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DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY
UNIVERSITY OF UPPSALA

Uppsala, January Ist, 1991.

Dr Joshua Lederberg

The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue

Box 400

New York, NY 10021-6399, USA,

Dear Josh,

It was indeed a very pleasant surprise, when I received
the reprint of your excellent biography of Ed Tatum and I am
very grateful to you for sending it to me. It aroused so much
of half-forgotten recollections from years gone by. In parti-
cular I remembered the halcyonic days at Utrecht 1937, when I
spent my first sojourn abroad as a visiting scientist in Kégl’s
laboratory. It was there I first metEd, as you quite correctly
mentioned in your memoir. Ed and I made friends immediately
and learned a lot from each other during daily discussions in
that old shabby lab, which we after some time felt rather cosy.

I had never really understood all the difficulties Ed (as
well as G.W. Beadle) had to overcome during the following,
turbulant years until the Neurospora project got started in
1941. I feel flattered, that you mentioned my very modest
contribution, which quite likely could be traced back to our
speculations at Utrecht.

When the war was over and Ed had moved to the assured po-
sition at Yale university, he invited me to come and spend a
few months working in his laboratory. As you may remember I
also got to know you during that period. On the whole I did
not spend much time in the lab (nor did Ed), but it was very
refreshing for me, after the long isolation during the war,
to meet Ed again and to get acquainted with so many new workers

within the new and fascinating field of biochemical genetics.

 

(P.T.0!)
Dept. of Physiological Botany Visiting address Telephone: +46 18 182500
Box 540 Villavagen 6 Direct Line: +46 18 182800

S-751 21 UPPSALA SWEDEN Fax: +46 18 559885
As a rule I spent the Sundays with the Tatum family by invi-
tation in the their nice New England style house outside the

town.

Later meetings with Ed were short and few, but I remember
of course the Nobel Prize days at Sockholm and Uppsala. Still
with June and the girls he visited us once at our summer house
on the Swedish West coast and finally I met him at the Rocke-
feller University after the international botanyccongressiin
1969.

Well, these very personal reminescences cannot be of any
interest to you, but I could not refrain from writing them

down under the catalytic effect of your biographical memoir.

Finally, I was very delighted to get the report of your
activities - at least some of them - during the last twenty
years and I feel impressed indeed. It was gratifying to learn
that you, after the 12 years of Rockefeller presidentship,
are back again in the lab doing bench research. I must confess
that I am still spending all weekdays in my old lab, although

now being somewhat aged (at least compared to you, young man!).

Today it happens to be the first of January 1991. Thus it
seems opportunely to send my best wishes to you for the new
year: May it be happy, prosperous and profitable!

Yours freta

(Nils Fries)