Linus Pauling’s documents Clifford Mead - Linus Pauling: Scientist And Peacemaker

Photograph by Phil Stern

edited by Clifford Mead Thomas Hager

Oregon State University Press Corvallis

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources and the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pauling, Linus, 1901-1994

Linus Pauling : scientist and peacemaker / edited by Cliff Mead, Thomas Hager.1st ed. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-87071-489-9 (alk. paper)

1. Pauling, Linus, 1901-2. ScienceHistory. 3. ScientistsUnited StatesBiography. I. Mead, Clifford. II. Hager, Thomas. III. Title.

Q143.P25 A3 2001 540'.92dc21 00-011894

2001 Oregon State University Special Collections All rights reserved. First edition 2001 Printed in the United States of America

Oregon State University Press

101 Waldo Hall Corvallis OR 97331-6407 541-737-3166 fax 541-737-3170

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY http://osu.orst.edu/dept/press

The concept of a centenary volume commemorating the hundredth birthday of Linus Pauling originated with coeditor Cliff Mead. In his position as Head of Special Collections at Oregon State Universitys Valley Library Mead oversees the Linus Pauling Collection, the complete personal papers of this outstanding American scientist, humanist, and activist, a trove of hundreds of thousands of letters, articles, photographs, memoranda, and molecular models comprising his entire lifes work. This vast and important collection is the source of many of the pieces in this book, a number of which have never before seen publication.

After enlisting the aid of Pauling biographer Tom Hager as coeditor, Mead decided that the best approach to a valuable and readable centenary volume would be that of a mosaic, modeled on similar works noting the centenaries of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr published by Harvard University Press. These works were compilations of first-person accounts, historical reminiscences, illustrations, and short anecdotes that together cast a variety of lights on their subjects. This, it was decided, would work better than a narrative biographywhich in any case would have been redundant in Pauling's case, because several biographies already exist.

This approach also offered the chance to make good use of written materials and photographs in OSU's Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, making public some of the holdings that might otherwise be seen only by a relatively small number of researchers. In addition, Hager provided tapes of a number of interviews he held with Pauling's colleagues and contemporaries, which appear here in the form of marginalia.

Pieces included in the book were chosen for quality and comprehensiveness. It is impossible in any one volume to do complete justice to Linus Pauling's enormous lifes work, but the editors hope that the selection here will give first-time readers about Pauling an intriguing taste of his interests and accomplishments, while providing more knowledgeable scholars with new and perhaps valuable source materials.

The result is an almost cubistic view, from many anglespersonal and critical, contemporary and historical, first-person and third-personof one of the central scientists in twentieth-century history. It is our hope that readers use these primary and secondary materials to form their own picture of a fascinating man.

Cliff Mead Tom Hager August 2000

We should like to take this opportunity to thank the many individuals who helped us with this project. In particular, we should like to acknowledge our indebtedness to Anna Coss, Faye Harkins, Chris Petersen, and Tracy Wells of the Special Collections staff; this book would not have been possible without their many hours of assistance and support. We should also like to thank the many student assistants in OSU Special Collections, including (but not limited to) Sadie Brundage, Jenessa Burmester, Jason Carver, Mike DeLoy, Kori Haddix, Fabio Hirata, Kimberly Ivancovich, Shannon Lowers, Marisa Meltbeke, Staci Otto, Emily Syphers, Nick Warner, and Ryan Wick. Karyle Butcher and Catherine Murray-Rust encouraged this project from the beginning. Lauren Kessler and Mary Steckel offered many helpful comments and advice.

The editors and publishers are grateful to the following contributors:

Tom Hager for The Roots of Genuis and The Triple Helix

Dr. Robert Paradowski for A Pauling Chronology

Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers at Oregon State University for My Best Friend, Diary Excerpts, Summer Employment, Children of the Dawn, The Incident on the Cliff, Early Years of Physical Chemistry at Caltech, The Original Manuscript for The Nature of the Chemical Bond Modern Structural Chemistry How I Developed an Interest in the Question of the Nature of Life, Orthomolecular Medicine Defined, An Episode That Changed My Life, The Ultimate Decision, Science and Peace, ManAn Irrational Animal; Neil A. Campbell interview There Will Always be Something Interesting; and A World in Which Every Human Being can Live A Good Life

W.H. Freeman and Company for The Discovery of the Alpha Helix

The American Academy for Achievement (www.achievement.org) for Interview with Linus Pauling

Clara Shoemaker (for David Shoemaker) for Linus Pauling, The Teacher

Jack Dunitz for The Scientific Contributions of Linus Pauling, an edited version of an appreciation that appeared in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society

Scientific American for Pauling and Beadle

Bruno Strasser for Sickle-Cell Anemia

Gregory Morgan for The Genesis of the Molecular Clock

National Broadcasting Corporation Inc. Meet The Press, copyright 1958 for Meet the Press

We would also like to thank the many friends, family members, colleagues and associates of Linus Pauling, whose comments, preserved in the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers have informed the creation of this volume, and which appear as marginalia.

The editors would like to thank the following for photographs and illustrations:

Phil Stern: pp. ii, 77, 90

Terry Morrison: pp. 1, 226

Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections: pp.4,5,7,8,9,10,11,13,17,20,22,26,30,32,37,40, 42,47, 57, 61,64, 69,74,80,81,82, 90, 92,100,101, 102,103,108, 114,122,128,137,140,143,144,146,153,156,162,170,178,181, 186,193,200, 209, 211, 212, 216, 218, 226, 229, 230,231, 232, 234, 235, 237,238, 239, 240, 241, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247,248, 250, 253, 254,256

Official Photograph, The White House, Washington: p.18

News and Communications Services, Oregon State University: pp. 191,232

National Broadcasting Company News: pp. 204

Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, Cancer and Vitamin C: p. 47

Cover Photo: Oregon State University News and Communications Services

Part I Linus Pauling, THE MAN