13 April 1966

E. Crellin Pauling, Esq.

859 Rorke Way

Palo Alto, California

Dear Crellin,

Many thanks for your letters. I apologize for not answering sooner, particularly about the several presents and Miss Allen, who presumably would like the wheels to go around.

Firstly, thank you and Lucy very much for the presents. We certainly received the game for advanced children which I enjoy very much. Julia also likes it but it is a bit advanced for her. Sarah plays with it several times a week. Thomas about once a week. Sarah is very mathematical and she likes it. Thomas really prefers to read. Thank you too for the book which is lovely. Since I do not get much advantage from this ranch it is very it is very nice to have a book with such good photographs. I do not think so much of the poetry but the pictures are very good. I do not know how to read anyway.

Miss Sue Allen is quite a good student. I had her (not the way you think) for tutorials in her first year and thought she was conscientious, imaginative and hard working. Her results for the first year are fairly good. She got 60, 38, 56 and 58 for the four chemistry exams; the last two are what count. They are not bad. 40 is usually passing, 60 is good. She got 44 in the practical exam which is just passing. 49 in physics, 54 and Pass in maths which is OK. I think she would probably work hard and is reasonably competent. She did well in school, getting two A's and a B in chem, phys and math. That is good. School is education before university.

I think it now unlikely that we shall be over for next year. I have rather gone off the idea of writing this school text book with Pa. I am rather anxious to get on with my work on molecules active in cholinergic nervous transmission systems. I have done a correlation of the structures of the three relevant molecules known and they all have the same structure in so far as possible and have determined a model conformation of active molecules. I have been able to predict structures for 16 compounds so far and wish to get to work to see if the predictions are correct. In many ways I would like to come over. I could use that Porsche. I did not realize it was still around.

I have also got interested in electronics and high fi again. I know have just enough space to do a little work on things. I bought myself a small ex military scope for about $10 the other day and a little other cheap test equipment. The junk market is quite good in this country. The scope is quite good. I need to make a preamp for it to increase its sensitivity and a Scmitt trigger and monostaple pulse generator to trigger the scope, which has no provision for triggering the sweep from the signa.

I am planning to go to the xtal conference in Moscow and the Biophysics conference in Vienna and push my cholinergic fanciful ideas. I need some more money to do it but it should be fun.

Much love to you, Lucy and the kids. Thank you again for the presents.