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Genius on the Edge
The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted
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Book Summary
Reveals a complex and troubled man who, despite being a ground-breaking father of modern surgery, battled with cocaine and morphine addition, exhibited eccentric behavior and lived an unusual lifestyle.
This book is about:
- General Surgery,
- Surgeons,
- Halsted, William,
- History, 19th Century,
- History, 20th Century,
- Physicians,
- History,
- Biography,
- United States
NPR stories about Genius on the Edge
Three Books...
3 Problem-Solving Reads For The Scientific Sleuth
Born in New York City the same year as Cajal, William Stewart Halsted didn't decide to study medicine until he was a senior at Yale. It was a choice that profoundly affected the surgical field, as Gerald Imber describes in his masterful biography, Genius on the Edge. Imber realistically portrays the agony of operations a century ago when the mortality rate was as high as 99 percent. Today it's 1 percent, in part because of Halsted, whose genius often came from common sense like... more
—Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa
Author Interviews
Re-Examining The Father Of Modern Surgery
February 22, 2010 William Halsted is credited with creating the United States' first surgical residency program and transforming the way operating rooms are sterilized. He was also a morphine addict. Plastic surgeon Gerald Imber details Halsted's dual lives in the new biography Genius on the Edge.
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