Tender is the Night Book 2, Chapter 1

Dick arrived in Zurich, Switzerland in the spring of 1917 at age 26. He avoided having to take part in the war because he was working towards his degree. Sick and injured men were still visibly present in Switzerland, and posters and other reminders of the war still remained. The pride that the Swiss first felt about their part in the war was fading as the killing continued.

Topic Tracking: Sickness 2

The Swiss were more surprised than anyone at the United States' entry into the war.

Dr. Diver was an Oxford Rhodes scholar who received a degree from John Hopkins. After this, he went to Vienna to continue his studies. Here he wrote pamphlets that he used in a book he published in Zurich in 1920. Dr. Diver's charming, affectionate nature earned him the nickname, "Lucky Dick." Since coal was scarce in 1917, he had to burn textbooks for fuel. Dr. Diver shared an apartment with Ed Elkins, who was the second secretary at the Embassy and an intellectual. Elkins spoke of Dick, "And Lucky Dick can't be one of those clever men; he must be less intact, even faintly destroyed. If life won't do it for him it's not a substitute to get a disease, or a broken heart, or an inferiority complex, though it'd be nice to build out some broken side till it was better than the original structure." Book 2, Chapter 1, pg. 116 Dick believed that Elkins was incomplete. After Dick received his degree in Zurich, he received orders to join a neurological unit forming in Bar-Sur-Aube. He did not enjoy his work in France and returned to Zurich in 1919.