American Prometheus (108 page)

51
The book was:
Haakon Chevalier, interview by Sherwin, 6/29/82, p. 6.

52
“I felt much kinder”:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 36.

52
“Another cackle”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 16.

53
“In a rudimentary way”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 96; JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 17.

53
Dirac’s work; “he didn’t think”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 96; Wyman, interview by Weiner, 5/28/75, p. 18.

53
“reading books interfered”:
Pais, et al.,
Paul Dirac,
p. 29.

53
“Not often in life”; “his God”:
Rhodes,
The Making of the Atomic Bomb,
pp. 53–54; Wyman, interview by Weiner, 5/28/75, p. 30.

53
“At that point I forgot”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 17.

53
“How is it going?”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 21.

54
Bohr vividly remembered:
Pais,
Niels Bohr’s Times,
p. 495.

54
“are the problems mathematical”
and subsequent quotes:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, pp. 1–2.

54
“It was wonderful”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 97.

54
“Oppenheimer seemed to me”:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 36.

55
“very great misgivings”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/18/63, p. 21.

Chapter Four: “I Find the Work Hard, Thank God, & Almost Pleasant”

56
German physicists at the time:
“Talk of the Town,”
The New Yorker,
3/4/67.

56
It was Oppenheimer’s good fortune:
Pais,
The Genius of Science,
pp. 32–33.

57 He was the ideal mentor: Gribbin, Q Is for Quantum, pp. 55–57; “Obituary: Prof. Max Born,”
The Times
of London, 1/7/70.

57
“We got along”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 97.

57
“had the typical bitterness”:
Smith and Weiner, p. 100.

58
“Although this [university]”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 5.

58
“He was,” said Uhlenbeck:
Pais,
The Genius of Science,
pp. 307–8.

58
“I was part of a little community”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 4.

59
“professors at Princeton”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 100.

59
“You would like”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 100–101.

59
One day, Paul Dirac:
Pais,
Inward Bound,
p. 367. Pais cites a private communication from Dirac.

59
“I still was not entirely”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 6.

59 “highly neurotic”: Helen C. Allison, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76. The Hogness couple followed Oppenheimer to Berkeley in 1929.

59
On occasion:
Max Debruck, “In Memory of Max Born,” Debruck Papers, 37.8, Caltech Archives, courtesy of Nancy Greenspan.

60
“He was a man”; “To make this more certain”:
Max Born,
My Life,
p. 229; Goodchild,
Oppenheimer,
p. 20.

60
“I couldn’t find”:
Born,
My Life,
p. 234; Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 38.

60
“Almost all of the theorists”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 102.

61
“On the classical”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 104–5.

61
“The trouble is”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 20.

61
“All right, we’ll leave”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 21.

62
“A little late”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 104; Margaret Compton, interview by Alice Smith, 4/3/76.

62
“The most exciting time”:
JRO, interview with Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 6.

62
“How can you”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 21; Pais,
The Genius of Science,
p. 54.

62
by contrast:
Pais,
The Genius of Science,
p. 67; Luis Alvarez,
Adventures of a Physicist,
p. 87; Leo Nedelsky, interview by Alice Smith, 12/7/76.

62
He still loved:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 101; Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer,
p. 22.

63 “When your ancestors”: Thomas Powers, Heisenberg’s War, pp. 84–85; James W. Kunetka,
Oppenheimer,
p. 12.

63
As fate would have it:
Houtermans’ political loyalties were to the Left; he would spend two and a half years in Stalin’s prisons before he was repatriated to Germany in April 1940. For more on Houtermans’ fascinating story, see Powers,
Heisenberg’s War,
pp. 84, 93, 103, 106–7, and David Cassidy,
The Uncertainty Principle.

63
“Great ideas were”:
Helge Kragh,
Quantum Generations,
p. 168.

64 “Heisenberg has laid”: Gribbin, Q Is for Quantum, pp. 174, 417–18.

64
“An inner voice”:
Daniel J. Kevles,
The Physicists,
p. 167; Albrecht Fölsing,
Albert
Einstein,
pp. 730–31. In 1929, Einstein qualified his critique by explaining that he believed “in the profound truth contained in this theory, except that I think that its restriction to statistical laws will be a temporary one.” But shortly later he hardened his views, insisting that it was “not possible to get to the bottom of things by this semiempirical means.” (Fölsing,
Albert Einstein,
pp. 566, 590.)

64
“Einstein is completely”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 190 (JRO to Frank Oppenheimer, 1/11/35). Oppenheimer first met Einstein at Caltech in 1930 (JRO to Carl Seelig, 9/7/55, JRO Papers).

64
“harmonious, consistent and intelligible”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 7.

64
“We have here”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 103.

65
“There are three”:
Kevles,
The Physicists,
p. 217.

65
Robert got into the habit:
Schweber,
In the Shadow of the Bomb,
p. 64.

65
He walked around:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 42.

65
“life at the centers”:
Hans Bethe, review of Robert Jungk’s
Brighter Than a Thousand
Suns,
in
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
vol. 12, pp. 426–29; Schweber,
In the
Shadow of the Bomb,
p. 100.

66
“[i]n 1926 Oppenheimer had”:
Hans Bethe, Ibid.

Chapter Five: “I Am Oppenheimer”

68
“He’s too much”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 23.

69
“My brother and I”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 108.

69
“Never having heard”:
Frank Oppenheimer, oral history, 2/9/73, AIP, p. 5.

69
“We all got”:
Goodchild,
Oppenheimer,
p. 22.

69
“Is the Ritz”:
Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
p. 24.

69
But though Charlotte:
Else Uhlenbeck, interview by Alice Smith, 4/20/76, p. 2; Michelmore,
The Swift Years,
pp. 24–25.

70
“It was evening”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 110;
Hound and Horn: A Harvard
Miscellany,
vol. 1, no. 4 (June 1928), p. 335.

70
“separate prison”:
JRO, “Le jour sort de la nuit ainsi qu’une victoire,” Oppenheimer poems received from Francis Fergusson, Alice Smith Collection.

70
“I have had trouble”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 113.

71
“Don’t worry about girls”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 113.

72
As they rode:
Time,
11/8/48, p. 72.

72
“For the former group”:
Frank Oppenheimer to Denise Royal, 2/25/67, folder 4–23, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

72
The kitchen had a sink:
Robert Serber,
Peace and War,
p. 38.

73
“Hot Dog!”:
Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 44; Michelmore,
The Swift
Years,
pp. 26–27; Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
pp. 118, 126, 163–65.

73
“We had a variety of mishaps”:
Frank Oppenheimer, oral history, 2/9/73, AIP, p. 18.

73
Robert fractured his right arm:
JRO medical physical, Presidio of San Francisco, 1/16/43, box 100, series 8, MED, NA.

73
“sipping from a bottle”:
Frank Oppenheimer to Denise Royal, 2/25/67, folder 4–23, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.

73
“I am Oppenheimer”:
Smith and Weiner,
Letters,
p. 119 (citing an interview of Frank Oppenheimer by Smith, 4/14/76); Royal,
The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 50; Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer,
p. 24.

73
he “thought it”:
JRO, interview by Kuhn, 11/20/63, p. 18.