December 13, 1976

Ms. Patricia R. Lyles
Editorial Assistant

Office of the Home Secretary
National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20418

Dear Ms. Lyles,

This is about the memoir on Professor Edward Tatum. If you have not already
written to Beadle, there would be no harm in leaving that question open for
the time being. As I am beginning to draft the text, I can see that it might
be a bit more graceful if Beadle did not have to be an author, and I would
suggest leaving that question open until the last minute, in particular after
he has had an opportunity to see a later draft.

The main reason for my writing you now is to transmit an excellent portrait
of Dr. Tatum that I have been able to borrow from June Tatum. It may still be
several months before I have a complete manuscript, and I dé not know if I can
properly keep the original photograph quite that long. So, I am sending it to you
now in the hopes that it will be conventent for you to arrange to have the plate
made right away for later use; and that you could then return the original
photograph as promptly as is feasible to Mrs. Tatum at the following address:

536 Cuesta Drive, Los Altos, CA 94022. Absent other information, I believe she
should be credited with the photograph. This is one of the finest pictures I
have ever seen of Ed, and I would not want to diminish this opportunity.

I have written to several dozen people and collected quite a bit of useful
information; while finding almost everyone very willing to be cooperative, it
is still very hard to find documentary sources still extant for the most inter-
esting period which was some 30-40 years ago.

Besides the memoir I will be collecting an archives of supporting
documentation with some commentary as to the completeness and reliability of
the information in the memoir itself.

There is one point of form: namely whether you would accept a very limited
number of references to other sources (as footnotes or in some other form) that
might be needed to substantiate or complement the remarks in the memoir itself
and the subject's bibliography.

As I know, the latter was of some concern to you. I believe that I have
gotten an excellent and complete listing from the archivist of the Rockefeller
University, but I will try to critically edit it before passing it on too.

Sincerely yours,

Enclosure Joshua Lederberg, Professor of Genetics