





































 V37 N2 / 2022 

©2022 American Medical Writers Association. All rights reserved.  
ISSN 2163-5315

AMWAJournal.org     36

Maud Mellish-Wilson – Librarian, Editor, Visionary

BIOGRAPHY

Tom Lang / Principal, Tom Lang Communications and Training International, Kirkland, WA

ABSTRACT
Maud Mellish-Wilson was an early and influential voice 

in biomedical communication. In the early 1900s, she 

was hired by Mayo Clinic to set up its first library, but she 

accomplished a great deal more. A competent editor, she 

established the Clinic’s Division of Publications, which 

helped establish the Clinic as a world-renowned health 

care and research center, and probably the craft of author’s 

editing as well. The Division still supports authors during 

all stages of scientific publishing and remains a model for 

research centers around the world. She started The Collected 

Papers of Mayo Clinic, which summarized the articles pub-

lished by Clinic authors each year; wrote an important book 

on medical writing and editing; and began what would 

become Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The Mayo brothers con-

sidered her to be 1 of the founders of Mayo Clinic, along 

with their father. Here, I describe her life and accomplish-

ments to recognize her achievements and to contribute to 

the history of the profession of medical writing and editing.

 

Maud Mellish-Wilson was the first editor at Mayo Clinic 

(Figure 1). She headed the Division of Publications from its 

creation in 1914 to 1926 and continued to edit for the Clinic 

until she died in 1933.1 As an early and visible author’s 

editor, she is credited with greatly increasing the quality 

and consistency of manuscripts leaving the Clinic. In her 

26 years there, she set new standards for scientific pub-

lishing, wrote a book describing those standards, initiated 

and edited the first 24 volumes of the Collected Works of the 

Mayo Clinic, launched what would become Mayo Clinic 

Proceedings, and became a legend both at the Clinic and in 

the scientific community.

HER EARLY YEARS
Annie Maud Headline was born to Swedish immigrants on 

February 14, 1862, the youngest of 7 children.1 The family 

lived in a log cabin near the small town of Faribault on the 

plains of Minnesota, 50 miles from Rochester to the south-

east and 50 miles from Minneapolis to the north.1,2 The  

Civil War had begun the year before, and in a few months, 

the short but bloody Dakota War of 1862, which pitted  

settlers against the Santee Sioux Indians, would begin not 

far from town.

 In her childhood, she was curious, strong-minded, 

and practical to the point that her parents often followed 

her advice.1,2 She wanted to be a doctor, but women were 

not generally allowed in medical school at that time, and 

money was scarce. Instead, she went to nursing school in 

Chicago, auditing lectures at Rush Medical School at the 

same time.1 At Rush, her persistence and intelligence were 

noted by 2 prominent physicians, Dr Moses Gunn, Head of 

Surgery at Rush, and Dr Charles Parkes, Surgeon-in-Chief 

at Augustana Hospital. She developed close and lasting 

friendships with both men.1,3 Shortly after graduating from 

the Illinois Training School for Nurses in 1887,4 she went to 

work at the 50-bed Maurice Porter Memorial Hospital for 

Children, eventually becoming the superintendent of  

the hospital.2,4

 In 1889, at age 27, Maud married Dr Ernest J. Mellish, 

a promising young surgeon teaching at Rush Medical 

School.1,5 

 Ernest had contracted tuberculosis before they married, 

and his health problems were to last throughout the mar-

riage. They moved to Michigan, where Ernest built a suc-

cessful surgical practice with Maud as his surgical assistant. 

During the marriage, she dropped her first name, Annie, 

and went by Maud.2

Figure 1. Maud Mellish-Wilson. 
Date unknown. Born Annie 
Maud Headline, she dropped the 
name Annie during her marriage 
to Dr Ernest Mellish, who died in 
1905. She kept his name when 
she remarried to Dr Louis Wilson. 
(Used with permission from 
Mayo Foundation for Medical 
Education and Research.)

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AMWAJournal.org     37Maud Mellish-Wilson – Librarian, Editor, Visionary

 In 1893, they moved back to Chicago. Despite a severely 

depressed economy, Ernest found work at charity hospi-

tals and returned to teaching at Rush. During this time, 

Maud began to edit his articles.2 Ernest later wrote, “Maud 

is of inestimable aid to me in revising my papers. I am sure 

they are much more readable for the revision. There are no 

superfluous words left in them.”1

 Ernest’s disease went into remission in 1897, and for 

4 years, he was able to build his practice again. When the 

disease recurred in 1901, he and Maud moved to El Paso, 

Texas, where they hoped the arid environment would be 

beneficial. He died of tuberculosis in 1905, cared for by 

Maud until the end.1,2

 After her husband’s death, Maud returned to Chicago 

and found work organizing the library at Augustana 

Hospital where she had friends.2,4 There, at age 43, she met 

Dr Albert Ochsner, the chief surgeon at the hospital and an 

increasingly famous and prolific writer.2,6 (Later, he would 

help found the American College of Surgeons.6) He hired 

Maud to edit his manuscripts, and her skill and intellect 

led them to become good friends and trusted colleagues.3 

(Dr Albert Ochsner mentored Dr Alton Ochsner, a distant 

relative, who would establish the Ochsner Clinic in New 

Orleans in 1942. In 1963, Dr Alton Ochsner was made a 

fellow of AMWA.7)

 Mayo Clinic was founded in 1889 as part of Saint Mary’s 

Hospital and in cooperation with the Franciscan sisters who 

ran it.8 The original medical staff consisted of Dr William W. 

Mayo and his 2 sons, William and Charles (affectionately 

called “Dr Will” and “Dr Charlie” by everyone at the Clinic).9 

The 3 introduced the integrated, multidisciplinary approach 

to medical care now common throughout the world. The 

Clinic grew rapidly in size and reputation—in 1904, the 2 

brothers operated on more than 4,000 patients8—and was 

developing its medical specialties, laboratory facilities, edu-

cational programs, and other support services.

 Dr Will was looking for someone to organize and 

develop a library to “run the literary end of the business.”4,10 

He asked his friend, Dr Albert Ochsner, if he knew some-

one suitable for the job. Dr Ochsner immediately recom-

mended Maud.1,2 In early 1907, after Maud had visited the 

Clinic at the invitation of the brothers, Dr Will wrote to her, 

saying “We want you, we want you badly, and the sooner the 

better... We want you to develop a library and to do edito-

rial work on scientific publications.”1,2,4 Having recently lost 

her husband, not wanting to return to nursing, and feeling 

that it was too late to go to medical school at age 45, Maud 

joined the Clinic 3 months later.1,2,11

HER YEARS AT MAYO CLINIC
When Maud arrived at the Clinic, the library consisted of 

“three small book cases, a few journals on a small read-

ing table, and the books owned by various members of 

the staff.”1,12 She also reportedly found copies of dozens of 

publications by the Mayo brothers and their father stored 

in a basement coal bin.1,2,11 She pulled the papers from the 

coal bin, cleaned and organized them, collected books and 

articles from around the Clinic, ordered missing journal 

volumes, arranged for interlibrary loans, and, in general, 

created order out of chaos.1

 She built the collection carefully to meet the specific 

needs of the Clinic. After WWI, many European libraries 

were sold, and the Clinic was able to add several rare and 

important books to fill gaps in its collection.1 She also vis-

ited medical libraries around the country to collect ideas 

for the design of a new library that opened in 1914.2 Within 

a few years, she had increased the library holdings to more 

than 4,000 volumes.13 When she died in 1933, there were 

40,000.1

 Dr Louis B. Wilson (1866-1943) was brought to the Clinic 

to develop its laboratory services as Chief of Pathology, a 

position he held from 1905 to 1937.14 He met Maud shortly 

after she began working at the Clinic, when they were given 

the task of designing the new library for the 1914 expan-

sion of the Clinic. Maud said of him, “I have met few men 

his intellectual equal. In addition to his scientific abilities, 

he has a most pleasing personality.”1 Louis’s first wife died 

in 1920, and he and Maud married in 1924.2,4 Louis would 

become the first director of Mayo Foundation and was a 

national leader in graduate medical education in the 1920s 

and 1930s.15

The Division of Publications
When Maud became the Clinic’s first professional editor,13 

she had had close to 20 years of experience helping authors 

prepare manuscripts for publication which, in her view, 

“did not stop at checking grammar and punctuation.”13 (An 

understatement, to be sure.) When Dr Will noted that the 

quality of the articles written by Clinic staff “was not up to 

the standard of their clinical work,”2 he asked Maud to help 

authors improve their writing. Soon, in addition to managing 

the library, she became head of the new editorial office and 

later, the head of the new Division of Publications in 1914.1,4,12 

Advances in printing had improved the reproducibility of 

photographs and medical illustrations and made them less 

expensive to publish. In time, 4 photographers (Maud made 

a point of hiring women photographers) and 2 medical illus-

trators were added to the Division.1,11,16  She designed a clin-

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AMWAJournal.org     38Maud Mellish-Wilson – Librarian, Editor, Visionary

ic-wide system for registering, editing, submitting, revising, 

and tracking manuscripts through the publication process, a 

centralized service that continues today.12

 According to one biographer, Maud “set herself the task 

of seeing to it that the Rochester men said what they meant 

to say, that they were accurate in their facts and, as far as 

she could ensure it, straight in their thinking.”1 One story 

goes that Dr Charlie left a paper for Maud to edit while he 

was away for several weeks. He returned to find an arti-

cle on his desk, read it, liked it, and wondered who had 

written it—until he realized it was his paper made better 

by Maud’s editing.2,13 (Dr Charlie, as Editor-in-Chief of 

Postgraduate Medicine, received AMWA’s 1958 Honor Award 

for Distinguished Contributions to the Medical Literature.7)

 In fact, between 1909 and her death in 1933, not a single 

manuscript left the Clinic until it met her standards.13,14 She 

gave recalcitrant authors a choice: bring your paper up to 

standard or publish it under your own name, without the 

Clinic’s support. Or, as her future successor, Dr Richard 

Hewitt, said, “The paper... either descended by slow degrees 

into desuetude [a state of disuse] or was elevated to the 

heavens and has a star named after it.”12

 This policy paid off as journal editors noticed that every 

paper they received from the Clinic was technically sound 

and unusually well prepared.1 There is little doubt that 

Maud’s efforts greatly improved the Clinic’s publications, 

which substantially advanced its reputation, as well as that 

of its staff at a critical period in the Clinic’s history.13 (This 

reputation has persisted for more than 80 years. Ed Huth, 

then Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Internal Medicine, 

told me in the early 1990s that, “When you get a manu-

script from Mayo Clinic, you just know it’s going to be tightly 

edited, formatted correctly, and a pleasure to read.” If ever 

there were an argument for insisting on rigorous editing and 

high standards, this is it.)

The Collected Papers of Mayo Clinic
In the early 1900s, physicians and hospitals generally did 

not advertise because such promotion was considered 

improper if not unethical. As a result, the Mayo brothers 

kept a low profile—including turning down an interview 

with Life magazine—to avoid the appearance of impropri-

ety.2 However, they were aware that physicians built their 

reputations by publishing in scientific journals, which of 

course was why they hired Maud. With Maud, however, they 

got more than just a librarian and an editor: they got  

a visionary.

 In 1909, Maud selected the most important papers 

written by Clinic authors since 1905 (apparently including 

some rescued from that coal bin) and published them as 

the Collected Papers by the Staff of St. Mary’s Hospital Mayo 

Clinic1 “to present adequately the work of the Mayo Clinic 

and the Mayo Foundation.”17 The volume was the first of a 

series that continued for decades as The Collected Papers of 

Mayo Clinic.

 The Papers increased the Clinic’s professional visibil-

ity in a way that individual articles could not. For example, 

volume 1 was 686 pages; volume 15, published in 1924, 

was 1,420 pages. Of “629 papers published [in volume 46] 

between December 1, 1953, and November 30, 1954, 63 are 

republished in full, 52 by abridgement, 20 by abstract, and 

495 by title.”17 Maud edited and published at least 1 volume 

every year until her death in 1933. The volumes she edited 

represented more than 6,000 articles.

The Writing of Medical Papers
In 1922, Maud published The Writing of Medical Papers 

(Figure 2).18 Although it was not the first book on the topic,19-

21 it appears to have been among the most popular, going 

through 3 editions in 1922, 1925, and 1929. The book itself is 

a grammar and usage guide, 

a style manual, a textbook 

on preparing scientific arti-

cles, a reference for journal 

abbreviations, a summary of 

proofreader’s marks, and an 

explanation of publication 

practices.

 Of the 20 chapters, 7 are 

devoted to grammar and 

usage in medical publica-

tions (describing many con-

ventions still followed today), 

and the last 13 concern pre-

paring the scientific article 

and its parts, including the 

use of abbreviations, scien-

tific style, and the importance 

of revising. In a summary 

at the end of each chapter, 

the topics were “reduced to 

a minimum, and rules have 

been made definite, even dogmatic, that they may be easy to 

refer to and follow” (Box on next page).18

 The text is strictly utilitarian, but Maud’s humor often 

comes through. Many sentences are statements about what 

authors should do when writing, such as “use standard 

abbreviations only,” “writers should not be too ready to 

Figure 2. Maud’s book, The 
Writing of Medical Articles.18 The 
book appears to be one of the 
earliest and most popular guides 
for preparing medical articles. 
Much of the content is still 
relevant. Used with permission 
of Mayo Foundation for Medical 
Education and Research.

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AMWAJournal.org     39Maud Mellish-Wilson – Librarian, Editor, Visionary

follow others in the misuse of terms or words,” and “do not 

submit a manuscript for publication until it has been made 

as perfect as possible.” 

 Chapter 7, titled simply “Don’ts,” includes sound advice:

• “Don’t say case when you mean patient.”

• “Don’t say due to when you mean attributable to or on 

account of. Due to is inaccurate and slovenly.”

• “Don’t begin as many as ninety-five percent of your 

sentences with thus.”

• “When writing a medical paper, don’t always go back 

to the Garden of Eden and review the literature to 

date.” (Elsewhere, she explains this advice: “The order 

of development of a subject is rarely the order in 

which it should be studied... review the more recent 

articles first.”)22

• “Keep down your that’s, for they multiply like lower 

organisms.”

• “Do not invent words.”

 In the 3rd edition, she writes, “It would seem that an 

impression is abroad among the writers of academic essays 

that the first person is indecent.”23 Her endorsement of using 

first-person pronouns in medical texts is consistent with the 

recommendation of George Gould, an important early jour-

nal editor and one of the founders of what would become 

the American Medical Library Association, who gives the 

same advice in Suggestions to Medical Writers, published in 

1900.19 Her book may also have influenced George Simons 

and Morris Fishbein, then the editors at the Journal of the 

American Medical Association, in their book, The Art and 

Practice of Medical Writing.24

 Chapter 18, titled “The Manuscript,” reads like the 

instructions for authors found today in every journal. She 

recommended a variation of the Harvard (name-date) refer-

encing system in which articles are alphabetized by the first 

author’s last name in the reference list, numbered sequen-

tially, and then the numbers placed in the text, not the first 

author’s last name and date of publication as they are in the 

Harvard system.

Mayo Clinic Proceedings
As the Clinic grew, not every staff member could attend all 

meetings. In 1919, Maud and her division began to prepare 

short, daily summaries of the meetings in an in-house news-

letter called the Clinic Bulletin.9,11 In 1926, the focus of the 

Bulletin was narrowed to the topics covered in what appears 

to have been weekly grand rounds.9,11,25 The name was 

changed to the Proceedings of the Staff Meetings of the Mayo 

Clinic in 1927 and to Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 1964, when 

an editor-in-chief and an editorial board were appointed to 

make the Proceedings a separate, monthly, peer-reviewed 

medical journal.9

HER LEGACY
Today, the main library of the Clinic stands where Maud’s 

library stood. It now includes 400,000 volumes. In fact, the 

Clinic runs 15 other libraries in 4 states and employs more 

than 30 professional librarians and 40 library associates. In 

2021, the 5,300 physicians and researchers throughout the 

Mayo Clinic Health System published 12,500 articles and case 

reports and an unknown number books, chapters, letters, 

comments, and other publications. (Personal communication 

with LeAnn Stee, Head, Scientific Publications, Mayo Clinic, 

4 April 2022.) The Collected Papers went through 60 volumes 

before publication stopped in 1969. In 2019, the Proceedings 

was sent without charge to 130,000 people around the world. 

In 2020, it ranked eleventh among 154 general internal medi-

cine journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports.26

Quotes from The Writing of Medical Papers  
by Maud Mellish-Wilson18

“A good writer addresses persons who have to 
comprehend, to decide, and to act.” [This sentence is  
the very definition of technical writing.]

“It is quite possible for the casual writer to be wholly 
inappreciative [sic] of the time and care expended by 
editors in recasting and checking tabulated data.”

“Don't fail to go over your pages diligently; relentlessly 
‘thin out’ words. A good writer takes a hint from a good 
gardener.”

“Don't rise to poetic heights except when describing 
genuinely poetic subject matter.”

“Many writers pay little serious attention to their 
introductions... At no time is bewilderment more fatal 
for the reader than at the start... starting is as much 
more difficult than continuing for a reader as it is for a 
locomotive attached to a heavy train.”

“Don't estimate measurements [of tumors] in terms of 
cocoanuts, oranges, fists, eggs, beans, and so forth; use 
the metric system.” (Gotta love that one.)

“... few realize the amount of earnest effort and 
painstaking labor which a conscientious editor 
bestows upon many a paper to make it readable and 
worthwhile.” (Well said!)

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AMWAJournal.org     40Maud Mellish-Wilson – Librarian, Editor, Visionary

 When Maud died in 1933, Dr Hewitt became Head of 

the Division of Publications. In 1957, he became President 

of AMWA.7 In 1964, the Clinic created the Department of 

Biomedical Communications. Its first director was a prom-

inent physician named Dr Charles Roland, who became 

President of AMWA in 1969.7

MAUD REMEMBERED
Maud was described as “a tall, handsome woman, regal in 

appearance and in manner”1 who had “the ability to do well 

a great deal in a short time.”12 “She was a severe critic, never 

minced words in expressing her opinion, and was inclined 

to be high-handed in correcting and revising.”1 (My favorite  

quote from her book is, “Don’t think that [grammatical] 

atrocities are pardonable.”23)

 Dr Will said of her, “Staff members, faculty, and fellow-

ship men alike received much aid in the preparation of their 

written contributions. They were taught where and how 

to obtain references from the library, to be accurate and 

concise, with proper literary form, and, above all, to give 

credit to other workers, and not by half-truths to over-em-

phasize unimportant details, which might lead to miscon-

struction.”12 Maud was made an honorary member of Mayo 

Clinic faculty in the late 1920s.1,14

 Actress Megan Cole portrays Maud in a 30-minute 

documentary on her life.3,13 To prepare for the part, she 

studied Maud’s life and work. Curiously, Maud, who con-

tributed so much to the field of medical writing, did not like 

to write and rarely wrote anything down. As a result, most 

of what Ms Cole learned about Maud came from others.13 

(The 2 best sources being those by Clapesattle1 and Wright-

Peterson.2)

 According to Ms Cole, it is clear that Maud “was a gentle 

powerhouse, a compassionate taskmaster, and an intimidat-

ing scholar who didn’t boast about her accomplishments.”13 

Vitally important to the growth of the Clinic and in building 

its reputation, she was “a brilliant editor and a woman far 

ahead of her time, one who raised a fairly traditional posi-

tion to heights not previously imagined.”13

 On the day of Maud’s funeral, the Clinic was closed in 

her honor.3 But perhaps the most appropriate honor was 

given by Dr Will himself, who considered Maud to be the 

4th founder of the  Clinic, after he, his brother, and their 

father.1,2 He wrote that she “was endowed with exceptional 

ability, untiring perseverance, sound judgment, and indom-

itable courage,” and “dedicated her life to the literary devel-

opment of Mayo Clinic.”2 Indeed, the profession of medical 

writing owes much to her contributions.

Author declaration and disclosures: The author notes no com-
mercial associations that may pose a conflict of interest in rela-
tion to this article. 
Author contact: tomlangcom@aol.com  

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Mayo Clinic. October 31, 2011. Accessed May 6, 2020. https://
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