Introduction: Edward Loughborough Keyes,Jr, one of the founding fathers of the AUA was a better than average poet, son of proto-urologist and first president of the AAGUS (Edward Lawrence Keyes). His grandmother Margaret Loughborough lived a real life Gone with the Wind existence that became the cornerstone of the Loughborough tradition in her diary discovered in 1961. Eddie Jr’s poetic contributions cross over his decorated war experiences, his career as a urologist and practice during turn-of-the century medicine. Methods: Poetry, warfare, death, and dying are as entangled as any topic one cares to choose. We were particularly interested in ekphrastic poetry and the emphasis on urology. The Georgetown University Archives were very helpful in obtaining historiographical information regarding Keyes. His biography has been shortly summarized by at least two urologic publications. He did write an overview of WWI in 1918 entitled The present status of the urology of war. Results: “Primarily, one may ask, is the fear of death a constant fact? Probably it exists to a considerable extent among adults. But is it of all mankind generally true that, he that cuts off twenty years of life, cuts of so many years of fearing death?” This is a quote from Keyes’s private printed The Fear of Death in 1910. We were able to get a private printed signed copy of Keyes, Jrs’s A Sea Change, and Other Things which contains much of his poetry. Conclusions: “When I graduated medicine I was afraid. The world looked enormous, ruthless, well occupied. In it I could see no place for me. What did I do? I worked hard without taking myself too seriously. For I love laughter and have been successful beyond my merits.” EL Keyes’s Urology: Diseases of the Urinary Organs, Diseases of the Male Genital Organs, the Venereal Diseases went through 21 editions between 1917 and 1936. His famed “A Letter on Catheters by Benjamin Franklin” published in 1934 remains a classic. But to know the poet one should read his The Fear of Death (1910) or A Sea Change, and Other Things (1938). Could not Keyes,Jr be the cenotaph of urology, he was the son of a famed urologist and his own son would eulogize both father and grandfather. SOURCE OF Funding: None
