Born near Lyon in 1868, he had a brilliant school and university career there. He qualified in 1893 with a thesis on difficulties of bone-growth following experimental and clinical lesions of the conjugatory cartilages. Nové-Josserand intended to enter the factories of the Creusot engineering company as an industrial surgeon, when he was appointed in 1894 chef-de-clinique to Léopold Ollier, whose pupil he had been. Three years later he was appointed chef-de-service at La Charité, Lyon. Here he rapidly established himself as one of the most original orthopaedic surgeons in Europe. While chiefly concerned with rectification of bone deformities he also devised operations for repair of congenital malformations of the urinary tract, and elaborated a pathologic classification of bone tumours. He first became widely known by his textbook *Précis d'orthopédie* published in 1906. During the war of 1914-18 he served in the French Army with the rank of colonel, and organised the first thorough rehabilitation service. Nové-Josserand was an editor of the *Revue d'Orthopédie* from 1911 to 1949, and a founder of the *Société française d'Orthopédie*. He was the first secretary-general of this society in 1918 and its president in 1922. In 1921 the chair of chirurgie infantile et orthopédie was created for him in the University of Lyon, and he particularly distinguished himself as a teacher. He was always ready to learn from other men's experience, and characteristically abandoned one of his own proudest achievements, his operation for reconstruction of the hypospastic urethra by tunnelling of the glans and dermo-epidermic graft, in favour of Ombrédanne's procedure. He greatly valued his contacts with foreign orthopaedic surgeons, especially with Lorenz at Vienna and with his English contemporaries, E M Little, T Openshaw, R C Elmslie, and A S B Bankart. He was elected president of the International Society of Orthopaedic and Traumatic Surgery at Paris in 1930, and when this society next met in London in 1933 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the College. Nové-Josserand's most valuable contributions to the advancement of his specialty were his studies of congenital luxation of the hip, congenital club-foot, infantile paralysis of the knee, progressive ossifying myositis, and spina bifida occulta. He based his work on the search for solidity, and emphasised the value of immobilization. He was a tall, lean, bearded man; silent, reserved, and dignified; simple, modest, and courteous. His judgements were weighty and sure, and his integrity unquestioned. Nové-Josserand died at Lyon after long and painful illness on 15 October 1949, aged 81.