THE DOUBLE HELIX: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF DNA (First UK edition - third impression)

James D. Watson

ISBN 10: 0297760424 / ISBN 13: 9780297760429

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 5 Winsley Street, London W1, 1968

About this Item

Third impression of the first UK edition, published in July 1968. The book was first published in the UK in May 1968, and reprinted in June and July - indicating that the book had made quite an impact for a science book. Dustwrapper designed by Dorothy Judd. With 19 half-tone illustrations and 11 diagrams. ***Very good in bright mauve cloth-covered boards with gilt titles and striking DNA spiral design to the spine. The gilt is still beautifully bright, having been protected by the dustwrapper. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. Corners sharp. Light vertical reading crease to the spine. Boards nice and clean and unmarked. Top edge stained mauve by the publisher - lightly faded and slightly foxed. Internally also very good with a neat contemporary gift inscription at the top of the front free endpaper. Pages clean. There is a slight forward lean to the book. Spine tight. ***In a very good printed dustwrapper that has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 35s net. The dustwrapper is complete, but has some edge wear and creasing, mainly to the top and tail of the spine. There is a 2cm closed tear to the top edge of the back panel of the dustwrapper. Whilst there is some surface loss to the edges of the top and tail of the spine and corner tips of the foldovers, there is no actual loss, just small nicks at the edges. Spine of dustwrapper unfaded. Back panel nice and clean even though a white background. ***222 mm x150 mm. 315 pages - with a Foreword by Sir Lawrence Bragg. ***'The classic personal account of Watson and Crick's groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA. By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. ***'In 1962 the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology was awarded to Francis H. C. Crick, James D. Watson, and Maurice H. F. Wilkins, the three men who almost a decade earlier had worked together, merging data from chemistry, physics, and biology, to solve the structure of DNA--Crick and Watson on the building of a hypothetical model that would conform in all its parts to what Wilkins' X-ray pictures had already shown of the molecule. The interplay of ideas, temperaments, and circumstances was an especially fortuitous one, since the result was something that, in Watson's words, was too pretty not to be true: the double helix.' [Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper] ***Third impression of the first UK edition. The book was surprisingly successful for a science book and was soon reprinted. A nice original format reading copy. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 8276x

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE DOUBLE HELIX: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF DNA (First UK edition - third impression)
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 5 Winsley Street, London W1
• Publication Date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297760424
• ISBN 13: 9780297760429
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Dorothy Judd (Jacket design)
• Edition: First UK Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • First Editions
  • Science

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