STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS

June 20, 1977

J. William Hess

Associate Director

Rockefeller Archive Center
Hillcrest Pocantico Hills
North Tarrytown, New York 10591

Dear Mr. Hess:

This is further to our correspondence concerning Edward L. Tatum.
The material that you sent me under cover of your letter of December 17,
1976 was indeed most useful in clarifying Tatum's earlier career.

I am now very nearly finished with the writing of the memoir,
but am trying to leave no stone unturned to get a definitive account
of the immediate history of the discovery of Neurospora as an
experimental tool for biochemical genetics. There seem to be no
records, that I have been able to find so far, for the critical
interval of approximately December 1940 to June 1941. Even the
simple matter of pinning a more definite date on the events has
become problematical. Dr. Beadle has written some reminiscences, but
they are not more precise; and both he and Dr. Tatum had told me
that all of the ancillary documentation, letters and so forth, has
long since been discarded.

One of the items you had sent me, of which I enclose a recopy,
is particularly tantalizing. This refers to Dr. Weaver's visit to
Stanford on February 17, 1941. This still refers only to the previous
work on Drosophila, and makes no mention of Neurospora. Yet I have
other information that suggests, but may be confusing, that Beadle
and Tatum had already made a significant start with this new organism
several weeks before the date of this memorandum. So I wonder, if
it is not too much trouble, if you could scan the next few items in
this file to dig out just when and how Neurospora was first mentioned
in their reports to you, or noted during similar visits. Absent any

 

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS, STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94303 © (415) £97-50

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J. William Hess -2- June 20, 1977

other documentation, this material may be quite important in fixing
the history of an extremely important turning point in modern biology.

I realize what a nuisance inquiries like this can be, but as
I have circumscribed a fairly small interval of time, I hope it will

be a very small chore. Needless to say, I would be happy to remit
any expense involved.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

Enclosure
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that Beadle and Tatum had already made a significant start with this experiment
several weeks before the date of this memorandum. So I wonder, if it is not

too much trouble, if you could scan the next few items in this file to dig out

just when and how Neurospora was first mentioned in their reports to you or

 

noted during similar visits. Absent any other documentation, this material

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