by Ray Monk
33. ‘There is no room’. Inklings, 4 June 1918, ibid.
33. ‘he swallowed Adler’: S & W, 3
33. ‘In Flanders’ fields’: see Cassidy (2005), 60
34. ‘From conversations’: Bernstein (2004), 11
34. feelings of guilt: see the remark quoted earlier (p.26) from Royal (1969), 16
34. ‘business vulgarity’: Thorpe (2006), 27
34. ‘pronounced oedipal attitude’: ibid.
35. ‘I often felt’: Royal (1969), 22
35. The other boys: the main source for this story is Royal (1969), 21–3
35. ‘They, as it were’: ibid., 23
35. ‘I don’t know’: ibid.
35. ‘We talked as we walked’: ibid., 21
36. ‘longed to demonstrate’: Eliot (1965), 178
36. ‘It was said’; ibid., 172
36. ‘no spark’: ibid.
36. ‘From that hour’: ibid., 173
36. ‘Lydgate’s conceit’: ibid., 179
37. ‘to some extent’: Royal (1969), 22
37. ‘He was an intellectual snob’: ibid.
37. ‘bright and sensitive’: ibid., 21
37. ‘did not prepare me’: Time magazine, 8 November 1948, 70
37. ‘never heard a murmur’: B & S, 27
37. ‘the most important element’: Cassidy (2005), 20
37. The Light: see ibid. 41
37. ‘some of our dough boys’: ibid.
38. Hans and Ernest Courant and Robert Lazarus: for more on the Courants and Lazarus, see the 2005 ‘Science Issue’ of the Ethical Culture School magazine, ECF Reporter, at: http://www.ecfs.org/files/ecfreporter_winter2005.pdf, especially pages 10–12.
38. ‘It is almost forty-five years’: Royal (1969), 23
38. ‘He was so brilliant’: Time magazine, 8 November 1948, 70
38. ‘A very exciting experience’: ibid.
38. ‘We must have spent’: S & W, 4
39. his headmaster: Goodchild (1980), 12
39. had to be rescued: Royal (1969), 25
39. Cherry Grove: ibid., 24
40. ‘It was a blowy day’: B & S, 24
40. Francis Fergusson: for more on Fergusson, see the Introduction to Fergusson (1998)
40. ‘He is to this day’: S & W, 7
41. La Glorieta: see Gish (1988), especially Chapter 2
41. Franz Huning: see Huning (1973)
42. was interviewed in the 1930s: see Janet Smith’s interview with Clara Fergusson, dated 14 September 1936, at: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/20040609.html
42. Sampson Noland Ferguson: see Gish (1988), Chapter 3
43. ‘who at that time’: S & W, 7
43. ‘very, very kind’: ibid., 5
44. ‘a long prospecting trip’: ibid., 7
45. he was fond of saying: see, e.g., Pharr Davis (1969), 25
3. First Love: New Mexico
46. ‘you can’t be an outsider’: Sachs (1927), 219
46. ‘Gilbert’: ibid., 220
46. Paul Horgan: see Gish (1995)
46. Horgan would later find fame: Horgan won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes for his two-volume study of the American South-west, Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History (1954), and won the Pulitzer again in 1976 for Lamy of Santa Fe, a biography of John Baptist Lamy, the émigré French clergyman who was the model for Willa Cather’s central character in Death Comes for the Archbishop. He is also well known as the author of several critically and commercially successful novels, including The Fault of Angels (1933), A Distant Trumpet (1960) and Things as They Are (1964).
47. ‘polymaths’, ‘this pygmy triumvirate’, ‘this great troika’: S & W, 8
47. Oppenheimer startled Herbert Smith: B & S, 25
47. Smith wondered: see Cassidy (2005), 62
47. ‘someone disparaged the Jews’: ibid.
47. ‘He looked at me sharply’: S & W, 9
48. ‘The Southwest can never’: Erna Fergusson (1946), 18–19
48. ‘Such a country’: ibid., 14
48. ‘Maybe everyone’: Horgan (1942), quoted in Gish (1995), 12
48. ‘He was the most intelligent man’: S & W, 8
48. ‘exquisite manners’: ibid., 9
49. He later confided: ibid., 40
49. Manuel Chaves: see Simmons (1973)
49. Amado Chaves: see Simmons (1968)
49. pursued a career as a lawyer: see Twitchell (2007), 508–12
50. ‘all the time’: B & S, 26
50. ‘For the first time’: S & W, 10
50. ‘Lake Katherine’: the story that Oppenheimer named this lake after Katherine Page is mentioned many times in local literature (see, e.g., http://mtnviewranch-cowles.com/page_7.htm, which is a history of a ‘dude ranch’ similar to the one owned by the Chaveses). I do not know of an authoritative source for this story, but neither do I see any reason to doubt it.
51. ‘Thank God I won’: B & S, 26
51. ‘He had become less shy’: S & W, 8
4. Harvard
52. ‘The summer hotel’: Abbot Lawrence Lowell to William Earnest Hocking, 19 May 1922, quoted in Karabel (2005), 88
53. ‘WASP flight’: see Karabel (2005), 86–7
53. ‘Hebrews’: ibid., 90
53. a faculty meeting on 23 May 1922: ibid.
53. ‘take into account’: ibid.
53. ‘a radical departure’: ibid., 92
53. ‘to consider principles’: ibid., 93
53. ‘the primary object’: ibid.
53. an illuminating exchange: see Raphael (1993), 292–7
54. ‘and other eminent Jews’: ibid., 293
54. ‘Students of the Jewish faith’: ibid., 293–4
54. ‘a rapidly growing anti-Semitic feeling’: ibid., 294
54. ‘Carrying your suggestion’: ibid., 296
54. ‘We want’: ibid., 297
54. ‘To be an American’: Feingold (1995), 17
55. the dean’s office: see Karabel (2005), 94
55. Starting in the autumn of 1922: ibid.
55. ‘What change’: ibid.
55. ‘religious preference’: ibid.
55. On 7 April 1923: ibid., 100
55. ‘far removed’: ibid., 95
55. ‘no departure’: ibid., 101
55. 25 per cent: ibid., 105
55. ‘They are . . . going’: ibid., 109
56. ‘not a negligible fact’: Palevsky (2000), 103
56. ‘Shylock’: S & W, 13
56. ‘misanthropy’: ibid., 31
56. ‘the benign Lowell’: ibid., 13
56. ‘Harvard has so far’: ibid.
57. ‘I wanted not to be involved’: Thorpe (2006), 30
57. ‘a little bit possessive’: ibid., 32
57. ‘a sort of feeling’: ibid., 33
57. Black introduced him: see ibid., 31, and Cassidy (2005), 71
57. John Edsall: for more on Edsall’s life and work, see Doty (2005) and Edsall (2003)
58. The Gad-Fly: see Cassidy (2005), 72
58. ‘to sting people’: Plato, Apology, section 30e
58. ‘Among the collegiate herd’: Cassidy (2005), 72
58. ‘I don’t know’: ibid.
58. ‘assinine pomposity’: S & W, 15
58. He has recalled: ibid., 33
59. ‘a little bit precious’: Thorpe (2006), 34
59. ‘I was very fond of music’: S & W, 33–4
59. ‘You’re the only physicist’: ibid., 34
59. ‘Category Phoenix’: Ellanby (1952)
59. ‘Chain Reaction’: Ellanby (1956)
59. Races and People: Boyd and Asimov (1955)
59. Boyd and Asimov argued: ibid., Chapter 2
59. ‘the closest friends’: S & W, 45
60. later letters to Horgan: see, e.g., ibid., 40–41
60. Prescott Street: ibid., 12
60. doubtful that he ever met Fergusson: ibid., 44
60. ‘Boyd, as you charit
ably predicted’: ibid., 57
61. ‘seen something of Robert’: ibid., 16
61. ‘a little science club’: ibid.
61. ‘get professors’: ibid.
61. ‘an aberrant Cambridge Puritan’: ibid.
62. In his first year: ibid., 14
62. ‘a wonderful man’: ibid.
62. ‘quiet futility’: ibid., 15
62. ‘is not an educational institution’: Cassidy (2005), 74–5
63. he applied twice: see S & W, 15
63. but was rejected: ibid., 57
63. ‘I contend’: Karabel (2005), 121
63. ‘bookworms’: ibid.
63. ‘fondness of’: ibid.
63. a formula: ibid.
64. ‘I am again’: S & W, 18
64. ‘a disgusting and doddering syphilitic’: ibid., 19
64. ‘I shall send you my story’: ibid., 20
64. ‘received another inspiration’: ibid., 24
64. ‘Here are the masterpieces’: ibid., 25
65. ‘imitation of Katherine Mansfield’: ibid., 27
65. ‘artificiality of emotional situation’: ibid.
65. ‘conscious’: ibid.
65. ‘I should not have the hardihood’: ibid.
65. ‘nothing but admiration’: ibid., 52
65. ‘I am overwhelmed’: ibid., 55
65. ‘skill with people’: ibid.
66. ‘I find it hard to swallow’: ibid., 56
66. ‘I suppose’: ibid.
66. ‘I find these awful people’: ibid., 57
67. ‘the whole tone’: Bernstein (2004), 16
67. ‘Scandal’: Cather (1920), 169–98
68. ‘While he was still’: ibid., 186–7
68. ‘His business associates’: ibid., 187
68. ‘that used to belong’: ibid., 191
68. ‘She and I are in the same boat’: ibid., 198
69. a huge biography: Horgan (1976)
69. ‘Willa Cather’s Incalculable Distance’: Horgan (1988), 79–92
69. ‘a true artist of prose’: ibid., 90
69. ‘Doesn’t A Lost Lady remind you’: S & W, 51
69. ‘represents civilization in the West’: Randall (1960), 176
69. ‘The Old West’: Cather (1923)
70. ‘scintillated more’: S & W, 22
70. ‘Are you again’: ibid., 19
70. ‘insanely jealous’: ibid., 22
71. ‘But oh, beloved’: ibid., 32
71. ‘Please’: ibid., 33
71. ‘hear about your adventures’: ibid., 67
71. ‘the classic confectionery’: ibid.
71. remarked many years later: ibid., 68
71. ‘similarly satisfying’: ibid., 32
71. ‘searched the plant’: ibid.
72. ‘Only one wretch’: ibid., 32–3
72. ‘The job and people’: ibid., 33
72. ‘Paul [Horgan] has been with me’: ibid., 35
72. ‘It was my first taste’: ibid., 34
72. He recalls: ibid., 36
72. ‘And toward the end’: ibid., 38
73. Horgan himself: ibid., 37
73. Boyd was impressed: see ibid., 34 and 37
73. Bernheim, on the other hand: ibid.
73. ‘. . . we would go out’: ibid., 36–7
73. ‘salt-encrusted’: ibid., 28
73. ‘But really, maestro’: ibid., 35
73. ‘more elementary’: Jeans (1908), v
73. ‘The present book’: ibid.
74. ‘what I liked in chemistry’: S & W, 45
74. ‘I can’t emphasise strongly enough’: ibid., 45–6
74. wrote to Edwin C. Kemble: ibid., 28–9
75. ‘partial list’: ibid., 29
75. his inaugural lecture: Lewis (1914)
76. ‘any man’: ibid., 6
76. ‘Mr Oppenheimer’: S & W, 29
76. ‘Years later’: ibid.
76. ‘the textbook bible’: Kevles (1995), 160
77. a telegram: see S & W, 39
77. a great variety of courses: see ibid., 45
78. ‘I’m sorry to contradict you’: various versions of this story have appeared in print over the years, beginning with that in Time magazine, 8 November 1948, 71, and continuing with: Royal (1969), 29–30, Michelmore (1969), 13, Goodchild (1980), 16, and B & S, 34. My version combines the Royal and Time accounts. The various versions are all substantially the same, except that, in the Michelmore/Goodchild accounts, Oppenheimer places the temple ‘fifty, a hundred years earlier’. Oppenheimer’s view that the temple was built before 400 bc receives some support from modern scholarship, which dates it to 430–420 bc (see Cerchiai et al. [2004], 276).
78. Jeffries Wyman: for more on Wyman’s life and work, see Alberty et al. (2003), Gill (1987) and Simoni et al. (2002)
78. ‘Francis was full of talk’: see Thorpe (2006), 29
78. ‘Jeffries too’: S & W, 39
79. ‘was a little precious’: ibid.
79. as Boyd had: see ibid., 33–4, where Boyd is quoted as saying that the chief thing he and Oppenheimer did not have in common was a love of music; while Boyd was ‘very fond of music’, he considered Oppenheimer to be ‘totally amusical’.
79. ‘completely blind’: ibid., 39
79. ‘found social adjustment very difficult’: ibid., 61
79. ‘We were good friends’: ibid.
79. ‘He wasn’t a comfortable person’: ibid., 44
79. ‘he was pretty careful’: ibid., 45
79. he later said: Time magazine, 8 November 1948, 71
80. ‘I am working very hard now’: S & W, 51
80. ‘Generously, you ask what I do’: ibid., 54
80. ‘The whole tone’: Bernstein (2004), 16 – see also page 67 above
80. ‘We were all too much in love’: S & W, 60
80. ‘ravishing creature’: ibid., 69
80. have dinner at Locke-Ober’s: Michelmore (1969), 15
80. Boyd also remembers: S & W, 60–1
81. And bernheim recalls: ibid.
81. trips to Cape Ann: ibid., 25
81. ‘ramshackle cottage’: ibid., 24
81. ‘mythological landscape’: ibid., 25
81. ‘Even in the last stages’: ibid., 60
81. ‘For me’: ibid., 62
81. Oppenheimer discovered: ibid., 65
81. ‘I cannot decide’: ibid., 67
81. ‘I am taking a course’: ibid.
82. ‘It is almost forty years ago’: ibid., 71
82. In addition: for a list of courses Oppenheimer took during his final year, see ibid., 68
82. George Birkhoff: for a brief account of Birkhoff’s life and work, see Dool (2003)
82. ‘because he’d been working on it’: S & W, 69
82. ‘one of the world’s greatest academic anti-Semites’: see Siegmund-Schultze (2009), 225
83. ‘He is Jewish’: Thorpe (2006), 35
83. ‘I found Bridgman’: S & W, 69
83. ‘a certificate’: ibid., 70
83. he wrote to Francis Fergusson: ibid., 72–3
83. ‘frantic, bad and graded A’: ibid., 70
83. two Bs: ibid., 73–4
83. ‘got plastered’: ibid., 74
5. Cambridge
84. ‘You will tell me’: S & W, 73
84. ‘your ability’: ibid., 86
84. ‘sailing and recuperating’: ibid., 73
84. ‘to see about laboratory facilities’: ibid., 79
85. ‘The Parents’: ibid., 80
85. ‘immense, huge, pounding rain’: ibid., 81
85. ‘near the centre’: ibid., 75
85. Rutherford: for more on Rutherford’s life, see Eve (1939), Birks (1962), Wilson (1983) and Campbell (1999). For a shorter summary account, see Cropper (2001), Chapter 21. For the original expression of Rutherford’s planetary model of the atom, see Rutherford (1911). Popular accounts of that model are available in Bizony (
2007), Part Two, Gamow (1965), ‘Chap. 10½’, Gamow (1985), Chapter II, Gamow (1988), Chapter VII, and Gribbin (1984), Chapter 2.
85. the Cavendish Laboratory: see Crowther (1974), Larsen (1962) and Thomson (1964)
86. J.J. Thomson: see Thomson (1964a and 1964b)
86. in 1897 he discovered: see Thomson (1897)
86. Niels Bohr: for Bohr’s life and work, see Moore (1967), Pais (1991) and Rozental (1967)
86. the ‘Rutherford–Bohr model’: first put forward in Bohr (1913), reprinted in Bohr (1981). Many popularisations of this model have appeared in print over the last hundred years or so. Among the ones I have consulted are: Bizony (2007), Part Two, Gamow (1965), ‘Chap. 10½’, Gamow (1985), Chapter II, Gamow (1988), Chapter VII, Gribbin (1984), Chapter 4, Hoffmann (1959), Chapter V, and Kumar (2009), Chapter 3. Technically more sophisticated accounts can be found in Mills (1994), Chapter 12, and Treiman (1999), Chapter 3.
87. the ‘Bohr–Sommerfeld model’: for an accessible account of this, see Kumar (2009), 112–15
88. ‘that brief excursion’: FF to JRO, 25.4.1925, S & W, 73
88. ‘perfectly prodigious’: ibid., 77
89. ‘excellent applicants’: see JRO to PWB, 29.8.1925, ibid., 82
89. Antarctic Adventure: Priestley (1914)
89. Breaking the Hindenburg Line: Priestley (1919)
89. ‘should like to be admitted’: JRO to REP, 30.8.1925, S & W, 82–3
89. ‘as soon as it seems advisable’: JRO to REP, 16.9.1925, ibid., 84–5
90. ‘knows everyone at Oxford’: JRO to HWS, 11.12.1925, ibid., 90
90. meetings at Pontigny: see Smith (2000), 100–1
90. ‘To be invited to Pontigny’: ibid., 101
90. ‘rather Russian account’: S & W, 86
91. ‘I do not think’: JRO to FF, 1.11.1925, ibid.
91. ‘some terrible complications’: JRO to FF, 15.11.1925, ibid., 88
92. ‘The Two Cultures’: Snow (1959)
92. Sir Arthur Shipley: see the obituary in the British Medical Journal, 1 October 1927, 615
92. ‘miserable hole’: JRO, interview with TSK, 18.11.1963, S & W, 89
92. ‘I am having a pretty bad time’: JRO to FF, 1.11.1925, ibid., 87
92. a curious document: see B & S, 41 and 44–5. The document is now in the Sherwin Collection, attached to an interview with FF by AKS, dated 21 April 1976.
93. ‘was completely at a loss’: FF in interview with MJS, 18.6.1979, quoted B & S, 41 and 47
93. ‘seemed more self-confident’: ibid., 41
93. ‘first class case of depression’: ibid., 44
93. ‘He found himself’: ibid.
93. ‘Fortunately’: ibid.
93. ‘tried to put them together’: ibid., 45