Walter A. Nolen was born March 20, 1928, in Hampden County, Massachusetts to Judge James Robert Nolen and Katherine M. (nee Dillon) Nolen.

Dr. William Nolen, a small-town physician who wrote several books, including ''The Making of a Surgeon,'' has died at the age of 58.

Dr. Nolen died Saturday at the University of Minnesota Hospital, where he had undergone quintuple bypass heart surgery Dec. 10 after suffering his third heart attack in about a week.

''The Making of a Surgeon,'' a 1970 book about the medical-school experiences of a surgeon, became a best seller and Dr. Nolen became something of a celebrity on late-night television talk shows.

Dr. Nolen also wrote ''Spare Parts for the Human Body,'' ''A Surgeon's World,'' ''Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle, ''Surgeon Under the Knife,'' ''Baby in the Bottle,'' ''Surgeon's Book of Hope'' and, his last, published in 1984, ''Crisis Time! Love, Marriage and the Male at Mid-life.''

He is survived by his wife Joan Helen (nee Scheibel) Nolen; and his daughter Jody Nolen; siblings, Katherine Agnes Nolen, Elizabeth Jean Nolen, James R. Nolen, and Judith A. Nolen Crimmins.