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Now in paperback, the groundbreaking biography of the most influential surgeon in American history.

"Gerald Imber´s new biography is the first retelling of Halstead´s story in many decades and a particularly expert and thoughtprovoking narrative makes the intense strangeness of Halstead´s subsequent career a gripping story."

-Abigail Zuger, New York Times Science Section

Dr. William Stewart Halsted´s life was fascinating and complex. Halsted, perhaps the most important surgeon America has ever produced, battled a lifelong cocaine addiction and maintained numerous secret relationships while simultaneously devising revolutionary medical innovations. Yet the story of Halsted´s life, one of seemingly irreconcilable extremes, is in many ways the story of modern medicine.

Before Halsted, poorly-trained doctors performed surgery without anesthesia in unsanitary conditions and patients were rarely expected to survive. Halstead transformed the medical practice by inventing local and spinal anesthesia; introducing the use of rubber gloves during surgery; pioneering the use of fine silk thread for sutures; developing techniques for stabilizing blood pressure during surgery; and inventing the radical mastectomy, blood transfusions, and surgical cures for hernias.

Genius on the Edge is an illuminating biography of a complex and troubled man whose brilliance we continue to benefit
from today.

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Dr. Gerald Imber is a well known plastic surgeon and authority on cosmetic surgery, and directs a private clinic in Manhattan. An early proponent of prevention and minimally invasive procedures, he has devised many popular anti-aging techniques, and is attending surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital and assistant clinical professor of surgery at Weill-Cornell School of Medicine.

Dr. Imber has published many scientific papers and is a regular lecturer at professional meetings. He is also the author of a number of "beauty books" and has written on many subjects for varied publications such as Departures , and The Wall Street Journal , and appears regularly on network television.

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