American Prometheus (106 page)

16 The son of Rabbi: Horace L. Friess, Felix Adler and Ethical Culture, p. 194.

17
“Ethical Culture” was:
Stephen Birmingham,
The Rest of Us,
pp. 29–30.

17
“emancipated Jews”:
Friess,
Felix Adler and Ethical Culture,
p. 198.

17
“Zionism itself is”:
Benny Kraut,
From Reform Judaism to Ethical Culture,
pp. 190, 194, 205. Perhaps this explains why Oppenheimer himself never displayed any particular interest in Zionism.

18
“artistic gifts to”:
Friess,
Felix Adler and Ethical Culture,
pp. 136, 122.

18
“I must square”:
Friess,
Felix Adler and Ethical Culture,
pp. 35, 100, 153, 141.

19
“ethical imagination”:
Felix Adler, “Ethics Teaching and the Philosophy of Life,” School and Home, a publication of the Ethical Culture School P.T.A., November 1921, p. 3.

19
“and after he came”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 3; Frank Oppenheimer, oral history, 4/14/76, AIP, p. 56.

19
“undivided allegiance”:
Friess,
Felix Adler and Ethical Culture,
pp. 131, 201–2.

20
“a witty saint”:
Robin Kadison Berson,
Marching to a Di ferent Drummer,
pp. 101–5.

20
“I did not know”:
John Lovejoy Elliott to Julius Oppenheimer, 10/23/31, archives of the New York Society of Ethical Culture.

20
“Negro problem”; “sex relations”:
Friess,
Felix Adler and Ethical Culture,
p. 126; Yvonne Blumenthal Pappenheim, interview by Alice Smith, 2/16/76.

20
“the ethics of loyalty”:
The Course of Study in Moral Education,
(New York: Ethical Culture School, 1912, 1916 [pamphlet], p. 22); Kevin Borg, “Debunking a Myth: J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Political Philosophy,” unpublished paper, University of California, Riverside, 1992.

21
“I was an unctuous”:
Time,
11/8/48; Denise Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
pp. 15–16.

21
“tortured”:
Herbert Smith, interview by Alice Smith, 7/9/75, p. 1; Denise Royal,
The
Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 23; Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 6; Rhodes, “I Am Become Death . . .”
American Heritage,
p. 73.

22
“He received every”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 4; “Remembering J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
The Reporter,
Ethical Culture Society, 4/28/67, p. 2.

22
“Ask me a question”:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
pp. 11–12; Ruth Meyer Cherniss, interview by Alice Smith, 11/10/76; Cassidy,
J. Robert Oppenheimer and the
American Century,
pp. 33–46.

22
“We were thrown”:
Stern,
The Oppenheimer Case,
pp. 11–12.

22
“rather gauche”:
Harold F. Cherniss, interview by Sherwin, 5/23/79, p. 3.

22
“It’s no fun”:
Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Life,
10/10/49.

22
“special friend”:
Jeanette Mirsky, interview by Alice Smith, 11/10/76.

23
“magnificent prose style”:
Herbert Smith, interview by Weiner, 8/1/74, p. 3; JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 3.

23
“very, very kind”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 5.

23
“He was marvelous”
and subsequent quotes:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 2.

23
“He blushed”:
Jane Kayser, interview by Weiner, 6/4/75, p. 34; Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 6–7.

23
“He was just”:
Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 6/8/79, p. 4.

23
“He still took”:
Peter Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 9; Gregg Herken,
Brotherhood
of the Bomb,
p. 338, note 55.

24
“Roberty, Roberty”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
pp. 8–9.

24
“It was a blowy”:
Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 6/8/79, p. 6.

24
Robert graduated:
As a child, Oppenheimer had his fair share of illnesses. At the age of six he had a tonsillectomy and an adenoidectomy; in 1916 he had an appendectomy; and in 1918 he had scarlet fever. J. Robert Oppenheimer, medical physical, Presidio of San Francisco, 1/16/43; box 100, series 8, MED, NA.

25
“his Jewishness”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 9.

25
“We all did”:
Jeanette Mirsky, interview by Alice Smith, 11/10/76; Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 61.

25
Frank Oppenheimer said:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 40.

25
“this great troika”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 9.

26
Robert was intensely:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Alice Smith, 4/14/76, p. 12. In 1961, Katherine Chaves Page (Cavanaugh) was stabbed to death in her bed during an apparent robbery by a young Mexican-American neighbor (Dorothy McKibbin, interview by Alice Smith, 1/1/76).

26
“reigning princess”:
Herbert Smith, interview by Weiner, 8/1/74, p. 6.

26
“his very good friend”:
Francis Fergusson, interview by Sherwin, 6/8/79, p. 3, and 6/18/79, p. 8.

26
“Thank God I won”:
Herbert Smith, interview by Weiner, 8/1/74, pp. 15–16.

27
“I never heard”:
Herbert Smith, interview by Weiner, 8/1/74, pp. 6–10.

27
Robert told Smith:
Herbert Smith, interview by Weiner, 8/1/74, p. 1.

27
“He looked at me sharply”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 9.

27
“For the first time”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 10.

28
“beautiful and savage country”:
Emilio Segrè,
Enrico Fermi: Physicist,
p. 135.

28
The ranch school stood:
Los Alamos: Beginning of an Era 1943–45,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1986, p. 9.

28
“Of course I am insanely jealous”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 22 (JRO to Herbert Smith, 2/18/23).

Chapter Two: “His Separate Prison”

29
“because I could”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 14; William Boyd, interview by Alice Smith, 12/21/75, p. 5.

29 His eyes were: Robert Oppenheimer, U.S. Army physical, 1/16/43, box 100, series 8, MED, NA.

30
“He [Robert] found”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 61.

30
“Robert had bouts”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 9.

30
“What intolerable heat”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 15, and Jeffries Wyman, interview by Charles Weiner, 5/28/75, p. 14; JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 6.

31
“He went to bed”:
Frederick Bernheim, interview by Weiner, 10/27/75, pp. 7, 16.

31
“We had lots of”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 33.

31
“he was pretty careful”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 45; William Boyd, interview by Alice Smith, 12/21/75, p. 4.

31
“I was very fond”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 34.

32
“The notion that”:
Barnett, “J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Life,
10/10/49.

32
“When I am inspired”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 59.

32
“The dawn invests”:
Robert Oppenheimer, “Le jour sort de la nuit ainsi qu’une victoire,” Oppenheimer poems received from Francis Fergusson, Alice Smith Collection (now in Sherwin Collection).

33
“will look like Jews”:
Richard Norton Smith,
The Harvard Century,
p. 87;
Harvard
Crimson,
12/13/24 and 1/17/23.

33
In March 1923:
“Liberals Take Stand Against Restriction,”
Harvard Crimson,
3/14/23.

33
“asinine pomposity of”:
John Trumpbour, ed.,
How Harvard Rules,
p. 384;
The Gadfly,
December 1922, published by the Student Liberal Club, Harvard University; JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 9; Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 15; Michelmore,
The
Swift Years,
p. 15. John Edsall, interview by Weiner, 7/16/75, p. 6.

33
“I can’t recall”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, pp. 7, 9.

33
“Obviously, if he [Oppenheimer]”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 8; Smith and Weiner, pp. 28–29.

33
“I found Bridgman”:
Time,
11/8/48, p. 71.

34
“I judge from”:
Gerald Holton, “Young Man Oppenheimer,”
Partisan Review,
1981, vol. XLVIII, p. 383;
Time,
11/8/48, p. 71. The temple of Segesta was probably built in the years 430–420 B.C.

34
When the famous:
William Boyd, interview by Alice Smith, 12/21/75, p. 7.

34
“it would be hard to exaggerate”:
Pais,
Niels Bohr’s Times,
pp. 541, 253;
Time,
11/8/48, p. 71.

34
“To this day”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, pp. 5, 9.

34
“I had a very exciting”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, pp. 5, 9.

35
“[Oppenheimer] has grown”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 48.

35
“Leonardos and Oppenheimers”:
Paul Horgan,
A Certain Climate,
p. 5.