October 30, 1936

Dr. G. W. Wheland

Chemistry Laboratory

University College

University of London

Gower Street

London W.C.1.

You wrote your last letters to me on August 28 and September 29, which dates I have extrapolated to today as a suitable time for my answer. Actually I have put off writing to you as long as possible because I was ashamed of the small amount of work that I have accomplished on our monograph. By diligent effort during the last few weeks, Mrs. Lassettre and I have now practically completed putting the finishing touches on your manuscript of the first two chapters, and we shall send this material to you soon. I have found considerable difficulty in doing anything on the manuscript because of the amount of work made by the large number of men in the laboratory this year, and also in part because of the general administrative work in the department which is divided among various members of the staff at present. I am hoping that things will clear up somewhat and that I can do a great deal of work on the manuscript before long.

I am glad that you had a pleasant trip and enjoyed seeing Sweden and Norway, and especially that you missed the catastrophe at Loen. It is fine that you are going to present a paper on resonance at the meeting of the Chemical Society next month, and I hope that you do a good job of upholding the American end. I am pleased that you stopped in New York to see Moe, especially since Brockway is now applying for a Guggenheim Fellowship for the coming year and everything that we can do to help him is called for.

It is not surprising to me that you find rentals in London high, although I had not remembered that they were quite so high as those that you quote.

I know that the London Laboratory is a fine one - in fact, it has the reputation of being the best one in England. I wish that you would look around in order to see whether the funds available for research are comparable with the equipment at hand. I having had the opinion that the department was rather hard up for ready money. Would you also let me know as to what researches are under way and what the major interests of the people in London are? I am sending you a copy of Brockway's article. There is nothing much else in the way of new reprints that you might be interested in here, but on a chance I am including the article that Mirsky and I wrote on the denaturation of proteins.

Hampson and Springall, the new Commonwealth Fellows from Oxford, have both expressed their disappointment at not having found you here. It is clear from what they say that you have a great reputation in England, and I am expecting you to live up to it by saying something once in awhile and not keeping perfectly quiet.

With best regards to you and Mrs. Wheland, I am

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling