2 April, 1954

Dear Peter:

Mama and I have got back from a two-weeks' trip. We spent eight days in Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Then I went to Kansas City for a day, to attend a meeting of the American Chemical Society, while Mama went on to Spokane, to visit Aunt Elizabeth. Then she went on to Portland, to see Linda, and I flew there one day later, so that I was there on Saturday and Sunday.

On arriving home I found two packages of Penguin books. I am glad to have them.

Yesterday Bill Freeman came to see me -- he talked to me for about two hours, about the ways in which College Chemistry should be revised. I have decided to prepare the second edition of College Chemistry this summer, and I shall work on it during July and August. I expect that it will be quite a chore. However, it is such a profitable book that the job needs to be done.

I received a telegram inviting me to give the principal address at the annual meeting of the Chemical Institute of Canada, in Toronto, on 21 June 1954, and I accepted. Mama and I are planning to drive to Toronto, and then to drive home, probably in the Porsche. There is a possibility that Linda will go with us, in which case we would use the Riley. We are planning to attend Linda's graduation, in Portland, on 13 June. Then we shall have eight days to drive to Toronto -- we hope to drive through the Canadian Rockies. We shall be back home about 1 July.

We talked with Linda about her European trip. She seems to want to spend a whole year in Europe. We would like to have her with us for a while -- perhaps July and part or all of August. We have seen so little of her in recent years that we think that this would be a good plan. She had said that you were not going to work in the laboratory in Naples, your plans having been changed, and she suggested that she might tour Europe with you during July and August. We told her, however, that it was important for your career that you work in the Cavendish during the period when it is open, and that probably it was only during September that you would be free to tour about on the Continent.

I am not sure what your situation is for the coming year. I judge that you have permission from Bragg to work until 1 July, and that Mott has to decide about you then. Perhaps I am wrong on this point -- has the decision been made already?

Mama and I are rather worried about having Linda alone in France, or even in Germany, although we think that Tubingen might be a nice place for her to spend the winter. On the other hand, we think that the best arrangement that could be made would be for her to live with you in Cambridge. Do you think that you could get a small apartment suitable for the two of you? I think that Linda might well benefit by attending lectures and doing some advanced work in the field of literature, and that arrangements could be made for this even though she were not admitted as a regular student at Cambridge. If there were some job that she could get, not necessarily with pay, as assistant on a scholarly investigation of some kind, I think that she would profit by it. She is not very definite about what she would like to do.

Mrs. Wulf had a postcard from Norman Davidson, saying that he had seen you. Also, Mr. Wilmott has shown us the transparency, of you and the Wilmotts. It is a very nice picture of you.

Love from

[Linus Pauling]

P.S. I am still working on the collagen structure, and the decision has not yet been made as to whether it is right or not. Another couple of weeks, or perhaps months, should tell us.

You may be interested in a smart remark made by ex-President Truman. He spoke at a meeting of the American Chemical Society -- I had already left Kansas City for Portland -- and he commented on our work on blood. He said that he noticed that I had been doing work on red corpuscles recently, but that with the Republican government what it is I probably would be wise to concentrate on white corpuscles in the future.