Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (134 page)

206
. ‘What you have said’: quoted ibid., 231

206
. a four-page letter: ibid., 232

207
. he wrote to Frank: JRO to FO, 7.10.1933, S & W, 162–5

207
. ‘work with pairs’: ibid., S & W, 164

207
. ‘has definitely established’: ibid., S & W, 165

207
. ‘Lawrence’s first European recognition’: quoted Pharr Davis (1969), 56

207
. ‘Lawrence left the conference’: ibid., 57

207
. ‘one of Lawrence’s saddest experiences’: ibid.

208
. ‘The formalism’: JRO to GU, autumn 1933, S & W, 168

208
. ‘The Production of Positives by Nuclear Gamma Rays’: Oppenheimer and Nedelsky (1933)

208
. Three months later: see
Physical Review
, 45, 136 (1934)

208
. ‘On the Theory of the Electron and the Positive’: Oppenheimer and Furry (1934a)

208
. ‘it was a common sight’: Michelmore (1969), 37–8

209
. the Boston meeting: see S & W, 169

209
. ‘A short while ago’: quoted Mehra and Rechenberg (2001), 915

209
. ‘I do not know’: JRO to FO, 7.1.1934, S & W, 171

209
. a letter to the editor: Oppenheimer and Furry (1934b)

209
. another letter: Oppenheimer and Furry (1934c)

209
. ‘from Dirac’: JRO to GU,
c
. March 1934, S & W, 175

209
. ‘Where is the nearest post office?’: Serber (1998), 36

209
. ‘golden creative streak’: Farmelo (2009), 234

210
. ‘A refusal’: quoted ibid., 235

210
. ‘He is not interested’: quoted ibid., 239

210
. ‘Thirty-One-Year-Old Professor’: see ibid., 240

210
. ‘Forgetful Prof’: the newspaper page in question is reproduced in Kelly (2006), 129

210
. ‘Like all geniuses’: quoted ibid., 128

210
. ‘I never saw’: ibid.

210
. ‘disentangling the still existing miseries’: JRO to FO, 4.6.1934, S & W, 181

211
. ‘Garuda does ninety-five’: ibid., 182

211
. demonstrating his car’s speed: see ibid., 183

211
. ‘that the American part of you’: JRO to GU, autumn 1934, S & W, 187

211
. ‘I have such a feeling’: ibid., 188

211
. Robert Serber: most of what I say about Serber comes from Serber (1998) and the three AIP interviews listed in the Bibliography, dated 1967, 1983 and 1996.

211
. ‘When I arrived’: Rabi et al. (1969), 17

211
. ‘The word had gotten around’: Serber, interviewed by Charles Weiner and Gloria Lubkin at Columbia University, 10 February 1967, AIP

212
. ‘naturally’: Lamb, in Brown and Hoddeson (1983), 313

212
. ‘Oppenheimer’s office’: ibid., 314

212
. ‘His group’: Rabi et al. (1969), 18

212
. a mother hen fussing over her chickens: see Pharr Davis (1969), 79

212
. The first evening: see S & W, 186

213
. ‘was a bachelor then’: Rabi et al. (1969), 18

213
. ‘Many of his students’: ibid., 19

213
. Lauritsen: what follows is based largely on Holbrow (2003)

213
. a short paper: Oppenheimer and Lauritsen (1934)

214
. Felix Bloch: see Hofstadter (1994)

214
. ‘a rather sturdy indigenous effort’: quoted Kevles (1995), 283

214
. ‘One of us’: Felix Bloch, interviewed by Charles Weiner, Stanford University, California, 15 August 1968, AIP

214
. ‘a fish place’: ibid.

214
. ‘These were post-depression days’: Rabi et al. (1969), 19

214
. ‘Bloch grew expansive’: Serber (1998), 31

215
. ‘There were no jobs’: Melba Phillips, interviewed by Katherine Russell Sopka, 5 December 1977, AIP

215
. Running through the door: see Pharr Davis (1969), 58

215
. ‘
Click . . . click . . . click
’: ibid.

216
. ‘It was a wonderful time’: ibid., 59

216
. ‘Transmutation’: quoted ibid., 63

216
. Oppenheimer’s joint paper with Melba Phillips: Oppenheimer and Phillips (1935)

216
. ‘an outline’: JRO to EOL,
c
. spring 1935, S & W, 193

217
. ‘Oppenheimer’s lectures’: Brown and Hoddeson (1983), 313

217
. ‘I never found nuclear physics so beautiful’: quoted Pharr Davis (1969), 78

217
. found love in Princeton: see Farmelo (2009), Chapter Nineteen

218
. ‘Princeton is a madhouse’: JRO to FO, 11.1.1935, S & W, 190

219
. Frank: for biographical information on Frank Oppenheimer, the main sources are Cole (2009) and the interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives

219
. ‘I remember once’: Frank Oppenheimer, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives

220
. ‘To inject bigotry’: Graham (2005), 199

220
. ‘When I went to Hopkins’: Frank Oppenheimer, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives

220
. ‘In Italy’: ibid.

221
. ‘How
did
he end up’: Graham (2006), 5

221
. ‘In the last months’: ibid., 12

221
. the McCarthy period: for a detailed account of Melba Phillips’s experience of McCarthyism, see Neuenschwander and Watkins (2008), 329–38, 355–9.

222
. ‘when I stopped’: Melba Phillips, draft for a eulogy for Frank Oppenheimer, 1985, quoted Neuenschwander and Watkins (2008), 309–10

222
. ‘We were not political in any overt way’: quoted ibid., 311

222
. ‘the grim news’: ibid.

222
. ‘We were sitting’: Serber (1998), 31

223
. a major event: see Nelson (1988), Chapters 4 and 5

223
. When the question was put directly to him: see ITMO, 277

224
. ‘He tried’: quoted Goodchild (1980), 34

224
. ‘My brother Frank’: ITMO, 9

224
. ‘occasionally perhaps’: ibid., 101

224
. ‘defection’: Michelmore (1969), 47

224
. ‘worked fairly well’: ITMO, 101

225
. ‘Are the Formulae for the Absorption of High Energy Radiations Valid?’: Oppenheimer (1934)

225
. ‘Such clarity’: ibid., 45

225
. ‘made it possible’: ibid., 44

225
. ‘possible to do justice’: ibid., 45

226
. ‘On the Interaction of Elementary Particles I’: Yukawa (1935)

227
. at the summit of Pikes Peak: for a detailed (and entertaining) account of this, see Anderson, interview with Harriett Lyle, 9 January–8 February 1979, Caltech Archives.

227
. scholarly account: Anderson and Neddermeyer (1936)

227
. fight with Heisenberg: what follows draws heavily on the account of the matter given in Cassidy (1992), Chapter 18.

228
. a paper that he published in June 1936: Heisenberg (1936)

228
. ‘On Multiplicative Showers’: Oppenheimer and Carlson (1937)

228
. ‘It would seem’: ibid., 221

228
. ‘another cosmic ray component’: ibid., 231

228
. ‘the presence’: Anderson and Neddermeyer (1937), 884

228
. a short report: see Street and Stevenson, ‘Penetrating Corpuscular Component of the Cosmic Radiation’,
Physical Review
, 51, 1005 (1937)

229
. ‘a very conscious purpose’: Brown and Hoddeson (1983), 212

229
. ‘the possibility’: Oppenheimer and Serber (1937)

229
. ‘The point of view’: Oppenheimer, Serber et al. (1937), 1038

229
. ‘optimistic’: quoted Cassidy (1992), 376

230
. ‘it is important’: ibid., 406

230
. ‘The Limits of Applicability’: see ibid., 407

230
. ‘According to Heisenberg’s recollection’: ibid., 412

231
. ‘smouldering fury’: ITMO, 8

231
. ‘Your closeness’: Alfred Stern to JRO, 14.10.1966, quoted S & W, 202

231
. ‘It is big here’: Michelmore (1969), 58

231
. ‘what the depression was doing to my students’: ITMO, 8

231
. ‘to understand’: ibid.

232
. ‘I began’: ibid.

232
. ‘I liked’: ibid.

232
. ‘The matter’: ibid., 9

232
. More than 3,000 US citizens: Gerassi (1986), 3. For information about US volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, I have also made use of Richardson (1982).

233
. when he astonished a friend: see Chevalier (1965), 16, where he quotes from a notebook entry he made dated 20.7.1937: ‘E. told me of Oppenheimer having last summer gone East, taking with him all three volumes of Marx’s
Kapital
and
reading them through cover to cover on the train.’ He does not say who ‘E.’ is.

233
. complete works of Lenin: ibid.

233
. ‘Beginning in late 1936’: ITMO, 8

233
. Jean Tatlock: my main source of information about Jean Tatlock is B & S, particularly Chapter Eight

234
. ‘active member’: JRO FBI file, quoted B & S, 104

234
. ‘the spring of 1936’: ITMO, 8

234
. ‘on again, off again’: ibid.

234
. ‘never seemed’: ibid.

234
. ‘quite composed’: quoted B & S, 114

234
. ‘these terrible depressions’: ibid.

235
. he twice proposed to her: see B & S, 153

235
. ‘No more flowers’: Michelmore (1969), 49

235
. ‘Tell him to go away’: ibid.

235
. ‘disappeared for weeks’: quoted Goodchild (1980), 35

235
. ‘had probably belonged’: ITMO, 3

235
. ‘half-jocular overstatement’: ibid., 9

235
. ‘We clipped it out’: FO, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives

235
. ‘quite upset’: ITMO, 186

235
. ‘the only thing’: ibid., 101

236
. ‘The meeting’: ibid., 102

236
. ‘It’s really hard to imagine’: FO, interview with Judith R. Goodstein, 16 November 1984, Caltech Archives

236
. ‘they were scared’: ibid.

236
. He said: ITMO, 183

236
. ‘He made it clear’: ITMO, 9, quoted back to him, ITMO, 184

237
. between $100 and $300: for this and the financial details that follow, see ITMO, 184–5

237
. Robert A. Brady: see Dowd (1994)

237
. ‘had enthusiasm’: ITMO, 158

237
. ‘It was a very inappropriate thing’: ibid.

237
. one to Mildred Edie: S & W, 205

238
. two to Brady: ibid., note 54

238
. ‘Local 349’: Chevalier (1965), 23

238
. ‘For four years’: ibid.

238
. ‘In bursts’: ibid., 23–4

238
. ‘invariably lively’: ibid., 24

238
. ‘thousands of dollars’: ibid., 25

238
. ‘miserable thing’: ITMO, 156

239
. Chevalier has described privately: HC to JRO, 23.7.1964, JRO papers, LOC, Box 200

239
. ‘We had decided’: Chevalier (1965), 19

239
. ‘story . . .’ of: HC to JRO, 23.7.1964, JRO papers, LOC, Box 200

239
. ‘I have never been a member’: JRO to HC, 7.8.1964, JRO papers, LOC, Box 200

239
. ‘I had originally planned’: quoted Herken (2002), 341, note 46

239
. the website:
http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/documents.html

240
. in private correspondence: see Herken (2002), 31

241
. When Chevalier was asked: see B & S, 138

241
. ‘Look’: ITMO, 116–17

241
. ‘might well’: ibid., 10

242
. ‘This was the era’: ibid., 8

242
. ‘I never was a member’: ibid., 10

242
. ‘that Communists stood’: ibid., 115

242
. ‘. . . it seems clear’: ibid.

242
. ‘dialectical materialism’: ibid.

242
. a political tract:
Report to Our Colleagues
, 20 February 1940. A second tract with the same title, dated 6 April 1940, was also said by Chevalier to have been written by Oppenheimer. These documents are discussed in Chevalier (1965), 35–6, Herken (2002), 50–2, and B & S, 144–6. The full text of the first of these reports is available on Herken’s website at:
http://www.brotherhoodofthebomb.com/bhbsource/document4.html

243
. the American Communist Party: for the history of the Communist Party of the United States I have made much use of Fried (1997a) and Isserman (1993). See also Haynes (1996), Klehr et al. (1995) and Lewy (1990)

243
. its internal structure was reorganised: see Isserman (1993), Chapter 1

243
. ‘wanted to be’: ibid., 9

243
. ‘The Communists began’: ibid., 3

243
. ‘Communism is Twentieth Century Americanism’: ibid., 9

243
. ‘A significant proportion’: ibid., 10

243
. ‘What is Communism?’: Fried (1997a), 250–4

243
. ‘The truth is’: ibid., 250–3: italics in the original

244
. ‘the talk that I heard’: ITMO, 10

244
. in the summer of 1938: ibid.

245
. ‘a land of purge and terror’: ibid.

245
. ‘It’s worse than you can imagine’: Michelmore (1969), 57–8

245
. ‘These conversations’: Weisskopf, interviewed by MJS, 23.3.1979, quoted B & S, 148

245
. ‘is fine’: Felix Bloch to IIR, 2.11.1938, quoted Schweber (2000), 108