The Double Helix

FIRST PRINTING OF NOBEL LAUREATE JAMES WATSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF DNA. 8 3/4 inches tall hardcover, purple cloth, gilt title and double helix motif to spine bright, corners lightly bumped, text unmarked, very good. Good+ dust jacket, not price clipped, with edgewear and 1 inch closed tear to bottom of back. Foreword by Sir Lawrence Bragg, Photographs and line illustrations depcting major players and milestones in the discovery of DNA, facsimile of letter to Delbruck dated March 12, 1953, telling of the double helix. First London edition, first printing (published same year as American). In 1998, the Modern Library placed The Double Helix at number 7 on its list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the 20th century. In 2012, The Double Helix was named as one of the 88 Books That Shaped America by the Library of Congress. Though an important book about an immensely important subject, it was and remains a controversial account. Though it was originally slated to be published by Harvard University Press, Watson's home university, Harvard dropped the arrangement after protestations from Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, and it was published instead by Atheneum in the United States and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK. The intimate first-person memoir about scientific discovery was unusual for its time. The book has been hailed for its highly personal view of scientific work, though has been criticised as caring only about the glory of priority and the author is claimed to be willing to appropriate data from others surreptitiously in order to obtain it.

Product Info

Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicolson

Year: 1968

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

First Edition

Seller Info

BiomedRareBooksLLCABAAILABIOBA

Address: P.O. Box 193 North Garden, Virginia

Website: https://www.biomedrarebooks.com

Country: United States