Reviews of The Double Helix

In addition to reviews of Watson, The Double Helix (listed fully below), the file contains:

1. An excerpt from Crick, Of Molecules and Men (1966) entitled "The computer, the eye, the soul," Saturday Review, 3 September, 1966, 53-55 (photocopy). Note: in this excerpted publication, the author is styled "Sir" Francis Crick (a not uncommon mistake in Crick's papers generally). Watson sent a photocopy of the first page to Crick along with a mock congratulatory note (8 September, 1966), for which see PP/CRI/D/2/45.

2. A short review of Of Molecules and Men by Laura R Livingston, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 40 (February, 1968), 328 (cutting).

3. A biographical entry for Crick prepared by Watson from an unidentified published source (photocopy).

4. A table showing the genetic code, similar in appearance to the table published in, for example, Crick, What Mad Pursuit (1988) as Appendix B. The table is dated, but the presentation of the table itself also betrays its date of execution through uncertainty in some details, and in its use of question marks and other qualifying indicators (e.g. "small brackets imply 'weak evidence only'"). The physical form of the item is that of a photocopy of a holograph original, the photocopy of which has been amended at a later date with blue ink. The date of the original is 15 April, 1965, initialled by Crick, and that of the subsequent revision is 4 June, 1965. See, for comparison, "Genetic Code as of March 30, 1965," attached to a letter from Watson to Crick, 31 March, 1965 (PP/CRI/D/2/45).

5. Letter (typescript, photocopy) from M H F Wilkins to the Editor, Science, dated 24 March, 1969. The letter begins: "Sir, In Dr M F Perutz's letter extracts from an MRC Report are published for the first time. For those interested in the history of the early X-ray studies of DNA at King's College, I give here, in outline, the background to the Report." The subsequent paragraph records the sequence of Rosalind Franklin's X-ray studies, beginning with "the first clear B patterns" in September 1951.

The remainder of the file comprises the following reviews of The Double Helix:

1. C H Waddington, "Riding high on a spiral," Sunday Times, 28 May, 1968 (photocopy). Evidently sent to Crick by Waddington, who has written by hand underneath: "Dear Francis, I hope you don't mind too much, Wad."

2. Samuel Devons, "The DNA Trail," Physics Today, August 1968, 71-2 (photocopy).

3. Walter Sullivan, "The competition can get personal," New York Times, 18 February, 1968 (photocopy).

4. Walter Sullivan, "A book that couldn't go to Harvard," New York Times, 15 February, 1968 (photocopy). A report on Harvard Corporation's decision not to allow Harvard University Press to publish The Double Helix, following objections from Crick, Wilkins and others. See in this regard, (PP/CRI/I/3/8/4).

5. Gunther S Stent, "What they are saying about honest Jim," Quarterly Review of Biology, 43: 2 (June 1968), 179-84 (reprinted paper). "As I intend to show here by a brief analysis of six selected reviews of The Double Helix, the relativity principle illustrated by the movie Rashomon was at work: although all six reviewers are obviously writing about a book by J D Watson ... one would hardly think that all six reviewers actually read the same book" (p. 179).

6. Warren Kornberg, "Gossip, claret and the coil of life," Science News, 93 (2 March, 1968), 210 (cutting). The text of the review has been carefully underlined in places.

6. Philip Morrison, "Human factor in a science first," Life Magazine, 1 March, 1968 (photocopy). Morrison's review is commented upon in Stent's review of reviews (see item 5 above).

7. L W Dickens, "How a Northampton scientist helped discover 'the secret of life'," Northampton Chronicle Echo, 1968 (cutting).

8. Robert Bernhard, "The Double Helix - a sweet dream of youth," Scientific Research, 18 March, 1968, pp. 24-5 (photocopy). Also included from the same publication is an interview with Watson entitled "DNA at No. 16 Divinity" (pp. 25-30).

9. Alfonso M Liquori, "Le ossessioni di Watson" (typescript, photocopy, n.d.).

10. Robert K Merton, "Making it scientifically," The New York Times Book Review, 25 February, 1968, pp. 1, 41-3, 45 (photocopy).

11. Heiße Luft, "Nobelpreisträger: skandal um memoiren," Der Spiegel, 11 March 1968, p. 158 (the complete magazine is retained).

12. Robert Musel, "Are scientists secretly human?" (n.d., ?Reader's Digest).

13. Barbara Yuncker, "Best-seller figure talks about the book," New York Post, 21 October, 1968, p. 14 (photocopy). Attached is a brief typed note (signed) to Crick from Alfred Palca, sent to Crick with the cutting.

14. Column by Judith Martin, Washington Post (n.d.). Extract: "Melina Mercouri... is going to the Harvard-Yale game with Dr Watson because she adores molecular biologists...."

15. Complete issue of Encounter, XXXI: 1 (1968), containing: FRS [George Steiner], "Notes of a not-Watson" (pp. 60-6).