THE DOBLE HELIX : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

Watson, James D.

ISBN 10: 0297760424 / ISBN 13: 9780297760429

Published by Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 1968

About this Item

* AS PICTURED - FIVE IMAGES * FIRST EDITION, First Printing, 1968. 8vo; purple cloth boards with spine decoration and titles in brilliant gold gilt. Very bright, clean and square. Top edge red. A mottling of tiny dust/foxing stains to top edge and a much sparser number (about 15) to fore-edge. Otherwise, the book internally is near-Fine : tight, bright and clean with no markings or inscriptions, bookplates or the like. Pages: xvi + 226 + 6 additional pages which reproduce 'The letter written to Delbruck telling of the double helix' and a photograph showing 'In Stockholm for their Nobel Prizes, December, 1962: Maurice Wilkins, John Steinbeck, John Kendrew, Max Perutz, Francis Crick, and James D. Watson.' +6 blank endpapers. With 19 half-tone illustrations and 11 diagrams. Dustwrapper unclipped (35s net), similarly bright and clean, with some very minor damage where the laminate has been rubbed at spine ends and corners. Now protected with clear, removable sleeve. An attractive copy of the first printing of this book. Please see accompanying images. FREE POSTAGE WITHIN THE U.K. Buyers from outside the U.K. quoted for additional Shipping cost before commitment. (25% of all FARRAGO proceeds donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association).

Seller Inventory # 0983

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE DOBLE HELIX : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
• Publisher: Wiedenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication Date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297760424
• ISBN 13: 9780297760429
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Since its publication in 1968, The Double Helix has given countless readers a rare and exciting look at one highly significant piece of scientific researchâ Watson and Crick's race to discover the molecular structure of DNA. In this Norton Critical Edition, Watson's lively and irreverent account is placed in historical perspective by Gunther Stent's introduction and by retrospective views from two major figures in the adventure, Francis Crick and Linus Pauling, and by Rosalind Franklin's last student, Aaron Klug.

Background materials include reproductions of the original scientific papers in which the double helical structure of DNA was first presented in 1953 and 1954.

In Criticism, which begins with "A Review of the Reviews" by Gunther Stent, other scientists and scholars reveal their own experiences and views of Watson's story. There are reviews by Philip Morrison, F. X. S., Richard C. Lewontin, Mary Ellmann, Robert L. Sinsheimer, John Lear, Alex Comfort, Jacob Bronowski, Conrad H. Waddington, Robert K. Merton, Peter M. Medawar, and Andrà Lwoff; as well as three letters to the editor of Science by Max F. Perutz, M. H. F. Wilkins, and James D. Watson.

Review

"Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders," writes James Watson in The Double Helix, his account of his codiscovery (along with Francis Crick) of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick won Nobel Prizes for their work, and their names are memorized by biology students around the world. But as in all of history, the real story behind the deceptively simple outcome was messy, intense, and sometimes truly hilarious. To preserve the "real" story for the world, James Watson attempted to record his first impressions as soon after the events of 1951-1953 as possible, with all their unpleasant realities and "spirit of adventure" intact.

Watson holds nothing back when revealing the petty sniping and backbiting among his colleagues, while acknowledging that he himself was a willing participant in the melodrama. In particular, Watson reveals his mixed feelings about his famous colleague in discovery, Francis Crick, who many thought of as an arrogant man who talked too much, and whose brilliance was appreciated by few. This is the joy of The Double Helix--instead of a chronicle of stainless-steel heroes toiling away in their sparkling labs, Watson's chronicle gives readers an idea of what living science is like, warts and all. The Double Helix is a startling window into the scientific method, full of insight and wit, and packed with the kind of science anecdotes that are told and retold in the halls of universities and laboratories everywhere. It's the stuff of legends. --Therese Littleton