“THE ANNALS OF MEDICINE LIST FEW EXPERIMENTS AS DARING AND REVOLUTIONARY”: FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF NOBEL LAUREATE WERNER FORSSMANN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, EXPERIMENTS ON MYSELF, WITH FIRST SEPARATE EDITION OF HIS 1956 NOBEL PRIZE LECTURE

FORSSMANN, Werner. Experiments on Myself. Memoirs of a Surgeon in Germany. New York: St. Martin’s, 1974. WITH: Die Rolle der Herzkatherung und Angiocardiographie in der Entwicklung der modernen Medizin [The Role of Cardiac Catheterization and Angiocardiography in the Development of Modern Medicine]. Les Prix Nobel en 1956. Stockholm: Kungl. Boktr [Nobel Foundation], 1957. Octavo, original black paper boards, original dust jacket. WITH: Slim octavo, original ivory stiff paper wrappers; pp. 177-81.

First edition in English of Nobel laureate Dr. Forssmann’s autobiography, describing the radical experiment he performed on himself in 1929 that “opened the way to the beating heart… a fascinating account of how a brash young M.D. broke a taboo—touching the living heart,” accompanied by the first separate edition, in original wrappers, of his Nobel Prize lecture, delivered upon winning the 1956 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Cournand and Richards.

“The annals of medicine list few experiments as daring and revolutionary as those of Dr. Werner Forssmann performed on his heart beginning in 1929. As a 25-year-old intern who disobeyed orders from his superiors at a small hospital near Berlin, he pushed a catheter, or thin tube, into a vein in his elbow crease and then threaded it up past his armpit through a series of veins connecting with the right side of his heart. With a flair for lively anecdotes and a knack for telling a good story, Dr. Forssmann in his autobiography clearly describes how crudely medicine was practiced… when he opened the way to the beating heart, an act forbidden by the world’s medical leaders. It is a fascinating account of how a brash young M.D. broke a taboo—touching the living heart.” In 1956 Forssman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, sharing the honor with Dr. Dickinson Richards and Dr. André Cournand, together “credited with providing a new technique for cardiology, including the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.” On accepting his award, “Dr. Richards said it was Dr. Forssmann’s ‘brilliant and courageous experiment in 1929 that showed the way” (New York Times). This first edition of Forssman’s Experiments on Myself is accompanied by the first separate edition of his Nobel Prize lecture, delivered on December 11, 1956 in Stockholm upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Cournand and Richards. Preceded by the 1972 edition in German. Translation into English by Hilary Davies. Preface by Dr. André Cournand. Text of Nobel Prize lecture in German. See Garrison & Morton 2858, 2871.

A fine copy of this fascinating biography and of Forssmann’s Nobel lecture.