The past as parody

After turning down an offer to pitch for the Boston Red Sox, surviving the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire, owning the country's winningest racehorse, and running a successful South Shore medical hair transplant clinic, Saul P. Davis could easily turn his life experiences into a book.

But at age 86, the Stoughton resident has instead based his first book, ''The History of Man (sort of): From Adam to Atom," on the lives of eight famous men, beginning with Genesis and ending with Albert Einstein.

The book, a biographical parody that has George Washington using chopped cherry wood to start Virginia Kitchens Inc. (''the first IPO of the New World," says Davis), grew out of the author's writings and letters to the editor at local newspapers on the debate over creationism versus evolution.

''To me, it was hilarious because no one knows and no one will ever know" the origins of life, Davis said. ''People draw all these conclusions and they're adamant about them, but it's silly because history can be interpreted so many ways. I decided to have some fun with that idea."

A well-known doctor who had a family practice in Brockton for 55 years, Davis also served as the city physician, and retired from practicing medicine in 2001. But he says he had little interest in writing about the medical world. He wrote ''The History of Man (sort of)" over the course of a year, starting in late 2002.

It began as a parody on the story of Adam and Eve. In Davis's version, a depressed Adam asks God for Prozac but is told his health insurance won't cover it. After the couple is banished from ''The Garden of Eden Resort," they settled along the Mediterranean Sea to raise a family.

''After I wrote that story, I thought, 'That's pretty funny. Who else can I do?' " said Davis, who moved from Brockton to Stoughton 15 years ago. ''Abraham was good because he started the first religion, and I saw a lot of humor in Moses leading his people out of the desert. Then of course I had to do Jesus."

After researching the lives of the other historical figures, including Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus, who he writes had such a poor sense of direction that as a child he ''couldn't find his rattle in his crib," Davis combined history with humor to sketch quirky vignettes.

The preface of the 115-page book reads: ''You will find this book very informative and interesting, or you won't." It is telling of the brand of irreverent humor that has characterized Davis throughout his life.

Born in 1918, he was raised in Boston and attended Boston College, where he made a name for himself playing baseball. After graduation in 1939, he spent a summer at a Red Sox camp for prospective players. But when it ended, Davis chose to become a doctor.

''It was pretty understood that I was going to be a doctor; everyone in my family was a doctor, and I had gone to medical school," he said.

When he was sent to intern at Brockton Hospital, he had never heard of the city, he said. In November 1942, during a rare Saturday night off from the hospital, he and his wife joined two other couples for dinner at the Cocoanut Grove in Boston. The sound of people yelling was the first clue that fire had broken out at the popular nightclub, he said. Shortly after, the lights went out.

Davis grabbed his wife by the hand and followed the crowd toward a rear door. But when they got there, more than 50 bodies were piled up, blocking the escape route. Choking from the thick smoke, Davis pushed his wife in the opposite direction, toward a basement kitchen he had seen waiters using. After breaking a cellar window, they were able to crawl outside.

''The police were good; they had lined up cabs at that point to take us to the hospital. When we got there, you could see dead, burned bodies lining the hallway," Davis said. His eyes tearing up, he recounted how two of his friends died in the fire, which killed close to 500 people. Another was hospitalized for months. ''I didn't talk about that night for a long, long time," he said.

When Davis finished his internship at Brockton Hospital, World War II had begun and he planned to join the Army as a physician. But hospital and city leaders convinced him he could help more by staying home and opening a medical practice to help alleviate the shortage of doctors.

His office on Pleasant Street was open for about 40 years and gave preference to those who could not afford to pay for medical care. In the late 1980s, Davis took a course on medical hair transplants and opened the Davis Medical Group specializing in the procedure, with offices in Brockton and Stoughton.

Around the same time, he bought a string of racehorses. One, named Moxie Town, won more races in 1986 than any other horse in the country, he said.

''I've definitely had some interesting experiences," he said. ''And I never thought I would write a book. When I say my age, I laugh; I don't feel like what I picture 86 to be."

''The History of Man (sort of)," published by Bloomington, Ind.-based 1st Books, is available at several local bookstores and online at www.amazon.com. Davis said he hopes to write a second book, especially if the success of his first one helps attract a larger publishing company.

''I'm thinking of writing 'The History of Woman (sort of),' but I'm a little more nervous making fun of women," he said.

Joanna Massey can be reached at massey@globe.com.