Ivan Doig Archive - Medical Journey

The medical journey collection of the Ivan Doig Archive documents Ivan's medical diagnosis of multiple myeloma and his struggle with a disease that he described as "the waiting room of Hell furnished with side effects". Included are his own thoughts on the fight, as well as the actual records of his various treatment regimens and laboratory tests. The importance of these records has been eloquently stated by Carol Doig. She says, "No estimate of Ivan’s achievements as a writer would be complete without consideration of what he accomplished after he had been diagnosed with a fatal disease."

 

Journal Musings on Myeloma and More

In a file discovered by Carol Doig after Ivan's passing, she notes that in this journal, Ivan "muses across events and people from Robin Williams to Chekov to an obituary of Claude Lévi-Strauss which tackles “the world’s greatest mystery: the possibility of not being, the burden of mortality.” Discover Ivan Doig's typed and handwritten autobiographical notes for a possible book titled 'Living With It' or 'Next' as well as notes on how he felt about his health and mortality.