31 August 1954

Mr. Richard P. Zeldin

Handbook Editor

McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.

330 West 42nd Street

New York 36, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Zeldin:

I am glad to answer the questions in your letter of 25 August, about a possible new chemistry handbook.

1. A handbook of chemistry or of chemistry and physics fills a very useful purpose. I think that the two handbooks now available are pretty good. They could be improved, but I am not at all confident that another one, which you might get out, would be a significant improvement, just because editors and editorial boards are fallible.

2. I do not want to take time to prepare a list of defects or omissions in the present handbooks. I may say that I have rather often been disappointed when I attempted to look up some quantity in the two present handbooks. I have not kept any record, and I do not remember what it was that I was looking up; I think that I tried to find a table of ionization potentials of atoms, and was not successful, with either handbook. Also, I believe that I could not find anything about the effect of pressure on the solubilities of substances - at any rate, not the answer to the particular question that I was interested in.

3. I think that you ought to pick out a young man to be editor of your handbook. He should have a broad knowledge of chemistry, and should not be so deeply interested in research as not to be willing to devote himself to the editorial job. I suggest that you consider Dr. W. H. Eberhardt, a former student of mine. He is in Georgia Institute of Technology.

4. I should not want to take time to serve on the editorial advisory board, or be otherwise involved in the project.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:W