History of Science & Technology, Including the Life and Letters of Richard P. Feynman, and Space Exploration

History of Science & Technology, Including the Life and Letters of Richard P. Feynman, and Space Exploration

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 37. [Feynman, Richard P.]; Pauling, Linus, and E. Bright Wilson, Jr. .

Property from the Family of Dr. Joan Feynman

[Feynman, Richard P.]; Pauling, Linus, and E. Bright Wilson, Jr.

Richard Feynman's Copy of Pauling & Wilson's "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics," Signed by Him

Lot Closed

December 13, 08:38 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

[FEYNMAN, RICHARD P.]; PAULING, LINUS, and E. BRIGHT WILSON, JR.

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1935. 


Octavo (9 1/4 x 6 in.). 521 pp. Publisher's blue cloth; worn.


SIGNED BY FEYNMAN ON FRONT PASTE-DOWN "FEYNMAN, RP. ΦΒΔ / 71 BAY STATE RD/ BOSTON, MASS. M.I.T.", AND WITH HIS HAND-MADE BOOKPLATE (presumably by Arline Greenbaum, Feynman's first wife). With several penciled marginal notations and equations in FEYNMAN's hand.

FEYNMAN'S UNDERGRADUATE QUANTUM MECHANICS TEXTBOOK, INSCRIBED WITH HIS HOME ADDRESS AND FRATERNITY WHILE STUDYING AT MIT


"When I was an undergraduate at MIT I loved it. I thought it was a great place, and I wanted to go to graduate school there too, of course. But when I went to Professor Slater and told him of my intentions, he said, "We won't let you in here."

(Richard P. Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", p. 71.)


Feynman began the work for which he would win the Nobel while an undergraduate at MIT, making this book a unique snapshot from the start of Feynman's career studying a field in which he would prove to be an internationally renowned thought-leader. As he referenced in the above excerpt from "Surely You're Joking...," Feynman loved his time at MIT but, encouraged by Dr. Slater to broaden his horizons, left to pursue further graduate study at Princeton.