COAptowicz

Hey Cristin, it's you, Cristin! It feels weird there being no questions. Do you if I ask you a question just so there is one question? And maybe it will encourage other people to ask questions?

Oh man, Cristin. ABSOLUTELY. Ask away! What's your question?

Great question, Cristin! And the answer is YES! I was hoping someone would ask that, so it's like YOU READ MY MIND!

Here are four excerpts from the book:

Here is an excerpt about a cleft palate surgery Mütter performed on a patient while he was still awake:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/dr-mutter-surgery-was-dangerous-and-horrifically-painful-ordeal-180952580/?no-ist

Here is an excerpt about 19th century discover of anesthesia that was published in THE ATLANTIC: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/dr-mutters-marvels/378688/

Here is a excerpt about Mütter's earliest introductions to the burgeoning field of plastic surgery which ran on BoingBoing: http://boingboing.net/2014/09/04/dr-mutters-marvels-intrig.html

And here's an excerpt about insane mid-19th century Philadelphia was which ran on io9: http://io9.com/a-grisly-but-fascinating-tale-of-the-greatest-medical-r-1631123214

Okay, here's my question: if some one wanted to get a sense of what this book is like so they COULD ask you questions about it, are there any excerpts available online they could read?

Mütter's entire family died when he was seven years old, and though he was married, their union produced no children. I think his lack of family was one of the reasons his life story has been lost for so long.

But both the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and Thomas Jefferson University (which is the current incarnation of Jefferson Medical College, where Mütter taught for 15 years) are a big part of Mütter's legacy. I am so grateful to both of them for opening their doors to me & this project, and giving me full access to their complete archives and libraries, and allowing me to use all the images I requested for the book! INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE support!

I hope I have made them proud with this book! I held my book release party at the The Mütter Museum, which has a cabinet in their main museum dedicated to my research (I wrote all the text, selected all the specimens, and their generously included my bio in the signage!), and Jefferson is hosting an alumni-only celebration of the book this Thursday, two days after head archivist F. Michael Angelo joins me on stage to converse about the book for our Free Library Author Event!

As Philly, I couldn't be more pleased!

Thanks for your questions, Ian! (And for being a badass poet too!)