Probably the most famous classic of plastic and aesthetic surgery published in the 20th century. The original German edition of Joseph's book issued in 1931 is a legendary rarity. This deluxe limited edition English translation was issued in 1987. It publishes the English translation of Joseph's text and his original illustrations in a format that follows the German edition page for page. Considering the comprehensive nature of Joseph's text and the huge number of illustrations, this is a significant translation and publishing feat. Elegantly and durably bound with a red leather spine and a sturdy cloth slipcase, it was previously sold for $395 or more per copy. The translation is a superb example of modern book production. As new.
In 1931, the year this book was first published in German, its author Jacques Joseph (1865-1934) stood at the pinnacle of his profession. Possessing an outstanding reputation, he had attracted for more than a decade, an international clientele and fee-paying students to his Berlin clinic.
Joseph’s reputation was deserved; he was skillful and innovative, his experience vast: he had performed orthopedic surgery during his early years in practice (p. 824), in 1898 he had introduced in Europe internal instead of external incisions for rhinoplasty [apparently unaware of Roe’s priority in using this technique in the United States (pp. 82-83)], and in his lifetime had performed more rhinoplasties in this fashion than perhaps any other surgeon in the world, he directed the Division of Facial Plastic Surgery of the Charité Hospital, Berlin (1916-1921) where he reconstructed enormous numbers of facially-wounded soldiers of World War I [like his contemporaries, Gillies (p. 650) in England and Blair (p. 669) in the United States], and for the last thirteen years of his life he maintained a busy practice primarily in aesthetic plastic surgery.
The times in 1931 were turbulent: economic depression gripped the world, in Germany Nazism was on the rise. In 1934, Joseph died in Berlin at the age of 69, apparently of a coronary. Most of the 1500 copies that were printed of his book disappeared as did most of the Jewish community of which Joseph was a part.
Incredibly, Joseph’s reputation survived, probably because of the many instruments he devised for rhinoplasty which still bear his name and also because the writings of some of his former students, namely Safian and Aufricht, accord him much honor.
However, the extent of Joseph’s contributions have been largely unappreciated by English-speaking surgeons who now constitute a majority in the world. I hope that this English translation will serve the world-wide audience which I feel Joseph, himself, desired and deserves. (From Stanley Milstein's "Translator’s Introduction," p. iii)
