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Summary
A biography of Paulding who roamed across the scientific disciplines, from chemistry to biology to medical research. He decried the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War Two, agitated against nuclear weapons, promoted vitamin C as a cure for the common cold and researched the idea of DNA.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Linus Pauling (1901-1994), biochemist, peace activist, advocate of nuclear disarmament, champion of vitamin C as a remedy for colds and cancer, was a scientific genius who leaped the boundaries of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine, and in so doing helped to create whole new disciplines including molecular biology and chemical physics. In a balanced, captivating biography, freelance writer Hager skillfully leads the reader through Pauling's pioneering work in fields ranging from quantum theory to crystallography to immunology. Drawing on scores of interviews with Pauling, his family and his colleagues, and on the two-time Nobel Prize-winner's papers, Hager limns a fiercely competitive, emotionally constricted man, irreverent, audacious, sometimes self-righteous and bullyinga more complex figure than his public persona of maverick idealist. Though a self-professed lover of humanity, Pauling practically ignored his own children. His father, an ambitious Oregon druggist, worked himself to death at the age of 32, and his widowed, worn-out, delusional mother was committed to a mental ward shortly before her death. Drawing on a trove of newly declassified government documents, Hager tells the full story of the FBI's harassment and intimidation of Pauling for his leftist politics. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
An encyclopedic examination of an extraordinary life in science. Freelance writer Hager wastes little time on Linus Pauling's Oregon boyhood, moving straight to his astonishingly precocious career in chemistry and a string of achievements that spanned more than seven decades and broke the boundaries between chemistry, physics, and medical research. Pauling was a brilliant theorist, hurling out an idea and throwing himself after it rather than building carefully collected data into a logical framework. He was usually right, most notably in his work with molecular structure and the nature of the chemical bond, for which he won his first Nobel Prize in 1954. But he was sometimes spectacularly wrong, falling victim to a characteristic combination of ``hurry and hubris,'' as when he lost the race to define the structure of DNA to comparative newcomers Watson and Crick. In middle age, Pauling's wife and his own restless intellect led him into political activism, and his tireless lobbying to ban nuclear testing and define the dangers of fallout attracted both the unwelcome attention of the House Un-American Affairs Committee and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963. Pauling lost much of his public support later in life, and most remember him for his stubborn insistence on the merits of vitamin C. Hager had Pauling's cooperation in his project, as did Ted and Ben Goertzel, another team of recent biographers (p. 1078), but the depth of Hager's work focuses a much stronger microscope on the intricacies of Pauling's life. But Hager defines himself up front as ``a Pauling enthusiast,'' and though he does not omit Pauling's less rational moments, the friendly portrait that emerges is one of a misunderstood hero whose most outrageous statements still contained a kernel of overlooked insight. A competent, exhaustive life of a complicated genius, and a reminder that the search for scientific truth is never unaffected by the personalities and politics of the searchers.
Choice Review
Hager's biography of Pauling (1901-94) is thorough and fair. Hager states that "I began this project as a Pauling enthusiast, and remain one, although my enthusiasm is now qualified." This is not an authorized biography; however, Hager knew Pauling for ten years, and Pauling provided cooperation, interviews, and access to his private records, and lived long enough to review a third of the manuscript. This is a very well written narrative, portraying the Nobelist as a fully three-dimensional person with a wide range of interests, spectacular achievements, occasional mistakes (such as his DNA structure), and his share of challenges and conflicts. Glimpses of Pauling's interactions with the Rockefeller Foundation and other funding agencies are quite illuminating. There are a few small textual errors (e.g., "physicist William Libby") but nothing very serious. Recommended for academic libraries and for general readers as well as undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals. Another recent biography, somewhat more psychological in outlook, is by Ted Goertzel and Ben Goertzel with Mildred Goertzel and Victor Goertzel, Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics (CH, Mar'96). A related work, the edited collection of Pauling's thoughts and words, reorganized in a roughly chronological pattern, is given brief introductory and transitional comments by editor Marinacci, who places the Pauling selections in intellectual and social context. In each of the 12 chapters, Marinacci does a good job of weaving relatively short passages into a meaningful whole. Overall organization is in four parts: 1901-22; structure (1922-54); nuclear concerns (1945-94); and nutritional medicine (1954-94). Marinacci includes a brief but useful chronology and a documentation of sources. She had excellent access to the Pauling papers, and edited one of Pauling's books, No More War! (1958). She consulted with the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, and is the sister-in-law of Pauling's daughter Linda Pauling Kamb. Marinacci has done excellent work in selecting and editing Pauling's words within tight constraints on space. This volume provides a fine supplement to the related Pauling biography Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling, by Thomas Hager. Recommended for academic libraries and for general readers as well as undergraduates and historians of science. A. Viste Augustana College (SD)
Library Journal Review
Pauling's scientific career spanned nearly the entire 20th century, from his revolutionary Nobel Prize-winning theories on the chemical bond to his controversial work on orthomolecular medicine and vitamin therapy, which continued up to his death in 1994. To many, however, he is best remembered as an ardent peace activist and a crusader for human rights, which brought him his second Nobel. Throughout his career, he was called a genius, a visionary, a Communist, and even a crank. Nothing about Pauling was simple or obvious. For a biographer, writing the life story of so enigmatic a figure is a great challenge and requires an almost epic effort. Neither of these two new biographies is strictly authorized, although Pauling cooperated to some degree in the writing of each. Hager's massive work invokes the broadest context and best portrays Pauling as a man of insight and conscience and a major player in science, politics, and society throughout some extraordinary times. A journalist, Hager made extensive use of Pauling's official archives in the library at Oregon State University and also drew upon reams of other primary sources, including formerly classified materials from the FBI and State Department. Hager does a superior job of fleshing out the details of Pauling's influences and motivations. He also interprets freely, especially in sections describing Pauling's political convictions, and, while some historians might quibble with certain interpretations, Hager backs them up with reference to primary literature. By contrast, the Goertzels' rendering is more factual and straightforward, and it is probably less vulnerable to being criticized for subjectivity. Like Hager, however, the authors (Ted, the father, is a sociology professor; Ben is a lecturer in cognitive science) can be both laudatory and critical of Pauling. Their book's greatest virtue is the lucid and methodological way it expounds Pauling's science, compared with Hager's somewhat discursive technical passages. The Goertzels' work might be the better choice for pedagogical purposes, but, overall, Hager's is better for the majority of general and informed lay readers. Either book is better than Anthony Serafini's Linus Pauling: A Man and his Science (LJ 3/15/89. o.p.). Of the third of these new releases, Linus Pauling in His Own Words, Pauling wrote, "This book will take me as close to writing my memoirs or autobiography as I shall ever get." The editor was a lifelong associate of Pauling and an employee at his Institute for Science and Medicine; her selections, arranged in four chronological sections, are both forceful and enlightening and full of resonant quotes, and her transitional text makes for smooth reading. The tone is openly deferential to Pauling (the book is dedicated to him); accordingly, it might appeal to fans and admirers, but its academic usefulness is minimal. Being released in tandem with Hager's book, however, it might ride on the latter's coattails.Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.