Letter from Linus Pauling to Warren Weaver. June 4, 1963. Page 1  Larger Images / More Information. 2 pp.  View Transcript

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Activity Listings

• Article: “Lost Chance for Test Ban.” [Filed under LP Peace: Pauling Peace Research Notes: Box #6.012, Folder #12.3]  
• Article: “Notes and Asides”, National Review, June 4, 1963.  Note in top left margin “NATIONAL REVIEW”. [Filed under LP Biographical: Legal: Pauling v. National Review, Buckley, et al., 1963-1969: Box #3.017, Folder #17.3]
• Card from Mr. And Mrs. Karl Nell, to LP RE: Wish him a happy birthday. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (N:Correspondence, 1963), #288.7] 
• Itinerary [handwritten]: Orange City Medical Association; 2:30 PM Lecture “Molecular Disease and Evolution” [Filed under LP Travel, Box #1.003, Folder 3.3]                       
• Letter from Director Gunnar Jahn to LP RE: Hopes that AHP has recovered from her illness and that their lecture tour went well. Wishes to discuss J. D. Bernal because everything Jahn reads from the World Peace Council supports the official Moscow standpoint. Also wishes to discuss atomic weapons within NATO and a separate one for France. [Letters from LP to Jahn March 8, 1963, June 7, 1963] [Filed under LP Science: (World Academy of Sciences, 1959-1963), Box #14.043, Folder #43.1] 
• Letter from Eleanor Jackson Piel, Donner and Piel Attorneys at Law, to Francis Hoague RE: Thanks him for the copy of his letter to Pete Tonkoff, discusses events in the LP case and in the Carter v. Allegheny Corporation case.  Attached to letter from Piel to LP, June 11, 1963] [Filed under LP Biographical: Legal: Pauling v. News Syndicate Co., Inc., 1961-1966, 1971: Box #3.020, Folder # 20.2]
• Letter from George Tarjan, M.D., Superintend and Medical Director, Pacific State Hospital, to LP RE: Says that he just received a copy of Folling’s letter from the AAMD, and informs that LP should feel free to congratulate Folling now. Also says that he doesn’t believe that any major news release will result. [Letter from LP to Tarjan May 31, 1963] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (F: Correspondence) #129.7]  
• Letter from J. P. Tonkoff, Tonkoff, Holst & Hopp to Francis Hoague, Hoague, MacDonald & Bayless, cc. LP RE: Tonkoff refuses to resign from LP’s case, citing numerous examples of Hoague’s ineptitude in proof that Tonkoff should be in charge of LP’s trial.  Attached to Letter from Hoague to LP, June 5, 1963. [Filed under LP Biographical: Legal: Pauling v. News Syndicate Co., Inc., 1961-1966, 1971: Box #3.020, Folder # 20.3]
• Letter from LP to Editors of The Justice RE: Asks whether LP’s letter was published and if he might receive a copy of it. [Letter from LP to Reisman and Slaner, April 30, 1963] [Filed under LP Biographical: Political Issues: Academic Freedom - Other Specific Incidents, 1948-1975: Box #2.038, Folder # 38.12]
• Letter from LP to H.J. Buchan, University of Adelaide, RE: Informs him of what he knows and thinks of Dr. MacArthur. [Letter from Buchan to LP May 30, 1963] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (M: Correspondence, 1963), #259.2]       
• Letter from LP to Professor Leo Brewer, Department of Chemistry, University of California, RE: States that he has just read the paper Brewer published on electronic structure and alloy chemistry of the transition elements. LP says that from the paper he has learned about the papers by M. Engel and Kem Maanedblad. LP Requests copies of these papers. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Leo Brewer), #31.7] 
• Letter from LP to Robert Pollack, Brandies University, RE: Thanks Pollack for his letter and discusses both LP’s and Dr. Gough’s actions briefly.  LP also notes the 1906 military occupation of Cuba.  Discusses the sentiments of both Gough and LP. [Letter from Pollack to LP, May 17, 1963] [Filed under LP Biographical: Political Issues: Academic Freedom - Other Specific Incidents, 1948-1975: Box #2.038, Folder # 38.12]
• Letter from LP to Stanley Schaefer, W. H. Freeman and Company, RE: LP approves the manuscript to be used in the series and encloses a few corrections. [Letter from Schaefer to LP May 23, 1963] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (W. H. Freeman and Company, 1960-1992, No Date) #440.4] 
• Letter from LP to Warren Weaver. [Letter from Weaver to LP June 10, 1963] [Filed under LP Science: (Rockefeller Foundation, 1943-1983), Box #14.039, Folder #39.6] 

  4 June 1963

  Dr. Warren Weaver

  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

  630 Fifth Avenue

  New York 20, New York

  Dear Warren:

  I am writing to ask you if you think that it would be worth while for the California Institute of Technology to make application to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for a grant that would pay my salary for about five years, beginning next year, and would relieve me of duties to the Institute.

  Last year the suggestion was made to me by a scientist in government service that an application of this sort be made to the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation, or both. It is my understanding that at that time three such grants had been made, all three, I think, by the National Institutes of Health. One grant was made to the University of Chicago, to pay the salary of Leo Szilard, and another to Stanford University, to pay the salary of Kees Van Niel. I have forgotten who the third man supported by such a grant is.

  There are several reasons why I am interested in having a roving professorship or special professorship of this sort. One reason is that I want to have more time by myself to think about certain problems. I find that it is difficult for me to give proper attention to some scientific questions that interest me very much, so long as I am in residence in Pasadena. There are interruptions of many kinds that distract me, probably more than when I was younger. I have found that the time that I spend at the ranch that my wife and I have on the California coast between San Simeon and Big Sur has been especially productive for me, in permitting me to think about certain problems day after day and in some cases to reach some sort of solution.

  There are a good number of problems connected with the structure of molecules and the nature of the chemical bond that I should like to attack.

  Also, I am hoping to make some further contributions in the fields of molecular biology and molecular medicine. The last job that I have done in these fields was the formulation of a molecular theory of general anesthesia, three years ago. I am planning to spend some time, probably as a visitor, in some suitable medical school, perhaps several, and in some centers of biological research, to see what sort of information I might pick up that would help me or stimulate me to mate some contribution in these fields.

  Over the whole period of my scientific activity I have been interested in the question of the nature of metals and alloys, and I have published a number of papers about a theory of the structure of metals and alloys. I have some more ideas along these lines, and I plan to devote a good bit of time to this field.

  I may say that I have got rather tired of giving courses, and I do not want to do administrative work any more. Also, I have decided that it is better for me to devote my remaining time to theoretical work than to the supervision of experimental work, and I propose to give up the programs of experimental work, and I propose to give up the programs of experimental work that are now being carried out under my supervision,.

  If the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation would not be interested in an application of this sort, I shall ask the California Institute of Technology to make the application to the National Institutes of Health and perhaps also to the national Science Foundation. I am writing to you, however, because of the feeling that I have that we are better off - that is, that the United States is better off - if we do not leave the support of scientific research and other activities entirely or preponderantly to the federal government. I enclose a copy of my address Chemistry and the World of Today, which was my presidential address in 1949 to the American Chemical Society. In this address I gave some arguments about the danger of bureaucratic domination, if the federal government provided too large a fraction of support of fundamental scientific research.

  I still feel that it is wise to have support of scientific research and scholarly activity by industry and private foundations, as well as by the federal government, and it is for this reason that I am sending this letter to you.

  Cordially yours,

  Linus Pauling:hpg

  Encl.

• Letter from Paul D. Bartlett, Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, to LP RE: Thanks LP for his note on the occasion of the Willard Gibbs Award. [Filed under LP Correspondence: (A: Correspondence), #14.2]                
• Memo from LP to Gus Albrecht RE: Stating that he wrote a paper in 1932, where he mentions the closest packing of spheres. Says that he is thinking about having the article reprinted because of the unavailability of the journal, Chem. Bull. Requests that Albrecht look around to see if LP’s mention of the four ways of superimposing closest packed layers was the first time this idea was mentioned. [Letter from Albrecht to LP June 7, 1963] [Filed under LP Correspondence: (Gustav Albrecht), #4.1]        
• Newsletter, “Information from the Peace Movement of the German Democratic Republic” [Filed under LP Peace: (Issues of International Diplomacy and Human Rights, Cu-Ir), Box #6.014, Folder #14.7] 
• Offprint: “Statement of Senator E.L. (Bob) Bartlett Before Research Development and Radiation Subcommittee, Joint Atomic Energy Committee.” [Filed under LP Peace: Materials re: Nuclear Fallout; Radiation Hazards, 1962-1963: Box #7.005, Folder #5.19] 
• Program: “Hear Linus Pauling”, Orange County Medical Association. [Filed under LP Biographical: Scrapbooks: Box #6.008 Folder #8.419]