March 13, 1968

Mrs. Anita Oser Pauling

Aroda

122 Vesenaz Geneva,

Switzerland

Dear Anita:

I hope that you and the children are all in good shape. Ava Helen and I were very pleased that we could see you when we were in Geneva.

We have been enjoying ourselves in La Jolla. I like being professor of chemistry in the University of California, San Diego, and being able to carry on my scientific and medical work. I think that Mama was happier in Santa Barbara than here in La Jolla, but that she feels that we should be in the place where my work goes along best.

You no doubt remember that for the last ten or twelve years, except very recently, I had some work going on the molecular basis of mental disease, especially mental retardation, with support of a grant from the Ford Foundation, a grant from the National Institutes of Health, and to some extent from your gift to the California Institute of Technology. I have continued to think about this problem, and during the last two years I formulated some rather original ideas about schizophrenia and other forms of mental illness. These ideas are described in a paper entitled Orthomolecular Psychiatry, a copy of which is enclosed. I have just read proof on this paper, which will appear in the journal Science in about one month.

Also, I have been doing some experimental work, as described in the accompanying research report.

After some uncertainty Mama and I have decided that we should stay at La Jolla for perhaps three years more, in order that I could continue with my scientific work, especially the attack on schizophrenia. We have made arrangements with the University Hospital of San Diego and are in the process of making arrangements with two other local hospitals for access to mental patients and cooperation with the medical staffs.

A complication arose in connection with my continuation here, in that two weeks ago I reached the age sixty seven, which is the retirement age for the University of California. Many people are appointed to continue research after retirement, and arrangements to do this for me are moving along, although rather slowly. Because of this complication it has not been possible for me to apply to National Science Foundation or National Institutes of Health for a grant for support of my work. I am, by the way, planning a research program to be carried out during this period of three years at the cost of about $100,000 per year, and I have four people already under appointment for the coming year.

Is there the possibility that you could make a gift for support of some of my work during the coming year or the coming three years? I think that the most convenient way, if you wish to make a gift, is to make it to the Fund for the Republic. I am still a member of the staff at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, which is operated by the Fund for the Republic, and am on leave at present. It has turned out that it is easier to administer grants through the Fund for the Republic, which is tax-exempt, than through the University of California, which has some special regulations.

I should also mention that the war in Vietnam has caused a decrease in the budgets of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, making it less likely than formerly that favorable action would be taken on a new application.

Much love from,

Daddy

P.S. Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of the book Structural Chemistry and Molecular Biology. This book was presented to me on my sixty seventh birthday by the president of W. H. Freeman and Company. It is a Festschrift, prepared by former students and associates of mine. I think that it is a wonderful book, and I hope that you like it, too.

Daddy