March 2012 Auction Ends Wednesday, March 28th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/28/2012
Illuminating Maurice Wilkins autograph manuscript signed, discussing a 5 February 1953 letter Wilkins had written to Francis Crick when optimism for proving the helical structure of DNA was failing. Wilkins' own disappointment that Watson and Crick would be starting a new modeling effort without him is also evidenced. Included is a photocopy of that original 5 February 1953 letter on ''Kings College'' letterhead, with black and red handwritten ink annotations presumably penned by Wilkins. Manuscript reads in whole: ''After hearing about Rosalind's [Frankllin] X-ray evidence that DNA could not be helical (July 52). I was not much in touch with Francis and Jim until I received this letter except that Jim mentions that in late 1952 I had lunch with Francis who saw me in order to report on their base-pairing ideas. It appears that Francis forgot to mention base-pairing (and a little later it so happed [sic] that I began to think of purine/pyrimidine pairs in a desperate attempt to account for Rosalind's 'anti-helix' X ray data, which she had presented to me and Stokes* [dated ''July 52'' in left margin]. I certainly knew about Chargaff's 1:1 ratios, but he had spent much time with me emphasizing Leven's very negative ideas about relating base ratios to molecular structure (tetranucleotiede hypothesis). All during the half year after the 'Death of a Helix' meeting* [dated ''July 52'' in left margin] I spent research time on problems other than DNA molecular structure. I felt it best to wait and see where Rosalind's evidence would lead. I respected Rosalind's ability to produce reliable evidence, pro or anti helix. In our lab almost everyone called Franklin Rosie because she presented a cold exterior. (This nickname was begun by a woman biologist in our lab.) The talk was very different from the clear and positive talk Franklin had given in Oct 51...The colloquim [sic] was open to scientists from other labs -- and, in any case, I believed in open exchange of data. When I visited Crick and Watson shortly after the colloquim [sic] they told me they were going to start a new programme of model building and asked me if I would mind. I was very depressed by their news because I planned a new group effort at Kings [College] as soon as Franklin had left us. But I did not feel it would be sensible to object to model building beginning again in Cambridge.'' Single-page manuscript is written in black ink, with ''MHF Wilkins'' signed in the upper right corner of the page. Staple marks at top left of page, else near fine condition.
Maurice Wilkins Autograph Manuscript Signed -- ''...[Watson and Crick] told me they were going to start a new programme...I was very depressed...because I planned a new group...as soon as Frankli
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