Content Description

The Thomas Hager Papers consist of documents collected by Hager in his writing of Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling (Simon & Schuster, 1995), The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug (Harmony, 2006), and The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler (Three Rivers Press, 2008).

The material relating to Force of Nature is divided into three series - Subject Files and Research Materials, Interviews: Audio cassettes and Transcriptions, and Administrative Records - and contains a wide range of materials including publications, letters, legal documents, interview transcripts, and handwritten notes. Most of this material relates to Linus Pauling in some form, though certain items pertain more to Pauling's family and colleagues.

The Demon Under the Microscope materials are divided into two series - Subject Files & Research Materials and Administrative Records - and includes publications, letters, and laboratory research materials. Most of this material relates to Gerhard Domagk and his research on Prontosil, the first commercially available antibacterial antibiotic.

Subject files, administrative records and an edited manuscript for The Alchemy of Air are also included in the Hager Papers.

Highlights of the collection include Hager's interviews and correspondence with Linus Pauling, audio cassettes and transcriptions of interviews with a wide range of Pauling's colleagues and family members, a small collection of photos of Linus Pauling, a handful of multimedia recordings related to Hager's promotion of Force of Nature, and copies of Gerhard Domagk's laboratory notes.

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