[Feynman, Richard P.] A Group Of Books On Biology, Two Bought While At Princeton, And One Used At Caltech

Property From The Family Of Richard P. Feynman

[Feynman, Richard P.]

MITCHELL, PHILIP H. A Text Book of General Physiology For Colleges. New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book company, Inc., 1932.

8vo (6 x 9 in). Publisher's tan buckram. Ex-Libris of Arline and Richard P. Feynman to front paste-down (with quote by Confucius "Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.") SIGNED IN PENCIL ON FRONT FLY-LEAF, "FEYNMAN, R.P. PRINCETON 1941".

WITH: CURTIS, WINTERTON AND MARY GUTHRIE. Textbook of General Zoology. New York: John wiley & Sons, Inc., 1933. 8vo (6 x 9 in). Publisher's navy blue cloth, worn. Ex-Libris of Arline and Richard P. Feynman to front paste-down (with quote by Confucius "Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.")  SIGNED IN PENCIL ON FRONT FLY-LEAF, "FEYNMAN, R.P. PRINCETON 1941".

WITH: WELLS, H.G. The Science of Life.  New York: The Literary Guild, 1934. 8vo (5 1/2 x 8 1/4 in). Blue publishers cloth; worn. Ex-Libris of Arline and Richard P. Feynman to front paste-down (with quote by Confucius "Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.") 

WITH: FRUTON, JOSEPH S. General Biochemistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958. 8vo (5 3/4 x 9 in). Publisher's green cloth; light wear to extremities. SIGNED ON FRONT FLY-LEAF IN BLUE INK "R.P. FEYNMAN. PHYSICS DEPT. CALIF. INSTIT. OF TECH."

A GROUP OF FOUR BOOKS ON BIOLOGY OWNED BY FEYNMAN, TWO FROM HIS DAYS AS A GRADUATE STUDENT AT PRINCETON, AND ONE FROM HIS DAYS AS A PROFESSOR AT CALTECH

While it is possible that students in the Physics graduate program at Princeton were required to take courses in biology, it is just as likely that Feynman purchased these books in an attempt to better understand the mysterious illness that was plaguing his childhood sweetheart and fiancée Arline. It was around 1941 that that Arline was diagnosed with terminal tuberculosis, and a year later, she and Feynman were married, and headed to New Mexico, he to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, and her, to the sanatorium in Albuquerque. 

Feynman's interest in biology remained with with, and years later, in 1968 he gave a series of lectures on a variety of topics at the Hughes Aircraft Company. The lectures given from October 1969-May 1970 were on biology, organic chemistry, and microbiology, and it is very likely that Feynman consulted the present copy of Fruton's General Biochemistry when preparing these lectures.