Many of us wonder how our heritage has influenced who we are and
what we have become. The renowned scientist and author James D.
Watson has more to reflect upon than most. A Radio Quiz Kid at 12
and a University of Chicago student at 15, Watson at 24 had a
scientific discovery to his credit - the structure of DNA - that
would win a Nobel Prize and forever change our understanding of
genes and inheritance. Now, after a lifetime of accomplishment in
research, writing, education, and science advocacy, Watson has
delved for the first time publicly into his own lineage.
Father To Son was first intended as a small, privately published
collection of the writings of his father, James D. Watson, Sr. But
when Jim Watson, Jr. began investigating his family history, what
emerged was a more complex story - the chronicle of an archetypical
American family from before the Civil War to Vietnam. Their history
includes settlement in the Midwest, a 20-year association with
Abraham Lincoln, a successful search for California gold, and bold
but disastrous investments in the stock market. Watson, Sr.'s
passion for ornithology led to a short-lived association with
Nathan Leopold, who would later be sentenced for murder in the 1924
"trial of the century." His Oberlin friendship with Robert Maynard
Hutchins, later President of the University of Chicago, began a
family association with the University that continues today. The
extended clan also included notable individuals like Watson, Jr.'s
great uncle Dudley Crafts Watson - artist and teacher - who, for a
time, raised a cousin, Orson Welles, the celebrated actor and
director, and an uncle, William Weldon Watson, a physicist and
participant in the development of the atomic bomb.
In this book, Jim Watson portrays these lives in a fascinating
narrative, illustrated with previously unpublished photographs and
period documents, that ends with an affectionate tribute to his
father, a man of principle, decency, intelligence, and reason, from
whom Jim Jr. learned liberal politics and incisive writing.
Always iconoclastic, in both science and literature, Watson has
written his autobiography in installments, beginning with the now
classic The Double Helix, followed by Genes, Girls, and Gamow and
Avoid Boring People. Concluding The Double Helix, Watson portrayed
himself as ..".25 and too old to be unusual." Yet, in Father To
Son, the latest of his unsparing self-examinations, Watson shows us
that his heritage was remarkable after all and that "Most certainly
I didn't emerge from nowhere "
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
