THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF DR. NICHOLAS GONZALEZ BY MARY SWANDER: When Nick Gonzalez was a medical student, he stood beside his father's deathbed and vowed that he would find a cure for cancer. Nick imagined his future as a researcher toiling away in a lab in Memorial Sloan Kettering, working on conventional approaches to the disease. Yet Gonzalez's life was anything but conventional. At the urging of Linus Pauling, he had already left an accomplished journalism career and entered Cornell Medical School.   Gonzalez's path took another turn when he met the controversial Dr. William Kelley, a dentist who, through an alternative nutritional approach, had arrested his own pancreatic cancer. Kelley had become infamous when he'd tried to help others.   The Maverick M.D. is the story of how Dr. Nick Gonzalez perfected the scientific theory behind Kelley's work and put the protocol into practice in New York City. Gonzalez drew courage from his Christian faith, from his Mexican-Italian-American family, and from key loved ones, colleagues and mentors. He spent years treating patients with the most serious conditions--from cancer to diabetes to lupus. But he wasn't satisfied as an outlier in the medical community. He wanted his work put to the test with a clinical trial.   This book portrays a man who fought for the acceptance of a nutritional cancer treatment in the halls of some of the most established U.S. medical institutions. Against intense opposition, Nick Gonzalez's determination held up until the end--a scientist who developed a therapy that saves lives and promotes the healing of the human mind, body and spirit. With a captivating narrative style, Mary Swander takes the reader on the intense journey which was the life and work of Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez. Every physician and any layfolk interested in health should know of this man, for if the medical science establishment was a true meritocracy, his name would be household. Thanks to Ms. Swander, we can open our mind's eye to his intellect and training--honed through classrooms, labs, hospital wards, meetings with remarkable mentors, athletic fields, and through life's lessons; and witness his dedication, integrity, and resilience - all matched up against many of the perverting influences that have co-opted the medical profession, and science in general. To the very end, he faced them with resounding dignity and resolve, all the while continuing to heal the toughest cancer cases at an incomparable success rate. I am grateful to this physician scientist. This book allowed me to further and more deeply appreciate his life and contributions. Faiz Khan, MD , Dual Board Emergency / Internal Medicine, Former Chair of Emergency Medicine, Former Chair of Medical Ethics, and Founder of CityMD Urgent Care MARY SWANDER: Nick Gonzalez was a complicated man and it was challenging to portray him in all his complexity. Athlete, ecologist, journalist, doctor, researcher, Biblical scholar, friend and husband. He wore all these hats, filling every second of every day engaging in these roles. He could be calm and contemplative, and he could have abrupt outbursts of anger. He could be warm and compassionate, and he could put up a feisty battle for his principles against an opponent. In writing The Maverick M.D ., I had to figure out what made this man tick, what inspired his fierce work ethic, and what drove him to push forward against all odds. Why would no one believe the Ivy-League trained Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D. when a pilot study for his treatment of pancreatic cancer showed promising results? Gonzalez worked as a lone wolf, removed from the inner circle of cancer research that he so revered. He, his patients, his wife, and a handful of prominent scientists and supporters thought he was onto something-- a nutritional approach to cancer and other degenerative diseases--that was beyond the imaginations of mainstream medicine. Gonzalez could have gone to Mexico where his family had lived and set up a cancer clinic alongside other alternative practitioners. Instead, he stayed in New York City, secured the funding, and fought to have his protocol tested through a properly run clinical trial. The Maverick, M.D. dramatizes Nicholas Gonzalez' backstory and his battles with the forces that sought to squelch his research, keeping his healing discoveries in medicine from reaching the world. Mary Swander is the co-founder and executive director of AgArts, a non-profit designed to imagine and promote healthy food systems through the arts. She is also the artistic director of Swander Woman Productions, a theatre company that tours plays about agriculture and the wider rural environment. Swander is an award-winning author of poetry, non-fiction and drama, and is best known for her books  Driving the Body Back ,  Out of this World , and  The Desert Pilgrim.  She has published widely in such places as  The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and Poetry