⬅ Grover Cleveland: Secret Jaw Operations

On June 13, 1893, Cleveland noticed a "rough place" on the roof of his mouth. It was diagnosed as cancer, precipitating one of the most celebrated incidents in the history of Presidential medicine. SEE BELOW

Ultimately, on July 1, the President underwent a risky operation aboard his yacht. At his insistence, his illness and surgery were kept secret from the public, the press, the Cabinet, and (one presumes) the Vice President. A second, less risky operation was performed aboard the yacht on July 17.

Afterwards, direct questions about the President's health were answered falsely. "Cleveland is alleged to have said that he had done more lying in the period just before his surgery and the period immediately thereafter than he had ever done in the remainder of his life" 1a. It was 25 years before the secret was compromised.

In 1917 Cleveland's operation was revealed to the public in an article in the Saturday Evening Post magazine. Dr. W. W. Keen, one of Cleveland's surgeons, wrote the article -- with the permission of the Cleveland family. Later, the article was published as a book 2.

The copyright on Keen's book has expired, so we are able to provide the entire text. (Note that the HTML version of the book *is* copyrighted.) The book is divided into the following sections:

• MORE Foreword
• MORE Holland's Dispatch
• MORE The Earlier Controversy
• MORE The Grave Financial Situation
• MORE The History Preceding the First Operation
• MORE The First Operation
• MORE The Second Operation
• MORE Author's Note