In 1968 the first contacts were arranged with the publishing house of Urban & Schwarzenberg concerning the establishment of a periodical to be produced in English with the aim of publishing important scientific work in pediatric surgery and related disciplines. I thought especially of certain excellent inaugural disser tations and theses. When Urban & Schwarzenberg promised to start such a series, I recruited Peter Rickham, then in Liverpool and now in Zurich, and Jean Prevot of Nancy as executive editors. We chose the title Progress in Pediatric Surgery - Fortschritte del' Kinderchirurgie -...