THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

1230 YORK AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10021-6399

 

JOSHUA LEDERBERG
UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR April 30, 1991

/

Cc

Mr. S. K. Bagchi
Director
Birla Industrial and
Technological Museum
National Council of Science Museums
19A, Curusaday Road
Calcutta 700 019
India

Dear Mr. Bagchi:

Your letter of April 11th concerning the Haldane
Centenary was forwarded to me here from Stanford.

You asked me to contribute an article on Haldane
and Society. Thank you, but I really do not think I
can add more to this issue than the collection of
excerpts that I submitted to "Haldane and Modern
Biology" edited by Dronamraju in 1968.

I am sure that I don't have to tell you that
Dronamraju is a diligent bibliographer of Haldane
and could provide many details. His recently pub-
lished "Selected Genetic Papers of J B S Haldane"
is still not quite complete and I would hope there
might be an occasion to reprint the very prescient
article that Haldane published in 1937 in "Perspectives
in Biochemistry".

I will be giving you some very obvious names,
probably mostly redundant; but I would want to be
sure that you have thought of all of them. Above
all, Haldane's sister, Naomi Mitchison, still thrives,
at an advanced stage, at her home in Carradale, Scot-
land. Her sons, the various Mitchisons, are eminent
British scientists. Dr. Sahotra Sarkar at Boston
University has taken an active interest in the Haldane
archives.
Letter to Mr. S. K. Bagchi
April 30, 1991
-?-

What would you think of a display of citations
to Haldane's work, which I could get from the Insti-
tute of Scientific Information database?

My correspondence with Haldane has been deposited
in the Haldane Archives in Britain.

I will scan whatever files I may have concerning
my visit to Calcutta in 1957: if I can lay my hands
on it (I am afraid that is doubtful) I had a marvelous
picture of J B S at a zoo with a Bengal tiger ona
leash. He certainly was fearless! In that connection
I will remind you of Larry Altman whose book on self
experimentation "Who Goes First" included a distinctive
vignette of Haldane's contributions in that area.

I don't have to tell you about the other numerous
J B S biographers ~- I hope you will include them in
your display.

Yo Se
J a Lederberg

Enclosure: P274