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Genius on the Edge

The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted

by Gerald Imber

Genius on the Edge

Paperback, 389 pages, Kaplan, List Price: $15.99 | purchase

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  • Genius on the Edge
  • The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted
  • Gerald Imber

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Hardcover, 389 pages, Kaplan, $25.95, published February 2 2010 | purchase
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Purchase Featured Books

  • Genius on the Edge
  • The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted
  • Gerald Imber

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

Dr. William Stewart Halsted performing a surgery in 1904

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.

Transcript

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