The history of medicine in Central New York has national and international as well as local and regional importance. Elizabeth Blackwell, the world’s first woman physician to earn her M.D. by completing the regular course of study at an accredited medical school, received that degree in Central New York. Alumni and faculty of Upstate Medical University and its predecessor institutions have achieved greatness that has enriched medicine and society around the world since 1834. This book tells their stories.

Essays and other short works on Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, socialism, Stirner, Feuerbach, Karl Schmidt, art, religion, popular music, suicide, games, humor, and general culture.

Since the 1970s I have pursued three separate but overlapping and sometimes simultaneous careers: (1) philosopher / writer / teacher / historian of the long nineteenth century, 1789-1914; (2) editor / translator / photographer / publisher / biographer / encyclopedist; (3) cataloging librarian / rare books and special collections librarian / historian of medicine. Somehow these three vocations have garnered me some acclaim, even an entry in Who's Who in America. Each of them has resulted in some published or presented works. Because these works have been scattered in a wide variety of venues, some of which have gone out of print or have otherwise become generally unavailable - and of course with the oral presentations being gone as soon as they are given - I have thought it wise to select, epitomize, and bring them together in one place - here. Thus, what follows in these volumes is what I consider to be the most important of my shorter works. All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.