Rosalind Franklin

by Brenda Maddox

  ‘I guess’: ‘Why Pauling didn’t solve the structure of DNA’, Jim Lake, letter to Nature, I Feb. 2001, Vol. 409.

  ‘the A form of the molecule was not helical’: Wilson, TIBS 13, 7, p. 277.

  ‘Here’s the Dean’: Author’s interview with Geoffrey and Angela Brown, 10 Feb. 2000.

  ‘Since the door was already’: Watson, op. cit., p. 95.

  ‘not in the least’: Carlisle, op. cit., p. 40.

  ‘I was more aware’: Watson, op. cit., p. 96.

  ‘She nearly terrified’: author’s interview with Sir John Cadogan.

  ‘She complained to a friend’: author’s interview with Dr Simon Altmann, 19 Jan. 1999; letters to author 23 Jun. 2000 and 4 and 5 Mar. 2001. Because Altmann returned to Argentina between early 1952 and the spring of 1953, he cannot place the date when she told him of her suspicions that someone had gone through her desk.

  ‘they should have protected her’: ibid.

  ‘three papers’: LP to PP, 10 Mar. 1953, PA.

  ‘relatively free’: R. Franklin and R. Gosling, ‘Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate’, pp. 740-1; Watson, op. cit., p. 254.

  ‘she had made a similar lunge’: J.D. Watson, ibid., p. 96.

  ‘She’s got a very good B’: author’s interview with MW.

  ‘Maurice had a perfect right’: author’s interview with RG; also F.H.C. Crick letter to author, 12 Apr. 2000: ‘It seems to me Maurice did nothing wrong in showing the photo to Jim.’

  ‘The instant I saw’: Watson, op. cit., p. 98.

  ‘Francis would have to agree’: ibid., p. 99.

  ‘According to Crick’: Judson, op. cit., p. 167.

  ‘We missed out’: author’s interview with H.R. Wilson, 17 Aug. 2000.

  ‘Why not’: F.H.C. Crick, What Mad Pursuit?, p. 70.

  ‘I will tell you all’: Olby, op. cit., p. 401, based on MW to FHCC 1953.

  ‘I was inexperienced’: M. Perutz, letter to Science, 27 Jun. 1969, pp. 1537-58, reprinted in Watson, op. cit., p. 209. Perutz’s large archive of gathered evidence that the report was not confidential is in the JNC. It shows how stung Perutz, a highly ethical man, was by the charge.

  ‘RF Notes for Feb. 23 1953’: CAC.

  ‘The nucleic acids’: L. Pauling and R. Corey, ‘A Proposed Structure for the Nucleic Acids’, pp. 84-97.

  ‘tight squeeze’: LP to PP, 18 or 19 Feb. 1953, PA.

  ‘enol was out’: Jerry Donohue to Judson, 5 Mar. 1976, HFJA.

  ‘Nearly home’: A. Klug in Judson, op. cit., pp. 172-3.

  ‘Base interchangeability’: A. Klug, ‘Rosalind Franklin and the Discovery of the Structure of DNA’, pp. 808-10, 843-4, reprinted in Watson, op. cit., p. 157.

  ‘It is easy to feel’: Judson, op. cit., p. 172.

  ‘Francis winged’: Watson, op. cit., p. I15.

  ‘Let’s face it’: J. Donohue to Judson, 5 Mar. 1976, HFJA.

  ‘Morris Wilkins’: PP to LP, 14 Mar. 1953 , PA.

  ‘I think you will be interested’: MW to FHCC, ‘Saturday’, 7 Mar. 1953, in Olby, op. cit., p. 414.

  ‘I felt the model as such was their work’: Callander, p. 16.

  ‘I told everybody’: author’s conversation with MW.

  ‘I’m not wanted’: JC interview with Freda Ticehurst Collier, 31 May 1985.

  THIRTEEN Escaping Notice

  ‘‘The model was so beautiful’: author’s conversation with JDW, 5 Jan. 2002.

  ‘of not working’: Olby, op. cit., p. 368.

  ‘I think you’re a couple’: MW to FHCC, 18 Mar. 1953, in Olby, op. cit., pp. 417-18.

  ‘being a trifle awkward’: ibid.

  ‘we rather stopped him’: ibid.

  ‘like a scalded rat’: JC interview with W.R Seeds, 4 Jun. 1985.

  ‘quite upset’: JC interview with RG, 24 Jun. 1985.

  ‘everyone’: JC interview with Anthony and Margaret North, 11 Apr. 1985.

  ‘Had it’: Jerry Donohue to AS, 19 Dec. 1975, ASA.

  ‘Get writing!’: author’s interview with RG.

  ‘cabled’: Bruce Fraser to author, 10 Feb. 2000.

  ‘in the press’: J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick, ‘A Structure for Deoxyribonucleic Acid’, pp. 737-8; Watson, op. cit., pp. 237-41. Crick thought Fraser’s model ‘feeble’, FHCC to author, 9 Jan. 2002.

  ‘the following communications’: Watson and Crick, op. cit.

  ‘obvious’: FHCC to author, 16 Dec. 2001; HFJ on MP to author, 16 Dec. 2001, and RG to author, 30 Dec. 2001.

  ‘Delete very beautiful’: MW to FHCC, 18 Mar. 1953, in Olby, op. cit., p. 418.

  ‘Thus our general ideas’: R. Franklin and R. Gosling, ‘Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate’, pp. 740-1; Watson, op. cit., p. 256.

  ‘It has not escaped’: J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick, ‘A Structure for Deoxyribonucleic Acid’, p. 737.

  ‘Where’s Rosalind?’: author’s interview with Freda Ticehurst Collier, 14 Dec. 1999.

  ‘You will no doubt’: JTR to RF, 17 Apr. 1953, CAC.

  ‘Science differs’: W. Gratzer, The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdote.

  FOURTEEN The Acid Next Door ‘to get her assistance’: JDB to A. Tattersall, 1953, FRNK 2/31, CAC.

  ‘in the principles of the arts’: R. Furth, ‘The Physics Department of Birkbeck College’, p. 150.

  ‘discourses on the Cretan Renaissance’: C.P. Snow, The Search, Part III, Chapter II, pp. 180-1.

  ‘eulogised Stalin’: B. Swann and F. Aprahamian, J.D. Bernal, p. 151.

  ‘It took over the’: Carlisle, op. cit., p. 20; also Furth, op. cit., p. 153.

  ‘becoming unbalanced’: J.F. Lockwood to JDB, Sep. 7 1954.

  ‘Who Have Not’: author’s interview with Dr Wolfie Traub, 20 Jul. 1999. I am indebted to Traub for this anecdote, confirmed in an e-mail to author, 26 Jul. 1999.

  ‘one of his recruits’: author’s interview with Dr John Mason, 22 Oct. 2001.

  ‘to get her assistance’: JDB to A. Tattersall, 1953, FRNK 2/31, CAC.

  ‘Randall’s ban’: JTR to RF, 17 Apr. 1953, FRNK 13, CAC.

  ‘I am deeply’: R. Gosling, ‘Abstract of Thesis submitted by R.G. Gosling for the PhD Examination’.

  ‘the perfect front’: Watson, op. cit., p. 67.

  ‘because if ‘: FHCC to RF, 5 Jun. 1953, CAC.

  ‘over my head’: Jacob, op. cit., p. 265.

  ‘baloney as well’: G. Stent to author, 27 Jan. 2000.

  ‘un-twiddle-ase’: JC interview with RG, 24 Jun. 1985.

  ‘I’m Watson’: this ditty, ‘Up the Krick with Watson’ by E.S. Anderson, curiously spells Crick as ‘Krick’, a nicety inaudible to the audience at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium in 1953, HFJA.

  ‘And they’re neutered’: author’s interview with Dr June Goodfield, 29 Feb. 2001.

  ‘He did not know what ‘‘helical’’ meant’: S. Furberg to Judson, 16 Mar. 1976, HFJA.

  ‘an almost simultaneous’: J.D. Bernal, ‘The Material Theory of Life’, p. 325.

  ‘She makes my clock work’: Piper, op. cit., p. 153.

  ‘I find it hard’: RF to MF, 8 Aug. 1953.

  ‘be tempted’: RF to MF, 21 Aug. 1953.

  ‘I can sympathise’: RF to parents, I Sep. 1953.

  ‘I think it shook’: Irene Neuner to Anne Sayre, 22 Jan. 1974, ASA.

  ‘The only ‘‘restaurant’’ ‘: RF to parents, 1953.

  ‘I had been more than adequately’: RF to MF, 21 Aug. 1953.

  ‘Ros wouldn’t know’: author’s interview with UR, 20 Jan. 1999.

  ‘why had she never married’: Neuner to Anne Sayre, 22 Jan. 1974, ASA.

  ‘wonderful’: RF to parents, 9 Sep. 1953.

  ‘one of the cameras’: JDB to JTR, 18 Oct. 1953, CAC.

  ‘We do in fact’: JTR to RF, 4 Nov. 1953, CAC.

  ‘the tobacco mosaic virus’: See Phil. Trans. Royal Society, Mar. 1999, p. 521. The entire issue is devoted to the tobacco mosaic virus.

  ‘getting a virus’: informat
ion from P. Butler and A. Klug, ‘The Assembly of a Virus’.

  ‘the way to DNA’: Watson, op. cit., p. 75.

  ‘For myself ‘: RF to AS and David Sayre, 17 Dec. 1953, ASA.

  ‘Rosy’s Parlour’: the programme did not spare Randall either, ‘If you have enjoyed your dinner, spare a copper for St Paul, Friends of St Paul’s, The Deanery, St Paul’s, EC4.’

  FIFTEEN O My America

  ‘The Gordon organisers’: FHCC to RF, 29 Apr. 1954, FRNK, 2/33, CAC.

  ‘Since leaving’: RF to LP, 1954, PA.

  ‘similar work’: RF to Prof. Pollard. 13 Apr. 1954, CAC.

  ‘There is considerable objection’: A.C. Fieldner to J.W. Garland, 24 Feb. 1954, CAC.

  ‘One would see’: Martyn Pease to author, 6 Mar. 2000.

  ‘Julian Alps’: Dusan Hazi to author, 2 Nov. 1999.

  ‘Stopped one hour’: RF to MF, ‘Prestwick, Saturday 2 a.m.’, 1954.

  ‘of America as having trees’: RF to CF and Charlotte Franklin, 1954.

  ‘actually a University’: RF to MF, 31 Aug. 1954.

  ‘if she should tip’: author’s interview with Alex and Jane Rich, 17 Apr. 1999.

  ‘a family of summer residents’: Barbara Little to author, 24 May 2000.

  ‘the bemused look of an English poet’: J.D. Watson, Genes, Girls and Gamow, p. 88.

  ‘that she had been judged’: ibid., pp. 94-5.

  ‘which I was beginning’: RF to CF and Charlotte Franklin, 31 Aug. 1954.

  ‘uncivilised and rude’: RF to MF, 14 Sep. 1954.

  ‘I’m also astonished’: RF to CF and Charlotte Franklin, 31 Aug. 1954.

  ‘Here, apart from hurricanes’: ibid.

  ‘My lab visits’: RF to MF, 15 Sep. 1954.

  ‘Pittsburg is as black’: RF to MF, ‘State College’, 14 Sep. 1954.

  ‘a comedy’: RF to MF 24 Sep. 1954.

  ‘The front door’: RF to MF, Wisconsin, postmark 23 Sep. Chicago, 1954.

  ‘In their museums’: RF to MF, 14 Sep. 1954.

  ‘the Indians as a tourist attraction’: RF to parents, Sep. 1954.

  ‘The oldest influence’: RF to MF, 3 Oct. 1954.

  ‘about 25 miles’: RF to parents, re: Pasadena.

  ‘A less successful outing’: Sydney Brenner to author, 24 Jan. 2000.

  ‘the first unfriendly’: RF to parents.

  ‘Watson and I’: F.H.C. Crick, ‘The Structure of the Hereditary Material’. Another very subdued acknowledgement to her crucial part in the great discovery appeared in the Watson-Crick article in mid-1954 in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy.

  ‘the pleasantest possible memories’: RF to LP, 19 Oct. 1954, PA.

  SIXTEEN New Friends, New Enemies

  ‘She needed a collaborator’: Judson, op. cit., p. 172.

  ‘old cronies’: Jacob, op. cit., p. 262.

  ‘No one could match’: Watson, The Double Helix, p. 72.

  ‘As you probably expected’: N.W. Pirie to RF, 6 Dec. 1954, FRNK 2/33, CAC.

  ‘Many thanks’: RF to N.W. Pirie, 7 Dec. 1954, FRNK 2/33, CAC.

  ‘There not being an ultracentrifuge’: RF to Barry Commoner, 4 Mar. 1955, FRNK 2/33, CAC.

  ‘Facts are facts’: author’s conversation with DC, 6 Dec. 1999.

  ‘registered for a PhD degree’: Carlisle, op. cit., p. 36; RF to KCH, 6 Jun. 1955, JNC.

  ‘It takes imagination’: AS interview with AK, and speech at St Paul’s: ‘She worked beautifully’: Heather Brigstocke, ‘Report by the High Mistress at Prizegiving’, 27 Sep. 1983, Paulina, 1983.

  ‘would have gone’: JC interview with KCH, 23 Jun. 1985.

  ‘We want to make’: author’s interviews with KCH, 24 Jan. 2000 and 30 Oct. 2001.

  ‘C’est un endroit’: VL interview with author, 26 Oct. 1998.

  ‘She questioned his intellectual abilities’: author’s interview with Bryon Wilson, 8 Feb. 1999.

  ‘We never looked back’: author’s interview with Stan Lenton, 13 Jul. 1999.

  ‘if he might work with her’: DC to RF, 9 Apr. 1955, FRNK 2/33, CAC.

  ‘if that doesn’t put you off ‘: RF to DC, 19 May 1955, CAC.

  ‘and she turned out’: DC to author, 6 Dec. 1999.

  ‘Hey, Ros!’: KCH to author, email, 5 Aug. 2001.

  ‘She didn’t seem to know’: Evi Wolgemuth to author, 11 Jan. 1999.

  ‘She was a good aunt’: author’s interview with AK, 9 May 2000.

  ‘girl of eighteen’: W.G. Alexander to JDB, 2 May 1956, ARC archive/Cox.

  ‘a rather concentrated solution’: RF to Dr P. Kaesberg, 18 Jul. 1955, FRNK 2/33, CAC.

  ‘Crick suggested’: FHCC to RF, 3 Jun. 1955, FRNK 2/33, CAC.

  ‘I’ve had a long talk’: JDW to RF, 22 Jul. 1955, FRNK 2/33, CAC.

  ‘cut back’: A.J. Caraffi to RF, 15 Dec., 1955, FRNK, CAC.

  ‘My age is 35’: RF to JDB, 25 Jul. 1955, Birkbeck College Crystallography Laboratory, CAC.

  ‘her annual salary’: A.J. Caraffi to RF, 15 Dec. 1955, CAC.

  ‘Slater refused’: see RF’s ‘Notes on meeting with Slater’, 29 Sep. 1955, CAC.

  ‘exceptionally distinguished’: Glynn, op. cit., p. 267.

  ‘Presumably somebody’: RF’s notes on meeting with Sir William Slater, 29 Sep. 1955, CAC.

  ‘we must remain dependent’: R. Franklin, ‘Progress Report of the Agricultural Research Council group in Birkbeck Crystallography Laboratory, for the year 1955 (accompanying application for renewal of grant)’, FRNK 2/36, CAC.

  ‘his position is such’: ibid.

  ‘Meeting Rosalind’: author’s interview with Dan Jacobson, 16 Aug. 2000.

  ‘tea party’: Prof. Dr D. Grdenic to AS, 11 May 1970.

  ‘even capable’: Fred Dainton to AS, 8 Nov. 1976, ASA.

  ‘The wives’: The Ciba Foundation programme for symposium on ‘The Biophysics and Biochemistry of Viruses’, 26-28 Mar. 1956, Novartis Foundation.

  ‘As I have never been’: RF to AW, 25 Feb. 1956, ASA.

  ‘But, did anyone’: author’s interview with FHCC and Odile Crick, 22 Apr. 1999.

  ‘is concerned with’: R. Franklin, ‘Note on the Future of the ARC Research Group in Birkbeck College Crystallography Laboratory’, 9 Mar. 1956, CAC.

  SEVENTEEN Postponed Departure

  ‘Newcastle supplier’: RF to R.H. Joyce, 29 May 1956, JNC.

  ‘Her work’: JDB to Sir William Slater, 18 Apr. 1956, FRNK 2/31, CAC.

  ‘a table with a copious’: RF to MF, 16 Jun. 1956.

  ‘an abnormal patch’: RF to MF, 24 Jun. 1956.

  ‘but on an American scale’: ibid.

  ‘by quite a large amount’: RF to MF, 24 Jun. 1956.

  ‘However, as it’s better’: RF to AK, 21 Jun. 1956, JNC.

  ‘Don is injecting’: RF to AK, 25 Jun. 1956, JNC.

  ‘His young staff’: WLB to RF, 26 Jun. 1956, JNC.

  ‘The quality and quantity’: RF to MF, 15 Jul. 1956.

  ‘Eh wot?’: author’s conversation with William Ginoza, 5 Mar. 2001.

  ‘The answer’: Betty Siegel to author, 9 Aug. 2001.

  ‘a very brilliant ex-Italian’: RF to parents, 15 Jul. 1956. This and subsequent details of the mountain trip from the same letter.

  ‘sharp pains’: AS to GCD, 23 Jun. 1976; also author’s interview with Mair Livingstone, 15 Feb. 1999.

  ‘or alternatively on bribing’: RF to parents, 26 Jul. 1956.

  ‘As on my last trip’: ibid.

  ‘Rosalind used to glow’: Ethel Tessman to AS, I Jan. 1976, ASA.

  ‘I’m going to see Don’: RF to AK, 5 Aug. 1956, JNC.

  ‘friend from the East’: RF to MF, 9 Aug. 1956.

  ‘Then, in spite of everything’: ibid.

  ‘chaste’: author’s interview with DC, 19 Dec. 1999.

  ‘might have loved’: Sayre, op. cit., p. 184.

  ‘a delightful man’: AS, two-page letter to John Simmons, archivist of All Souls College, Oxford; post-publication correspondence, ASA.r />
  ‘Most telling for me’: Irwin Tessman to author, 19 Dec. 1999.

  ‘I’ve been waiting twenty years’: author’s interview with Dr June Goodfield, 27 Feb. 2001. ‘very good looking’: Caroline Carlson to author, 4 May 2000.

  ‘You’re not pregnant?’: author’s interview with Dr Mair Livingstone, 15 Feb. 1999.

  ‘there is no reason’: Dr Linken to Mr Norman Morris, 30 Aug. 1956, UCH.

  ‘URGENT’: W.C.W. Nixon, UCH Case No. AD 1651.

  ‘treatment with ribonuclease’: RF to Wendell Stanley, 30 Aug. 1956, JNC.

  ‘a large proportion’: RF to Dr Pomerat of Rockefeller Foundation, 31 Aug. 1956, JNC.

  ‘the findings are most unfortunate’: Prof. W.C.W. Nixon to Dr Linken, 5 Sep. 1956, UCH Case No. AD 1651.

  ‘size of a croquet ball’: Prof. Nixon, UCH notes for Miss Rosalind Franklyn [sic], ‘Right oophorectomy and left ovarian cystectomy’, Case No. AD 1651, 4 Sep. 1956.

  EIGHTEEN Private Health, Public Health

  ‘second operation’: Prof. Nixon to Dr Linken, 3 Oct. 1956; also Histology report, 3 Oct. 1956, UCH Case No. AD 1651.

  ‘agitated’: AS notes following Jacques Mering interview, 28 May 1970, ASA.

  ‘much in love with Mering’: AS to Einar Flint, May/Jun. 1970, ASA.

  ‘a truly immense’: ibid.

  ‘Use my flat’: Kerlogue, op. cit.

  ‘everything is going very well’: RF to AS, postmarked 25 Oct. 1956, ASA.

  ‘I think it is my bedtime’: M. Franklin, op. cit., p. 20.

  ‘female’ and ‘I’m afraid’: Boston University Prof. I. Dorothy Raacke, Biological Science Center, to AS, 22 Jan. 1976, ASA.

  ‘Reactions’: RF to AS, 18 Mar. 1957, ASA.

  ‘emotional and confused’: RF to AS, 8 Oct. 1957, ASA.

  ‘I have heard’: JDW to AK, 13 Nov. 1956, JNC.

  ‘Please give Dr Klug’: MW to Biophysics Research Unit, 22 Nov. 1956, JNC.

  ‘Recent work has shown’: R. Franklin, ‘Application for Research Grant E-1772, Department of Health, Education and Welfare’, p. 3, JNC.

  ‘The thing that impressed’: RF to AS, 18 Mar. 1957, ASA.

  ‘Dear Sage’: Lord Rothschild to JDB, 25 Mar. 1957, ARC 253/57 Council Minutes, 19 Mar. 1957.

  ‘I feel in the long run’: FHCC to AK, 14 Dec. 1956, JNC.

  ‘Rosalind is well’: AK to Dr P. Newmark, University of Kansas, 27 Feb. 1957, JNC.

  ‘the final year’: W.C. Alexander to JDB, 17 Apr. 1957, ARC 177/57.