Jacques W. Maliniac was born in Warsaw in 1889. He completed his medical education at the University of Paris in 1914. At that time, plastic surgery was a technique used especially for injuries from wars or accidents. While working in New York in 1925, Maliniac helped establish the plastic surgery department for the first time in a public hospital. Together with Gustave Aufricht, they argued that plastic surgery should also be used for aesthetic reasons. Both surgeons were Jewish and, noticing the rising antisemitism in Europe, they decided to stay in New York. They founded the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons with like-minded experts in plastic surgery. These efforts led to the transformation of plastic surgery into a commercial sector. During his career, he worked at Sydenham Hospital, Jewish Memorial Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital and St. Peter’s Hospital.
Maliniac was a prolific surgeon. He not only wrote about his professional experiences, but also pioneered the conceptual construction of plastic surgery. At the same time, he made polemics with his colleagues about the direction of the communities they formed.
In his article, Is the Surgical Restoration of the Aged Face Justified? (1932), he mentioned that women in business lose their position as they age and that plastic surgery may be the solution. In The War Organization of Plastic Surgery he wrote in 1943, he said that hospitals should be prepared for plastic surgery immediately for wounded souldiers. In his article The Plastic Surgeon and Crime (1935), he emphasized that the records of people who performed plastic surgery should be kept by the police, giving the notorious criminal John Dillinger as an example.
This collection contains reprinted articles written by Maliniac in different periods. We understand from his introduction that he decided to compile this compilation in 1938. But even then, he didn’t have all the articles he had written. And he added the articles he wrote after 1938 to this compilation.