Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (129 page)

16
. ‘the book that’: ibid., 259

16
. ‘their hooked noses’: ibid., 271

16
. ‘long coats’: ibid.

16
. ‘Let the Jews’: ibid., 276

16
. ‘The Jew must go!’: ibid., 278

17
. he is listed: Cassidy (2005), 23

17
. ‘New York’s leading Jewish banker’: see Birmingham (1967), 230

17
. ‘not a personal matter’: ibid., 239

17
. ‘His bitterness’: ibid., 240

17
. It moved its office: Cassidy (2005), 9

18
. younger brother Emil: Cassidy (2005), 4 and 9

18
. In 1900: ibid., 9

18
. In 1903: ibid.

18
. Ella Friedman: what follows is based on the accounts given in Cassidy (2005), 10–11, and B & S, 10–11

18
. According to her son: see Thorpe (2006), 21

18
. her family tree: see
http://americanjewisharchives.org/pdfs/stern_p021.pdf

18
. mentioned several times: see Morais (1894), 104, 105, 193, 250

19
. ‘a gentle, exquisite’: see
Life
magazine, 10 October 1949, 124

19
. When a girlfriend: Goodchild (1980), 22

19
. Both suggestions: see, e.g., Cassidy (2005), 11

19
. ‘spent his free hours’: B & S, 10

19
. ‘proper gentlemen’: Goodchild (1980), 10

20
. ‘there are special occasions’: Adler (1886), 85–6

20
. Upon Sigmund’s death: Cassidy (2005), 9

20
. the men who succeeded Felix Adler: Radest (1969), 95

21
. In the old days: ibid., 136

21
. ‘supremely enviable’: Adler (1915), 165

21
. ‘I would urge’: ibid., 167: italics in the original

21
. ‘plea to the wealthy’: ibid., 172

21
. ‘The habit’: Adler (1886), 97

22
. ‘haven’t enough physical courage’: Sachs (1927), 219

22
. a society that set up: see Neumann (1951), 19ff.

23
. ‘Two things fill’: the famous opening sentence of the conclusion of Kant’s
Critique of Practical Reason

23
. ‘The moral law’: Adler (1886), 33, 60

23
. ‘act only’:
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1997), 31

23
. ‘The rule reads’: Adler (1933), 147

23
. ‘high endeavour’: Adler (1886), 15

23
. ‘Truly disinterestedness’: ibid.

23
. ‘The pursuit of the artist’: ibid.

23
. ‘the Ideal’: ibid., 89

24
. ‘My life’:
Time
magazine, 8 November 1948, 70

24
. ‘an unctuous’: ibid.

24
. ‘Not religion as a duty’: Adler (1886), 97

24
. ‘a hearty’: FF, interview with MJS, 8.6.1979, quoted B & S, 13

24
. A friend later recalled: HWS, interview with CW, 1.8.1974, quoted B & S, 27

24
. ‘a woman who’: B & S, 13

25
. ‘a general distrust’: FO, interview with CW, 9.2.1973, quoted Cassidy (2005), 16

25
. Lewis Frank Oppenheimer: see Bernstein (2004), 6

25
. ‘a mournful person’: PH, interview with AKS, 14.4.1976, quoted S & W, 2

25
. ‘I think my father’: JRO, interview with TSK, 18.11.1963, quoted S & W, 5

26
. ‘Just as I do’: Michelmore (1969), 4. A slightly different version of the story is given in Royal (1969), 19. Neither gives a source for the story.

26
. ‘I repaid’: Royal (1969), 16

26
. he met Benjamin Oppenheimer: JRO, interview with TSK, 18.11.1963, quoted S & W, 3

26
. in October 1910: Cassidy (2005), 29

27
. in 1878: see Cassidy (2005), 33

27
. ‘a broad and generous education’: Friess (1981), 100

27
. in 1890: see Schweber (2000), 49

27
. only 10 per cent: ibid.

28
. ‘We all did’: B & S, 25

28
. ‘The school is to be’: Cassidy (2005), 36

28
. ‘To larger truths’: Adler (1886), 178

28
. ‘spiritual fetters’: ibid.

28
. ‘All over this land’: ibid., 178–9

28
. in 1908: see Radest (1969), 94

28
. ‘The American ideal’: see Adler (1915), 73

29
. Four times a year: see Cassidy (2005), 40–1

29
. fabulously wealthy Guggenheim family: see Birmingham (1967), 271–5

29
. ‘like a gentleman’: ibid., 274

29
. ‘light complexion’: ibid., 272

29
. ‘would not have surmised’: ibid., 273

30
. He once remarked: see Bethe (1997), 176

30
. ‘He was still a little boy’: S & W, 7

30
. ‘rather gauche’: B & S, 22

30
. ‘a great need’: ibid.

30
. ‘Ask me a question in Latin’: ibid.

30
. ‘so far ahead’: Cassidy (2005), 44

30
. mostly A− and B+: ibid., 43

30
. ‘When I was ten’: S & W, 3

31
. New York Mineralogical Club: see B & S, 14–15

31
. an expanded version: see Adler (1915)

31
. ‘Many of our fellow-citizens’: ibid., 58

31
. ‘Public opinion’: ibid., 58–9

31
. ‘The German ideal’: ibid., 63

31
. ‘The national ideal’: ibid., 68

31
. ‘is that of the uncommon quality’: ibid., 73

32
. ‘only a symptom’: ibid., 5

32
. ‘If we wish’: ibid.

32
. ‘The time will come’: quoted in Radest (1969), 191–2

32
. high opinion’:
New York Times
, 31 January 1916, quoted in Cassidy (2005), 49

32
. ‘Anything German’: ibid., 183

32
. ‘the duty of every high school chap’:
Inklings
, 3 June 1917, quoted Cassidy (2005), 53

33
. ‘In discussing the war’: Cassidy (2005), 55

33
. ‘There is no room’.
Inklings
, 4 June 1918, ibid.

33
. ‘he swallowed Adler’: S & W, 3

33
. ‘In Flanders’ fields’: see Cassidy (2005), 60

34
. ‘From conversations’: Bernstein (2004), 11

34
. feelings of guilt: see the remark quoted earlier (p.26) from Royal (1969), 16

34
. ‘business vulgarity’: Thorpe (2006), 27

34
. ‘pronounced oedipal attitude’: ibid.

35
. ‘I often felt’: Royal (1969), 22

35
. The other boys: the main source for this story is Royal (1969), 21–3

35
. ‘They, as it were’: ibid., 23

35
. ‘I don’t know’: ibid.

35
. ‘We talked as we walked’: ibid., 21

36
. ‘longed to demonstrate’: Eliot (1965), 178

36
. ‘It was said’; ibid., 172

36
. ‘no spark’: ibid.

36
. ‘From that hour’: ibid., 173

36
. ‘Lydgate’s conceit’: ibid., 179

37
. ‘to some extent’: Royal (1969), 22

37
. ‘He was an intellectual snob’: ibid.

37
. ‘bright and sensitive’: ibid., 21

37
. ‘did not prepare me’:
Time
magazine, 8 November 1948, 70

37
. ‘never heard a murmur’: B & S, 27

37
. ‘the most important element’: Cassidy (2005), 20

37
.
The Light
: see ibid. 41

37
. ‘some of our dough boys’: ibid.

38
. Hans and Ernest Courant and Robert Lazarus: for more on the Courants and Lazarus, see the 2005 ‘Science Issue’ of the Ethical Culture School magazine,
ECF Reporter
, at:
http://www.ecfs.org/files/ecfreporter_winter2005.pdf
, especially pages 10–12.

38
. ‘It is almost forty-five years’: Royal (1969), 23

38
. ‘He was so brilliant’:
Time
magazine, 8 November 1948, 70

38
. ‘A very exciting experience’: ibid.

38
. ‘We must have spent’: S & W, 4

39
. his headmaster: Goodchild (1980), 12

39
. had to be rescued: Royal (1969), 25

39
. Cherry Grove: ibid., 24

40
. ‘It was a blowy day’: B & S, 24

40
. Francis Fergusson: for more on Fergusson, see the Introduction to Fergusson (1998)

40
. ‘He is to this day’: S & W, 7

41
. La Glorieta: see Gish (1988), especially Chapter 2

41
. Franz Huning: see Huning (1973)

42
. was interviewed in the 1930s: see Janet Smith’s interview with Clara Fergusson, dated 14 September 1936, at:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpa/20040609.html

42
. Sampson Noland Ferguson: see Gish (1988), Chapter 3

43
. ‘who at that time’: S & W, 7

43
. ‘very, very kind’: ibid., 5

44
. ‘a long prospecting trip’: ibid., 7

45
. he was fond of saying: see, e.g., Pharr Davis (1969), 25

46
. ‘you can’t be an outsider’: Sachs (1927), 219

46
. ‘Gilbert’: ibid., 220

46
. Paul Horgan: see Gish (1995)

46
. Horgan would later find fame: Horgan won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes for his two-volume study of the American South-west,
Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History
(1954), and won the Pulitzer again in 1976 for
Lamy of Santa Fe
, a biography of John Baptist Lamy, the émigré French clergyman who was the model for Willa Cather’s central character in
Death Comes for the Archbishop
. He is also well known as the author of several critically and commercially successful novels, including
The Fault of Angels
(1933), A
Distant Trumpet
(1960) and
Things as They Are
(1964).

47
. ‘polymaths’, ‘this pygmy triumvirate’, ‘this great troika’: S & W, 8

47
. Oppenheimer startled Herbert Smith: B & S, 25

47
. Smith wondered: see Cassidy (2005), 62

47
. ‘someone disparaged the Jews’: ibid.

47
. ‘He looked at me sharply’: S & W, 9

48
. ‘The Southwest can never’: Erna Fergusson (1946), 18–19

48
. ‘Such a country’: ibid., 14

48
. ‘Maybe everyone’: Horgan (1942), quoted in Gish (1995), 12

48
. ‘He was the most intelligent man’: S & W, 8

48
. ‘exquisite manners’: ibid., 9

49
. He later confided: ibid., 40

49
. Manuel Chaves: see Simmons (1973)

49
. Amado Chaves: see Simmons (1968)

49
. pursued a career as a lawyer: see Twitchell (2007), 508–12

50
. ‘all the time’: B & S, 26

50
. ‘For the first time’: S & W, 10

50
. ‘Lake Katherine’: the story that Oppenheimer named this lake after Katherine Page is mentioned many times in local literature (see, e.g.,
http://mtnviewranch-cowles.com/page_7.htm
, which is a history of a ‘dude ranch’ similar to the one owned by the Chaveses). I do not know of an authoritative source for this story, but neither do I see any reason to doubt it.

51
. ‘Thank God I won’: B & S, 26

51
. ‘He had become less shy’: S & W, 8

52
. ‘The summer hotel’: Abbot Lawrence Lowell to William Earnest Hocking, 19 May 1922, quoted in Karabel (2005), 88

53
. ‘WASP flight’: see Karabel (2005), 86–7

53
. ‘Hebrews’: ibid., 90

53
. a faculty meeting on 23 May 1922: ibid.

53
. ‘take into account’: ibid.

53
. ‘a radical departure’: ibid., 92

53
. ‘to consider principles’: ibid., 93

53
. ‘the primary object’: ibid.

53
. an illuminating exchange: see Raphael (1993), 292–7

54
. ‘and other eminent Jews’: ibid., 293

54
. ‘Students of the Jewish faith’: ibid., 293–4

54
. ‘a rapidly growing anti-Semitic feeling’: ibid., 294

54
. ‘Carrying your suggestion’: ibid., 296

54
. ‘We want’: ibid., 297

54
. ‘To be an American’: Feingold (1995), 17

55
. the dean’s office: see Karabel (2005), 94

55
. Starting in the autumn of 1922: ibid.

55
. ‘What change’: ibid.

55
. ‘religious preference’: ibid.

55
. On 7 April 1923: ibid., 100

55
. ‘far removed’: ibid., 95

55
. ‘no departure’: ibid., 101

55
. 25 per cent: ibid., 105

55
. ‘They are . . . going’: ibid., 109

56
. ‘not a negligible fact’: Palevsky (2000), 103

56
. ‘Shylock’: S & W, 13

56
. ‘misanthropy’: ibid., 31

56
. ‘the benign Lowell’: ibid., 13

56
. ‘Harvard has so far’: ibid.

57
. ‘I wanted not to be involved’: Thorpe (2006), 30

57
. ‘a little bit possessive’: ibid., 32

57
. ‘a sort of feeling’: ibid., 33

57
. Black introduced him: see ibid., 31, and Cassidy (2005), 71

57
. John Edsall: for more on Edsall’s life and work, see Doty (2005) and Edsall (2003)

58
.
The Gad-Fly
: see Cassidy (2005), 72

58
. ‘to sting people’: Plato,
Apology
, section 30e