle had become a premier book collector. For thirty years he amassed an extensive collection of travel books written by physicians. When he sold these in 1990, he found he missed the spirit of collecting on a single theme, and commenced to concentrate on accumulating Doyleana - correspondence, manuscripts, first editions, photographs, and artwork relating to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his family. Dr. Kittle had first become attracted to Doyle's work when he purchased "The Romance of Medicine", a nineteen page, handwritten medical lecture that Doyle gave at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London in 1910. Kittle found a kindred spirit in Doyle, who had been a practicing physician before largely devoting himself to literary efforts. During his retirement, Dr. Kittle donated his extensive and important collection of Arthur Conan Doyle materials to the Newberry Library in Chicago in 2003.

From the description of C. Frederick Kittle collection of Doyleana, 1836-2000. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 601775000