October 24, 1979
Dear Max,
Thank you for the manuscript and the very happy picture of you and Sidney.  A few weeks ago I looked at the photos of me you asked for but I then found that the man who took them, Milos Sovak, is at present in India, probably staying with Anand.  He will probably be back in a month or so.  We can either wait till he returns and get new prints made from the negatives or, if you'd prefer it, I could send you my prints to be copied in Cambridge.  If I don't hear from you I'll assume you prefer the former alternative.
Your paper reminded me of many happy times in the past.  I have only two comments.  I had not realized that Rosalind and Aaron had asked to join us but I notice you deleted this section.  Of course I was always keen to have Aaron but felt we shouldn't detach him from Rosalind.  I don't think I had thought about them both coming since before the new lab was built we didn't have much space.
It may be true that you and John and Hugh never asked yourselves where proteins came from, but I had been asking myself this question even before I went to the Strangeways.  I wouldn't in any way want to minimise Jim's impact on the unit but in my case my broad views were formed before he came.  That was why I found it so exciting to find someone who thought the same way as I did.  You will see from 'The Double Helix' that Jim was stimulated for the same reason.  But this is not a point of great importance.
Thank you for your reassuring news about Sydney.  I was told of the accident by telex and had already written to him but I was glad to hear there was no damage higher up.  Will you now be able to persuade Sydney to buy a car?
F. H. C. Crick