Dr. Richard Selzer, the writer and surgeon whose best-selling works have enthralled millions of literary critics and discriminating readers, returns to his boyhood in 1930s Troy, New York in this powerful memoir of medicine, dreams, and death. Down from Troy evokes the distinct character of Depression-era Troy-the sooty streets, horse-drawn hearses, saloons and brothels-and reveals how a poor boy like Selzer rose to become a professor at Yale Medical School.