17 March 1954

(Dictated 14 March)

Dear Peter:

Mama and I are taking off tomorrow for Antioch College, which is in Yellow Springs, Ohio. We are to be there one week. On Tuesday I shall give an assembly talk, on "Science as a Cultural Subject." Then later in the week I am to give a public address, on molecular medicine -- mainly about hemoglobin. Then on Wednesday 24 March we shall leave Yellow Springs, flying to Chicago, and Mama will continue on to Spokane, where she will stay one day with Aunt Elizabeth, and then fly to Portland, on Thursday. On Wednesday I shall continue from Chicago to Kansas City, staying there two nights. I am to preside at a symposium on sickle cell anemia on Thursday afternoon. At this time Harvey Itano is to give the address in connection with his receipt of the Eli Lilly Award in Biochemistry ($1000). About five other talks on sickle cell anemia and other abnormal hemoglobins will also be presented. Dr. Itano and two collaborators in Children's Hospital in Los Angeles will announce the discovery of a fourth abnormal hemoglobin -- it is named hemoglobin E, the others being sickle cell anemia hemoglobin (S), and hemoglobins C and D -- all of them discovered here.

Then on Friday I shall fly from Kansas City to Portland. Mama and I shall stay with Linda until Monday morning and then fly home. Monday is registration day. Our classes begin on Tuesday.

Would you ask the book dealer to get a copy of the book "The Restless Voyage" by S.D. Porteus, 10s 6d, published by George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd., London, and send it to me?

I am looking forward to receiving some more Penguin books.

I have continued to work on the collagen structure. I think there is little doubt about its correctness, although we do not as yet have the radial distribution curve calculated. The calculation is a big one, and we shall probably do it on the punched card machines, although there is a bare possibility that it will be programmed for the consolidated electronic calculator, which has been made available to us for a short while. I don't know whether the Institute will buy one of these calculators, or whether in the future we shall have to rent it.

Mama and I shall talk with Linda about plans for the summer. I wish that you would write immediately about your plans, to the extent that they affect Linda or might affect her. I judge that you are going to work in Naples. Is this definite? If Linda were to stay in Europe for a year, what would you advise? There is the possibility of her studying, in Tubingen, say -- I think that Tubingen would be better than a big city, and also better than Paris. Of course, she might go to Sweden, but German and French are better languages to learn than Swedish. Would you think that there would be a possibility for her to study in England, and if so, what? If there were something worthwhile that she could do in Cambridge, it might be nice for her to be with you.

Love from

[Linus Pauling]

Dictated by Linus Pauling

Signed in his absence:W