Alexander Gann and Jan Witkowski unveil newly found letters between key players in the DNA story. Strained relationships and vivid personalities leap off the pages.
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References
Watson, J. D. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (Norton Critical Editions, ed. Stent, G. S.) (Norton, 1980).
Wilkins, M. The Third Man of the Double Helix: The Autobiography of Maurice Wilkins (Oxford University Press, 2003).
Maddox, B. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA (HarperCollins, 2002).
Olby, R. The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA (Univ. Washington Press, 1974)
Judson, H. F. The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology, 25th Anniversary Edition (Cold Spring Harbor Lab. Press, 1996).
Olby, R. Francis Crick, Hunter Of Life's Secrets (Cold Spring Harbor Lab. Press, 2009).
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We are very grateful to Sydney Brenner for the generous gift of his papers to the CSHL Archives and to Mila Pollock (executive director of library and archives, CSHL) for her enthusiastic work in facilitating the gift.
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Gann, A., Witkowski, J. The lost correspondence of Francis Crick. Nature 467, 519–524 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/467519a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/467519a
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Robert Olby
To biographers and historians the correspondence quoted in this article is invaluable. It stresses the strength of the friendship between Wilkins and Crick that preserved their relationship through the turmoil of events in 1951 and 1953. This relationship largely determined Crick's attitude towards Franklin in 1953. Although the general course of events and the nature of the scientific steps taken have already been understood from published work and other correspondence, these letters long thought to be lost, added to those we have elsewhere, provide a wealth of authentic source material. Letters written at the time under the pressures of the momenet. What could be better?
Austin Elliott
Really fascinating to see the contemporaneous thoughts and words of the people involved, even when the events have been hashed over so much already. More discussion over on my blog - readers and comments also welcome there.